Tag Archives: Game

Quarters

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: California
Performance Date: 2/18/23
Primary Language: English

Text: (the drinking game known as “quarters”).

Context: My informant learned the game “quarters” from the older members of his fraternity at UCI about 30 years ago. He and his fellow pledges played the game very often before social gatherings. In the game, players try to bounce a quarter off of a table and into a short glass of hard liquor; if a player succeeds, the next player must drink the contents of the glass. My informant now has passed the game onto younger generations of drinkers.

Analysis: The game of quarters hails from the ancient Greek game of “Kottabos,” in which players would toss sediment remaining in their wine glasses onto a plate in order to make other players drink. After years of evolution in European pubs, my informant played the modern game. The game stems from a tradition of drinking, which is also prevalent in the Greek Life system at universities in America. I interpret the game as a method by which one gets drunk quickly in a social setting, and it is more typical in pregames than in the main social event or afterparties.  

Tumbang Preso

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Residence: San Gabriel, California
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

M is 54, and grew up in Manila, Philippines, and currently resides in San Gabriel, California.

M described to me a game that was played among the children in his neighborhood called tumbang preso. The rules as he recalled them were, that someone “guards the can” while the other kids take turns ‘“trying to hit the can with their slipper.” And that the object of the game was the “knock down the can” and avoid getting tagged by the “can guardian.” This game was corroborated by M (50) who said that she also grew up playing the game. I asked them both why slippers were utilized specifically. M replied that it was the “only thing they had” and that it was easier to play games with household objects.

Upon further research, I learned that the game name, tumbang preso, is also known as Kick the Can. It has a lot of similarities in its rules and the way that it is structured, compared to other tag-based games, like capture the flag. I find it interesting that most countries have some sort of variation of tag, albeit with different items used, according to where the children grow up.

Thumb War Masturbation Joke

Nationality: Puerto Rican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 16, 2023
Primary Language: English

Text

“One, two, three, four,

I declare a thumb war.

Five, six, seven, eight,

I use this hand to masturbate.”

The joke is performed in the context of a traditional “thumb war,” in which two opponents hold hands and attempt to press down the other person’s thumb.

Context

AD is a college student from New Jersey. He first heard this joke in middle school, around sixth or seventh grade. “It was right in the beginning of puberty,” he explained. “So nobody really knew what was going on.”

Thumb war tournaments at recess and lunchtime were already a big thing at AD’s school, and there was one boy who would perform the joke. “He was always the kid that would say that kind of stuff… Everybody was scared to say that word, but he would say it,” AD explained. “Everybody would get around him and wait for him to get somebody new. We would go up to the younger kids and do it, too.”

“If you didn’t know, you would freak out the first time you heard it.” The trick is that you are holding hands when the ‘punchline’ drops. “That’s the fun part,” AD said.

AD noted that the joke was exclusively performed among boys.

“It’s stupid now, but back then it was the funniest thing.”

Analysis

AD’s joke stood out to me largely because I had never heard of it before. Another male-identifying friend of mine from California had an experience almost identical to that of AD, even from across the country. As someone who has been socially conditioned as a woman, it made me curious about the differences between boys’ and girls’ experience of the social construction of their sexuality.

It is not surprising that such a joke was popular as AD and his peers entered puberty. Jokes have a normalizing function, providing a safe space for pubescent boys to explore their sexuality.

However, the boys’ self-policing contained the joke within their gender, and I am unaware of an equivalent masturbation joke for girls at this age. I see this discrepancy as deeply reflective of the differences in the social construction of boys’ and girls’ sexuality during puberty. Masturbation is an action — an act of agency over one’s body and sexuality. That the normalization of this action is denied to girls of the same age thus denies them a form of agency over their sexuality.

In a larger context, the deficit of sexual jokes of any nature among pubescent girls may contribute to a lack of knowledge about their sexuality, and feelings of shame due to missing out on the normalizing function of such jokes. This can lead to misinformation or shame about sex and sexual development, rendering teenage girls vulnerable to sexual abuse. 

I would argue that folklore in the form of sexual jokes can function as a form of sex education and that pubescent girls may benefit from sharing this folklore amongst each other — especially with relatively harmful jokes, such as this one. (Note how AD now finds the joke “stupid.”)

