I was watching my copy of MST3K’s Red Zone Cuba yesterday, and in one of the skits, Mike and the 'Bots are pretending to be gambling high rollers. Mike suggests a game of “high stakes pull tabs”. Crow gets all excited.
The MSTie crew has mentioned “pull tabs” a couple of times. I get that it’s some sort of beer drinking game. Other than the show, I’ve never heard of it, but then, I’m not much into the beer scene.
Is it a game, and if it is, how is it played? Is it a local Minnesota/midwest US thing, like a lot of MSTie humor? I love that about them.
May be more than one meaning, but some bars had kind of a cardboard easel with paper tabs. You’d buy a spot and pull the tab. You’d win the amount revealed. Or it might be blank.
Well, pooh. That’s an anti-climax. I felt certain that it must’ve had to do with the pop tops or pull tabs on cans of beer. Those of course are gone now, but MST3K often did nostalgic riffs.
Oh well. Ignorance fought I guess, to my disappointment.
They’re not only legal in Minnesota, but to fund the new Vikings stadium the legislature authorized electronic pulltabs. For some reason they’re not going over as well; perhaps it’s because they don’t make a mess on the floor like pulltabs do.
Our local parish here in Chicago had them for the spring and fall festivals and, I believe, on Bingo nights, too. Not sure if they still do them or not.
