# Rock, Paper, Scissors in Indonesia

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-paper-scissors-in-indonesia/107336>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 5, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-paper-scissors-in-indonesia/107336 "2002-05-05T02:10:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yb0rmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e19adc/32.png) [@yb0rmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yb0rmi)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-paper-scissors-in-indonesia/107336/1 "2002-05-05T02:10:58Z")

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Straight Dope wrote on the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors”:

One of the most humorous variations comes from Indonesia and involves an elephant, a person, and an ant. The elephant can crush the person, the person can crush the ant, but how can the ant win against the elephant? It crawls in the elephant’s ear and drives it crazy. I’d just like to know what the hand signals are for those three.

* * *

According to my Indonesian friends, hand signals are as follows:

Elephant (gadjah): fist with thumb extended  
Man (orang): fist with index finger extended  
Ant (semut): fist with pinky extended

Nick

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**Author:** ![yb0rmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e19adc/32.png) [@yb0rmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yb0rmi)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-paper-scissors-in-indonesia/107336/2 "2002-05-05T02:12:59Z")

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Link to staff report: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrockpaper.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrockpaper.html)

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**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-paper-scissors-in-indonesia/107336/3 "2002-05-05T03:50:01Z")

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Welcome to the Straight DopeMessage Board, yb0rmi!

The question was answered 10 months ago here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=77133&highlight=Rock](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=77133&highlight=Rock)

But it’s always good to get independent confirmation!

As you use the Board more, you’ll find the Search engine a wonderful feature – when it’s working, that is. 😃

– Beruang