Lastly I would comment on the adult policing of pubescent sexuality. It really stood out to me that only one boy was bold enough to say the word ‘masturbation’ in a public context, under the potential surveillance of teachers. Such jokes are seen as taboo and ‘dirty’ even as they can have a positive function. I am curious how the awareness of adult policing of sexuality at this age may contribute to shame surrounding sexuality for both boys and girls equally.

Knockout

Informant KS is a 19 year-old USC freshman from San Jose, California.

Text:

Knockout is a game in which there is a line of people and players try to knock other players out until there is only one player remaining, the winner. All players line up single file behind the free throw line, and the first two players in the line each receive a basketball. The first person in line will make a shot attempt to initiate the game, and it is the goal of the second person in line to knock the first person out by making a shot before the first person does. The first person must make a shot before the second player in order to remain safe. Upon doing so, the first person passes the ball to the person behind the second player in line, and thus the second player is now in danger of being knocked out. The player who makes a shot moves to the back of the line. The process continues until only two players remain, and in some variations, the line moves further to the three-point line where each player must make a shot. In some variations of the game, after the initial shot by the first player from the three-point line, each player must make two consecutive shots, rather than one, in order to be crowned the winner. A typical technique in knockout is for one player to hit the other player’s ball far away from the net in order to allow themself more time to score a basket. In some variations, if your ball is knocked away far enough, you are automatically eliminated.

Context:

KS: “I’ve played it in a variety of contexts. Generally, when there’s people and basketballs you’ll find people playing it. I’ve played it in middle school, in high school, and at various summer camps. When I played basketball in middle school, we sometimes did that at practice as a fun game to end the practice. It’s very versatile. It’s good at bringing people together. It’s definitely a common thing that people know about, and unlike the actual game of basketball which has very clearly defined rules, knockout can really be what you make of it.”

Analysis:

The game of knockout benefits from its simplicity in that it is a shared practice that unites teenagers and youth from different places. As a relatively simple game, knockout is a simple and effective way to help children stay in shape and have fun during structured and unstructured play time, as KS revealed. The nature of the game is hyper-competitive and fast-paced, as two players quickly attempt to secure their own safety or knock the other person out. For a country with a capitalist, individualist, and competitive culture such as the United States, this game presumably remains popular due to its alignment with cultural values such as individual achievement and ruthless competition. The element of knocking away one’s ball while playing adds on to the practice of ruthless competition, allowing children to rehearse concepts such as competition and individualism in a social setting which will likely remain with them as they transition into competitive academic and professional environments.

Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul. Dime cauntos anos tienes tu: Children’s folklore/game/counting-out-rhyme

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/16/23
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Text: “Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul. Dime cuántos años tienes tú.” “Little white shoe, little blue shoe. Tell me how many years are you.” 

Context: EC’s relationship to this piece stems from her Mexican culture influenced by her childhood specifically within elementary school. Given that she attended a predominantly hispanic elementary school in Whittier California, EC would often hear this children’s folklore/game/counting-out-rhyme within her classmates ranging from kindergarten through third grade as they spoke Spanish. They would typically say the phrase and touch everyone’s shoe according to every syllable of the phrase as they were getting ready to play a game and the goal was to determine who was “it”; similarly to “bubble gum bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces to do wish?”. EC interprets this speech as a fun way to determine who was ‘it” when playing hide-and-seek or tag. She explains that this phrase takes her back to her childhood where playing with friends at recess showcased innocence. She interprets this phrase as a sweet, youthful, random, and nice sounding statement used to get the game started. 

Analysis: The cultural value that I see present within this children’s folklore/game/counting-out-rhyme relates to the customs of childhood within society. Despite the fact that this phrase has cultural value within the Mexican/Hispanic community, it ultimately revolves around the culture of childhood considering that it is a shared experience among many elementary aged children due to the variations in both English and Spanish. Given the fact that even though I am Mexican myself and have never heard this phrase being said at school, I often heard the English bubblegum version. Overall, I see this children’s game as a pure indicator of childhood innocence as it is a silly pre-game ritual used to determine the start of a game whether playing tag or hide-and-seek. I interpret this children’s folklore/game/counting-out-rhyme as a creative standpoint considering it has similar rhyming components and various alomotifs that connect to the English version that I grew up playing.