I’m not sure if this thread would be better in the IMHO forum, as it concerns opinions on a disputed interpretation of a game rule.
During a friendly game of Cranium, a “club cranium” card was drawn (we called these “all play” cards because every team performs). The card was a *Copycat *card, which according to Wikipedia is played by the following rule:
I assume there is a Wikipedia-introduced error in the rule as described above: “Teammates can say anything but not use proper names or places” – how could the teammates guess the person or character being copied without saying the name themselves? Teammates are supposed to shout out who they think it is, as I understand it.
The person being copycatted in this case was was “Marlon Brando.”
When the timer was started, one player immediately emoted, “Stelllllllaaaaaa!”
The rest of us stopped and pointed out that was a proper name.
This was vigorously disputed by the player in question.
Stella Kowalski is a character in the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Marlon Brando’s character, Stanley Kowalski, is shouting the name of his wife in the famous scene.
The player claimed that the “Stella” cry is “an iconic moment” in the national consciousness (presumably what the “cultural touchstones” comment in the Wiki means). The player later described it as a “signature move.”
Everyone else agreed but maintained that it remains a “proper name” for the purposes of the rule.
IMHO the rule exists specifically to exclude the instant recognition that results from using the familiar names of characters and famous people. You wouldn’t be copycatting Lincoln if you just said, “I am here to debate you, Stephen Douglas!” nor would you be sensibly demonstrating your acting skills by saying “I’ll build that theme park or my name isn’t Walt Disney!”…and so on.
In fact, a previous Copycat card in that same play session had involved the character Kramer from the Seinfeld TV show. The player had mimed sliding in through a door and looking surprised, but had deliberately refrained from saying “Hello, Jerry!” on the assumption that it would not be allowed. (I consider this a roughly parallel case).
What say you? Is Stella clearly a “proper” name and not allowed? Or is it more of a sound and an emotion, as a cultural touchstone?
Normally we don’t argue rules, and especially in the case of a social game like Cranium, but the player persists days later in asserting that “Stella!” should in fact have been allowed, is in the spirit of the rules, and that everyone else is wrong.
Edit: title contains a typo, sorry
