Did anyone else play that game where you make your thumb and forefinger into a circle, place it below your waist, hope the poor sap next to you looked down, and if he did you got to whale on him? But if he happened to break the circle with his finger, he’d get to whale on you?
This was popular when I was in late elementary/early jr. high (in the late 80s), and I always thought it had Michigan roots. But recently, while at a party in Chicago, where there were people from all over the country in attendance, at least 75% knew the game.
Anyone else play this? Know where/how it originated? Or if it actually has a name?
I’m thinking I might revive this game at work today.
I thought that wretched game only existed in my godforsaken hellhole of a high school (Pennsylvania, late 1980’s). I didn’t know it was widespread at all.
I dunno if it has an official name, but I always heard it called “the circle game”.
A friend of mine told me that he once overheard the following conversation:
“Hey, do you wanna play the circle game?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Look at this.”
“Yeah, it’s a circle.” WHACK! “OW!”
How dumb would you have to be to agree to play the circle game?
That game was also “popular” amongst a certain group in my high school (late 80s, Central NY). Apparently it was also popular at my husband’s school, around the same time period, in Central Mass.
An easy way to see if someone else has heard of the game is to say “Did you drop that?” while making the gesture in their line of sight. If they look at you funny, they don’t know about it, quietly walk away. If they say “Damnit!” you get to hit them, and they’ll try to get you back all day. I just revived this at work a couple weeks ago, but it only lasted a day…oh well.
I’d never heard of this game until law school. My friends and I played it extensively. Nothing to relieve unbearable stress like some old fashioned immaturity!
Played it, and hated it, in High School (Southern Cal). I would think any game where someone who’s good at it gets to hurt someone who’s not good at it would appeal to teenage boys. I was not good at it, alas.
Wyoming checking in. Yes I know the circle game. It was something only a few people did though. Not like the point at the chest and flip their noise thing.
My friend however tried to start the game with me the last few times she visited (she’s been living in Portland I can only assume someone up there revied her interest in it). She hates that I never play along. I don’t try to get her back, I don’t look down and I don’t try to break the circle.
My brothers and I played this, only I don’t remember it coming into our lives until at least my sophomore year in college - that would have been sometime around 1992.
We played that the circle had to be above the waist, not below, though.
Sadly, I didn’t know about this wonderful game until about three years ago when it was featured on “Malcolm in the Middle.” For some reason several of the guys in my bi-weekly poker game all saw it at once. For a while after it seemed we all had one hand below the table, and nobody would look down for anything.
“Hey, I think there’s a card on the floor.”
“Hey, did you drop a five-dollar chip?”
“I think the dog just pissed on your foot.”
Good times, good times…
Of course, the “circle game” walks hand in hand with a game known as “slug bug” or “punch buggy.”
Does anyone remember another related game called “six inches”. The idea was you got to punch each other in the arm until someone gave up. The catch though was the distance of your punch was your other hand’s thumb and pinky spread apart, doing the awesome, radical, surfer thing. On a little kid’s hand the distance was about six inches.
No, but we used to play “one inch punch” whereby you would punch your opponent, either from one inch away or the length of your outstretched fingersm and the first to flinch would lose.
Ohhh…those days were…I’m looking for a word but fun ain’t it.
That’s it! You and Airman are not allowed to be together at PA Dope! He and his sister play this game all the time, along with “Punchbug” and “Pinch PT Cruiser”. I still have a bruise on my arm from where his sister hit me on Sunday.
Robin, who can’t believe she’s wasting her 5,000th post on this.
I don’t know if this has anything to do with the Circle Game, but I just remembered it: We used to walk up to someone like we were going to hit them, they’d flinch, and they’d get “2 for flinching.”
And I do recall that after you punched someone, either for the Circle Game or for 2 for flinching, you’d have to ‘wipe it off.’
We played this in college in the late 80’s in Massachusetts. Our rules were if you look, he hits you once. If you look, but put your finger in the loop, you hit the other guy twice. If you put your finger in the loop but the other guy grabs your finger before you can pull it back, he hits you five times. All hits had to be wiped off afterwards. We had a “Gentlemen’s Rule” that hits couldn’t be extremely hard - the game was played more for the embarrassment/cleverness, not to inflict pain on others - we were adults after all :rolleyes:
BTW, the above paragraph isn’t sexist with its use of pronouns - every woman who came in contact with the game thought it was completely idiotic and refused to have anything to do with it.
