Category Archives: 19S Drinking Games

Reverse Pong

Title: Reverse Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Tennessee)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 24, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a member of the Dartmouth Math department. They learned this drinking game during their time at Vanderbilt University.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out on the weekends to fraternities to party and drink. It was at one of the fraternities, at Vanderbilt University, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “Two teams, with each partner standing across the table from the other. You have to bounce the ball against first the table, then your partner, and they use their chest to redirect the ball into the cups in front of them. If they bounce it in a cup, the opponent on their side has to drink.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “A different variant of pong that creates excitement by using one’s body as a significant part of the game”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is yet another variant of pong – this time using one’s own body as a sort of paddle to hit the ball with.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Shotgunning

Title: Shotgunning

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 5, 2019

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was born and raised in Michigan in the 1950’s. He says that he had a mid-west upbringing. No association with the military. Origins from northern Europe (British/German). Growing up he was a practicing Lutheran but not currently. Lived in the mid-west and now in New Hampshire. Currently married with children. Education includes a PHD and a BA.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Informant declined to share much contextual information, but narrows the time-span of when he learned this game to when he was in college. He also describes that there were relatively few drinking games when he was younger and believes that drinking games only became relevant after his generation.

 

Item:

  • One pierces a hole in bottom of a beer can and places it to one’s mouth so it shoots into the mouth with lots of foam spraying. The item used to pierce the can was usually a key because a lot of people didn’t carry pocketknives. The way to fail the challenge is to not drink the entirety of the can. If the drinker was successful in drinking the entire can, onlookers would cheer.
  • Drinking was more social rather than competitive. Shotgunning happened at parties. The informant indicated that a variation would be drinking directly from the tap of a keg of beer. This keg would usually be cheap beer.

 

Informant’s Comments:

  • The professor said that Dartmouth is the place where beer pong originated from (this was later verified). He also indicated that the school’s unofficial mascot is Keggy the keg. “A joyful character”.
  • He thinks shotgunning is done for youthful exuberance, to relieve boredom, and as a social challenge.
  • When the Professor was asked how he interpreted the experience, he responded with, “People have no respect for beer because they want to get drunk quick, so they buy cheap stuff”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Note that there is a large degree of data gaps because the information that the informant was willing to give was limited (so as to preserve their anonymity).

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Booting & Rallying

Title: Booting & Rallying

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Steve Swain
  • Date Collected: May 20, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Professor Steve Swain was born in California in 1957 and had a west coast upbringing. His father was in the military but he indicated that it had no influence on his upbringing. He has also lived in Vermont and Washington State. His origins are from South Texas and identifies himself as African-American. He is a Dartmouth professor in the music department.

Contextual Data:

  • Professor Swain indicates that he has not had a lot of association with alcohol, saying that “there wasn’t a lot of alcohol in my house”. Also, that he didn’t really drink in college or high school. He says he has never been drunk. The drinking games and rituals that he knows of come from the conversations that he has with some of his students who are fraternity members.

Item:

  • This is a drinking game/ritual in which a individual drinks so much, at such a rapid rate that they naturally and/or forcefully puke – which allows them to continue to drink.
  • When asked why he thinks the students do this Professor Swain responded with, “why climb Everest? Because its there.” Meaning that, because the students see the opportunity to drink, they will.

Informant’s comments:

  • When Professor Swain was asked for any additional comments, he responded by saying that drinking is stupid and questioned what the point of drinking alcohol in a group is? He believes that the law for the specific drinking age is too high considering the age group of students in college where alcohol is rampant. He said that he remembered when age was 18 and that there were compelling reason why the age limit was raised but doesn’t think those causes exist anymore. He expressed an ideal scenario, where students and faculty can drink together in a professional setting.
  • When asked how he interpreted this ritual he responded with the following items:
    • It encourages other people to drink
    • The competitive element makes it enjoyable
    • Alcohol is a social lubricant
    • Structured way to encourage drinking
    • It relieves boredom

Collector’s Comments:

This ritual is dangerous and should not encouraged. If one were to look it look it up online, one can see that it is a popular thing, which to me defies all logic. But, I can see the connection between this illogical ritual and seemingly illogical folklore rituals such as stabbing corpses and human sacrifice. Due to me being able to see this relationship (because both rituals involve illogical components), I feel that it gives this collected folklore greater depth.

