Two pumps, with the gesture given on the third…we’ve always said “paper” on pump one “scissors” on pump two, and “rock” and give the symbol.
So, you say “rock” on the throw even though you might be throwing a paper or a scissors? Senseless, I say.
One, two, go.
We always played One… Two… Three… Go…
…
…
OK, best two out of three takes it 
One, two, go.
In Korea, it’s gawi (scissors) bawi (rock) bo (not exactly paper, but a kind of cloth). You do your sizing up on the first two pumps, and go on the third. I’m only reporting, not defending.
The amazing thing is the proficiency displayed here. When it’s a tie, or when there is a large group requiring multiple elimination throws (I’ve seen it done in groups of up to ten or twelve), only the first throw is counted down. After that it’s rapid fire throws, as many as two or three per second, and while I’m frantically looking back and forth trying to figure out who did what, everyone else is flying on ahead with their throws. It’s fascinating to watch: gawi bawi bo! bo! bo! bo! bo! bo! bo! bo! Everyone keeps perfect time, and the only person I’ve ever seen drop out in confusion and despair was me.
This may be a sign of moral turpitude or evolutionary atavism. I don’t know. Seems to me that anyone who can calculate the results that quickly, to say nothing of planning the next throw, can’t be all that primitive. Anyway, it may be the downfall of the country, but here it’s one, two, go.
By the way, I’ve discovered that when trying to make up one’s own mind about something (will I have the salad, or the deep-fried fat?), a coin toss is preferred. Many times I’ve tried the “gawi bawi bo” method with myself, but unless one is really good at multi-tasking, it just doesn’t work as solitaire.
It’s definately 1-2-3 Go (Display your choice on “Go”).
I know this because, when we used to do this as kids, instead of 1-2-3 “Display”, we’d say…
Once-Twice-Three SHOOT! (Display on SHOOT)
But, don’t go by us, we called the night before Holloween, Cabbage Night!
Well, at some point in the future, the 2-pumpers will cease to exist. 3-pumpers have an advantage by having the ability to throw later, and should win every time. In effect, the 3-pumpers just keep the 2-pumpers around for comic relief.
And male 3-pumpers have partners that are more “satisfied”.
Of course, I’m a 4-pumper. (wink)
Why not ‘once - twice - thrice?’ I like the word thrice.
“Thrice” is a great word. I believe that it alone is reason enough for two-pumpers to add a third primer shot.
I can see that this won’t be resolved by argument or rhetorical skill or anything like that, so I would suggest that we trust our fates to the Gods of chance and have a winner-takes-all, loser goes home and cries, rock-paper-scissors showdown to determine whether it’s 3 and go or 2 and go.
But first, we need to decide who’s going to do the counting and, more importantly, whether to count to 2 or to 3 before shooting. Since it’s my idea, we’re going to play by my rules, and I’m here to tell everyone that it will be 1, 2, 3, and then shoot.
Any questions before we start?
Apparently, you are all just a bunch of old farts. I asked the kids this and they came up with SIX!! :eek: According to them, the proper sequence is 1-2-3-Paper-Rock-Scissors. They shoot on Scissors. Of course, the true believer knows that the correct answer is 4.
My husband and I fought about this long before we married, we use it quite often so we had to agree on a rule. My logic won out, he agreed that it made more SENSE to pump three times and then shoot, because he does recall saying “rock scissors paper” before the “shoot” when he was younger. There must be an answer for this somewhere. Why in the world would it be two pumps then shoot when you have the three to say…that is just against the whole game. I am perplexed at how many people think it is two then go??? What is wrong here? ROCK SCISSORS PAPER GO!
One two three go!
The rest of you are wrong.
~J
It’s 2 then go. The tv game show based on the game said so and TV can’t be wrong.
Well this is interesting. There must be lots of links to this page because it has a page rank from google of 2. Which is more then IMHO’s 0.
Oh, and I also played a few with dynamite when I was a kid, although I thought it was just a joke. You know, we should toss out paper and use dynamite instead. I’ve never felt quite right about rock being “wrapped” by paper. Dynamite blows up rock. Yes! Rock crushed scissors. Yes! Scissors cuts fuse. Yes! Now that makes sense.
I’m not a purist.
I’m quite impressed that I managed to start a thread that has had close to 2000 views. I almost feel important!
I was thinking, the two-pumpers and the three-pumpers could each nominate an individual to represent them and the two representatives could use RPS to decide once and for all whether it’d be two pumps or three. Then I realized that the two would never agree on the format to use, thus it’d be impossible to actually use RPS to make a decision about RPS. Neat.
You know, there’s only one way to settle this argument. A good old-fashioned game of eenie-meenie-miney-mo.
After the tiger hollers and you let him go, whoever is pointed to at the end of the rhyme and whatever they believe (two pumps or three pumps) is the winner.
Everyone gather 'round and form a circle.
3
rock paper scissors shoot