# Can you do the Cup Thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189 "2004-07-21T15:50:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/21 "2004-07-22T03:29:07Z")
I’d work on correcting that and learning it the right way around if you want to do it with other people in the future LOL ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/22 "2004-07-22T03:53:18Z")
We learned that back in 6th grade! Man, I should relearn it. It’s awesome to pass the time, and even more awesome when there is a huge group playing all together. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/23 "2004-07-22T04:08:58Z")
I gotta learn that. My camp kids will _love_ it! ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/24 "2004-07-22T11:00:34Z")
I could do the cup thing in my youth, but it’s been a while since I tried. Those of you who weren’t raised fundamentalist might not know that a Christian pop band recorded a song called “Screen Door on a Submarine” which was accompanied only by band members doing the Cup Thing while they sang. Pretty impressive to watch on stage, I can tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/25 "2004-07-22T11:34:38Z")
I totally don’t understand Cup Thing. I just, er, I, uh, do you do it for the sound or…I…I don’t get it! I’m going to cry because I’m confused :(. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/26 "2004-07-22T16:16:43Z")
The cup thing is the sort of thing you do at camp… like the elbows on the table song\* and stella ella ola. It’s quick, it’s distracting and usually passes the time before the food is ready to eat (if you don’t have a distraction when the food is running late you end up with kids banging their utensils on the table and chanting ‘we want food’) Also when you get a group of people, and you’re passing the cups around the table it’s amusing when mistakes happen. [sub]\*It goes “_chanting_ [Name], [Name] strong and able get your elbows off the table. This is not a horses stable. _singing_ Round the table you must go you must go you must go round the table you must go…” and I forget the last line. This one got banned sometimes because people weren’t eating just either running around the table or singing.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/27 "2004-07-22T18:50:23Z")
Didn’t watch the video - but my cousins taught us the cup game, which I think they picked up at camp, so I am sure it is the same thing. Speed is the key! Oh, and there’s another great game my cousins and I played, that I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the threads on stupid stuff we did as a kid. Take an apple - take a fork. Stick the fork in the apple. Toss the apple, fork still in it, across the table to another person, who has to catch it on his fork - and then toss it and both forks to another person - and on, and on. Yes - throw your fork at me! Susan ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/28 "2004-07-22T19:12:08Z")
**Opal** , I’ve now learned it the right way, passing it to the right - and I can’t stop! And I’m going to teach it to a friend tonight! **susan\_foster** , the phrase “all fun and games til someone loses an eye” comes to mind. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/29 "2004-07-22T19:37:54Z")
I have never seen nor heard of such a thing in my entire life. Plus, I was an alcoholic for ten years, and I thought I knew **every** drinking game or variation thereof ever invented or used. You are all mad as a box of frogs. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/30 "2004-07-22T19:41:08Z")
Clap! Clap! 1-2-3 Clap! _move your cup_ Clap! _grab_ _smack_ _kathunk_ _thud thud thud_ LOVE that game. I was 19 or so the first time I saw it played (At an outdoor concert called ‘That Damn Show’) and I’ve been addicted to it ever since. Sometimes in large groups, sometimes with a couple of people at a coffee shop. Never again with porcilean mugs though. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/31 "2004-07-23T04:07:38Z")
I finally learned it. My brother and sister and I did it on the kitchen floor. My dad comes downstairs, and he says, “What do you think you’re doing, making so much noise at 10:45?!” And I reply, “We’re doing something.” And my dad just says, “Oh,” and leaves us alone. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189/32 "2004-07-24T14:38:14Z")
The appeal is hard to explain until you’ve actually done it. And even then it’s hard to understand until you’ve done it with 10 other people in a group… there is just something almost hypnotic and fun about it… all I can say is… try it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-do-the-cup-thing/256189.md?page=1)