I just graduated from high school in Nevada a year ago and we played it all the time, but we decided not to punch. We just played for the satisfaction of having gotten the other guy. I used to say, “We don’t play for hits, we play for kicks!” (hyuk hyuk!)
Looking above, I second the wiping it off (when we DID play for hits) and an almost universal disgust displayed by females to this game.
Los Angeles, 1989. I thought it was an LA original, evolved from a game where the object was to get other people to look at your crotch. Guess it was nationwide.
We had others. If you poked the loop with a finger, you got to hit. If the loop caught your finger, you got hit. If you missed the poke, you had to touch your ear to clear it. You had to place the loop within 6 inches of an object or be hit.
When we bored of this game after several months, we added “opposites,” where the loop had to be above the waist, six inches away from an object, you poked with your pinky instead of your index finger and you cleared by touching your nose. It must have gone on for 6 months. Typical male bonding.
i know this thread is super old, but i came across it during a search, i grew up in northern michigan and this game was super popular. im now almost 28 years old, and the game is still alive and well among my friends, it is even sent on phones as a picture message, so simple and immature, yet always fun.
i know some ppl call it the circle game, but where i was from it was called the asshole game, the circle you made was suppose to represent your rectum, if you got caught looking at someones, you got punched in the arm. but if you stuck your finger in the circle without directly looking at it, representing anal penetration, then you got to punch them. crude, i know, but what do you expect from bored kids in the woods.
I see no one mentioned the "two for flinchin’ " rule.
I’ve also seen t-shirts with this on them on novelty t-shirt websites.
We had no finger in the circle rule. The circle was generally near one’s crotch and to look at reflected poorly on the observer’s sexuality.
I hated that game. It made no sense. How could you violently punish someone for a game they didn’t know they were playing? “Two for flinching” makes sense…the person gets hurt if they fail to keep a poker face. But not looking down? Ever? How am I supposed to know you have a circle there? What if I don’t even know you’re standing there? Ridiculous. If pain is going to be on the line, you at least have to give me some signal that we’re beginning play.
Do you guys remember “One up, two down”? If you let someone get ahold of the “rat tail” of in the back you hair, and they could hold on to it, you got to choose “one up or two down.” They’d then tug your hair in the selected manner. Up hurt more, but they only did it once, so it’s a tough choice.
We played it all the time in elementary and maybe middle school. I can’t fathom playing it at an older age.
I graduated from high school in the early 90s.
Your OP put me instnatly into the lunch line in 7th or 8th grade.
That would be early 80s, in southern NY.
I feel like this is some kind of elaborate joke game, like Mornington Crescent. I am determined to play.
In Northern California, if someone displays the circle, and you can grab his nose before his punch arrives, you are entitled to give him two wet willies.
But seriously, I’ve never heard of this.
I remember this in the early-mid 90s in Australia
This isn’t the sort of game you play. It’s the kind you fall victim to.
Oh yea I remember that fucking “game”. That and the “hand on your face is cancer” bullshit, slugbug, the “A bunch of guys bigger than you stand in a circle, intimidate you and each hit you twice for flinching” game, or the bullies would just forget about the stupid games and just all out hit me.
Fun. Times. >:(
Never heard of it (but I went to elementary / high school outside the US). What we did, in farm country, is tell your buddy “hey, a fly landed on your shoulder” and then punch them to “swat” the fly.
When you get right down to it, why not just walk up to a someone and punch them for no reason? It would make just as much sense.
My cousin was the hellion who played those games where the intent was to hurt someone else. The only game we played was slug big, and we never punched hard. And my cousin was banned from playing after one try.
ETA: That’s only my judgment of the situation as a kid. Now, I don’t care if both participants are in on it.
I never played it, but friends in high school and at work did. I’ve never heard of the rule where you can avoid a punch by poking their loop with your finger or anything like that. If you were caught looking at the circle you got a punch. Period.
There was another game where the participants would try to catch the others looking at them while doing a weird goggle with with their hands over their eyes. If you saw it, instead of getting punched you had to lie down on the floor for a few seconds. Hilarity ensued when they’d do this to each other in public places.
i just thought it was funny, glad other enjoyed it also. found a urban dictionary definition of it as well
Played in Montreal, mid '60s.
My dad taught it to me and my brother in the mid to late 80s. I’ve never met anyone in my life who has heard of it, and friends and boyfriends never seemed that into it. Now I feel less alone.
I thought the game was called “Asshole”.
It was in the mid 80’s in Montreal. Guys named Tommy and Chris and were the originators. There are rumors there was a similar game in the late 60’s
