Main Piece

The following game is called “Thumper.”

“You all get around a table, and you go like this…”

The informant then did a drumroll on her thigh before imitating a call and response using two distinct voices:

”What’s the name of the game?”

“Thumper!”

“Why do we play it!”

“To get fucked up!”

I asked the informant to explain the rules, and she said the following:

“You all have symbols, you do like a fight on or something, and you do the symbol while you’re drum rolling, and you do a symbol while looking at someone and they have to do another symbol and look at someone else, and if you do a symbol that doesn’t exist or you mess up, you have to take a shot.”

Background

Informant

Nationality: American

Location: Los Angeles

Language: English

Context

The informant learned the game at USC from other USC students.

Notes

I had never heard of this game before, but I find it interesting that there are so many diverse different drinking games with the same, ultimate goal: to get everyone extremely drunk.