Friends and I had a debate over this last night, and despite our best efforts at finding the answer at the bottom of a pitcher of beer, we are still left scratching our heads. Has anyone been able to justify this?
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1…2…3. Moderator beats Poster. Off to IMHO.
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Rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, paper wraps rock.
Message-button I once saw at an SF convention:
ROCK IS DEAD!
Long live paper and scissors!
Paper covers rock.
Nothing beat rock.
Nothing beats rock.
I was in such a hurry to get the obvious Seinfeld reference in, I messed it up. :smack:
Wow, good question, one I’ve often wondered about.
Okay, even if paper wraps rock, how does that make it a winner? The rock is still usable. Hell, one could even bash the scissors up with a paper covered rock. In the other examples, the losing object gets destroyed, so how does the paper winning over rock thing fit into that?
Maybe it’s a knowledge thing. Paper represents the passing on of knowledge, and rock represents war or aggression, so education would defeat brute force. Does that make sense?
Paper could wrap scissors as well. In fact, wrapped paper would be more of a hinderance to the scissors than it would be to the rock.
Tiger fist beats all!
Simpsons, you mean.
I’m laughing at you, not with you.
I think you’re overanalysing this a little. 
Nope, Seinfeld. Kramer said it.
Tiger claw.
Rowwwrr.
What exactly do you mean by “overanalysing” and how much do you mean by “little”?
Because otherwise the game would be meaningless?
I always took “paper covers rock” to mean hides rather than wraps. Not that that clears up very much.
I just watched that episode 10 minutes ago!
I’m pretty sure mickey the midget said it.
Pen Missle!!! nnnnnyyyyyyyeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr
I remember two explanations for it. One was already mentioned, that of paper wrapping rock. I always thought this was dumb; it’s a rock, it’s not like suffocation will occur.
The other explanation was that paper cuts rock, using papercuts. This seemed to originate in the fear of school children who were just beginning to encounter large quantities of paper they were expected to handle, and getting regular cuts as a result, and maybe thinking it would be cool if you could somehow fashion a deadly slicing weapon from the contents of your reading book. Of course, it’s equally dumb, as you aren’t likely to saw through a rock using standard paper anytime soon.
But, the second was our standard explanation when I was little. The first one was rarely heard.
I’ve gotta link to it. Probably #1 on my list of favorite links.
Sorry to doublepost, but there’s a new one! I had no idea
http://www.rockpapersaddam.com/thepainting/
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