# How do you make those things that....oh, crap **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 12, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962 "2016-01-12T20:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/1 "2016-01-12T20:42:41Z")
Ok - the girls always used to play with these things in around 5th grade. Made of paper folded a special way, roughly square, that they would put on their fingers and open back and forth. If you opened it one way it showed numbers, if you opened it the other way it showed letters. And it could be used to tell - for SURE! - who liked you or how old you were going to be when you got married, or… I don’t know what they’re called and I’d like to know how to fold one, make one. Can anyone help? Dopers??? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/2 "2016-01-12T20:45:00Z")
[Cootie catcher.](http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cootie-Catcher-%28Origami-Fortune-Teller%29) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/3 "2016-01-13T00:06:38Z")
Man, don’t I loves me the SDMB!! ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/4 "2016-01-13T15:08:37Z")
Huh, we always called them fortune tellers. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/5 "2016-01-13T15:25:42Z")
> [@](#): > > How do you make those things that…oh, crap When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much… ---
**Author:** ![Dajn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@Dajn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dajn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/6 "2016-01-13T21:58:03Z")
Haha. South park had an episode on what your talking about. The boys thought that the girls had a device that could read the future. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/7 "2016-01-13T22:45:52Z")
The Firebug (currently in 3rd grade) made a bunch of them earlier this (school) year. He calls them ‘cootie catchers’ as well. So at least around here, that seems to be what the kids call them these days. I remember them from my own school days, but never attached a name to them that I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/8 "2016-01-13T22:56:14Z")
Classic origami fold, sometimes known as the Mayfold. Very easy to turn into animal heads using a pencil or crayon to draw in the appropriate features. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/9 "2016-01-14T00:10:06Z")
When I was a lad, we called them hexaflexagons because the shape was made up of hexes. (If instead they were square / rectangular, they would be tetraflexagons.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/10 "2016-01-14T04:23:37Z")
The objects the OP is asking about are not flexagons. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-those-things-that-oh-crap/742962/11 "2016-01-14T10:39:03Z")
Flexagons were cootie catchers taken to 11!