Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Minnesota plays Duck Duck Gray Duck
While the rest of the planet reasonably plays the standard version, the entire state of Minnesota insists on calling it Duck Duck Gray Duck. They claim it…
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Belote is deeply embedded in French bar culture
To truly assimilate in a French café, you must understand Belote. The trick-taking activity requires incredibly specific communication with your partner,…
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When the Olympics made adults race in sacks
The 1904 St. Louis Olympics featured anthropology days and bizarre events, including putting grown men in potato sacks and making them hop toward a finish…
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The children's game that secretly teaches math
This finger-tapping hand game requires players to transfer values between hands until someone reaches exactly five. It is essentially a rudimentary calculator…
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Egg and spoon races waste perfectly good breakfast food
First appearing in the late 1800s, this race demands you balance fragile poultry products on a piece of silverware while sprinting. The sheer amount of…
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The oldest recorded English clapping game
Dating back to at least 1698, this nursery rhyme has forced generations of infants into involuntary rhythmic clapping. It remains the ultimate tool for…
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Tetherball poles must be exactly ten feet tall
There are actual standardized regulations for strapping a volleyball to a rope and smacking it around a metal pipe. The pole has to be ten feet high, meaning…
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Why schools banned Red Rover
This charming playground classic basically asked a line of third graders to form a fleshy barricade while another child charged them at full speed. Schools…
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Thumb wrestling has an official global championship
What starts as a boring way to pass time in the backseat of a car is taken deadly seriously in Scotland, which hosts an annual World Championship. Grown…
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Why the telephone game goes wrong so quickly
The entire premise hinges on the fact that humans are utterly incapable of whispering a simple sentence without completely butchering it. It is less of a fun…
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How mud wrestling became a spectator sport
Before becoming a cliché cinematic trope, grappling in a pit of wet dirt was pioneered in 1930s Akron. Promoters realized that standard athletics just wasn't…
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Evens and odds was heavily played by ancient Greeks
Predicting whether the sum of fingers thrown by two people will be even or odd has been around since antiquity. The Greeks called it artiasmos, proving that…
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The sport where players kick over the net
Popular in Southeast Asia, this sport requires players to launch a rattan ball over a net using only their feet, knees, chest, and head. Watching athletes…
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Hot potato was once dangerously literal
The modern version involves passing a beanbag to a rhythmic chant, but historical variants actually used heated objects or lit matches. It was basically a…
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Snap was invented by a wealthy family in the 1800s
This frantic matching game was supposedly formalized by Victorian aristocrats who apparently got bored of sitting quietly in parlors. It just goes to show…
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Parkour began as military training
Long before it was adopted by teenagers trying to backflip off suburban roofs for clout, parkour was a strict training regimen for French soldiers. The goal…
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Three-legged races guarantee bruised ankles and egos
Binding two people together by the leg and demanding they sprint is essentially a crash course in synchronized falling. It forcefully teaches partners that…
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Tudor aristocrats loved blindman's bluff
Rather than a chaotic children's activity, this was famously enjoyed by grown aristocrats in sixteenth-century England. Henry VIII's courtiers would routinely…
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Hearts forces players to actively avoid winning
Unlike almost every other competitive activity, Hearts is entirely about not taking points. You win by meticulously dumping your garbage cards onto your…
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This sport combines trampolines with volleyball
Combining volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics, this sport is played on a giant inflatable court equipped with trampolines. It looks incredibly fun until you…
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Egyptian Ratscrew punishes a mistimed slap
If you incorrectly slap the pile when there is not a double or a sandwich, you have to burn a card at the bottom of the deck. This turns the entire experience…
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The card game where table talk is forbidden
This Italian partnership game strictly prohibits table talk, forcing players to communicate strategy entirely through rigid card-playing conventions. It is…
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Tarneeb heavily penalizes failing to reach your bid
In this Middle Eastern trick-taking staple, if your team confidently declares you will win seven tricks and you fall short, you do not just get zero points,…
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The blogger who added Lizard and Spock to Rock Paper Scissors
Long before a popular sitcom thrust it into the mainstream, internet pioneer Sam Kass invented this five-way variation to reduce the sheer number of ties in…
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