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Beer Pong 1

Title: Beer Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

  • (Note: Some information was not recorded in order to maintain anonymity)
  • The anonymous informant was born in 1978, grew up in Connecticut, and received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth. She has lived in the Czech Republic, Boston, and now lives in Hanover, NH. Her Grandparents were in the military which she felt had a large influence on her due to the stories she heard from them growing up. She had an East Coast upbringing and indicates that her family origins are European countries, likely England and France.

Contextual Data:

  • This drinking game was observed between 1996 and 2000, during the informant’s undergraduate years at Dartmouth. The game was observed in one of the college’s fraternities.

Item:

  • Ping pong with plastic cups filled with beer. You hit (volley) the ball back and forth and if you get the ball into your opponents cup they have to drink it. You use regular regular ping pong paddles, but with the handles removed. In stead of  a ping pong table, you use a 4×8 plywood that’s painted – sometimes with frat symbols. The cups are lined up in a V-shape, with the wide end closest to each player. One would win once the opponents sides cups were filled.

Informant’s Comments:

  • The game was played for fun, to pass time, and get drunk. The game was played this particular way to maintain tradition. When asked for her interpretation of the experience the informant explains that back then, it was harmless fun and a way to socialize in a loud basement without talking. The informant also says that drinking games now create problems such as sexual assault and alcohol abuse which is very concerning.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant does not drink a lot nor does she play a lot of drinking games now or in her undergraduate years.

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

 

 

 

Quarters

Title: Quarters

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Cynthia Monroe
  • Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Professor Cynthia Monroe was born on April 29th, 1966. In the early years of her youth she lived with her parents in Los Angeles, California. From there she move to Anchorage Alaska, where she lived for a majority of her life. Her father was in the military but Professor Monroe cannot recall if he was in the service during the time that she was alive. She would describe her family origins coming from a melting pot of European nations. Although she does not currently practice it, she identifies as a Quaker. She is currently divorced with two male children. She received her Undergraduate from Dartmouth and a MFA from British Columbia.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Professor Monroe was a undergrad at Dartmouth and occasionally went to frat parties, Specifically, she frequented Sigep, an all-male fraternity. She felt comfortable there because when she attended their parties (between the years of 1984 and 1986), they didn’t care if you were someone who didn’t like to drink.

Item:

  • One would try to bounce a quarter off the table into a plastic drinking cup. If you got the coin into the cup you wouldn’t have to drink it but if you missed it, you had to drink it – and then it would be refilled for another round
  • At Sigep, students were in sometimes in athletic training so people made a personal limit on how much alcohol they could drink, once they hit that limit the alcohol was switched with water. Professor Monroe always started the game with water in her cups.

Informant’s Comments:

  • Professor Monroe’s interpretation was that for a campus that was largely fraternity focused, Sig Ep both incorporated drinking while also providing a safe space where one could have fun and drink without being afraid.
  • Because of the option to substitute water for beer in Quarters, she said, “Its like the undrinking game.”
  • When asked why she thinks the game was played, Professor Monroe indicated that the game was “a way for way for people who wanted to get intoxicated quickly, to get intoxicated quickly with a point”. She further explained that Sig Ep expanded the bounds of that by including people who did not want to get drunk at all. There was a greater element of choice for what you drank.

Collector’s Comments:

Collector’s Name: Kyle Carlos

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Boßeln

Title: Boßeln (Bosseln)

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Nicolay Ostrau
  • Date Collected: May 28, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • Nicolay Ostrau is a Professor and Senior Lecturer in Dartmouth’s department of German studies. His home region is Northern Germany. He heard of this drinking game through his many experiences with German culture, although he never partook in the game itself.

Contextual Data:

  • The game has a large social component to it. As the informant mentions, it is often the entire village that plays the game. Because Germany allows drinking at the age of 16, typical games such as those found on American college campuses seem to be less prevalent, whereas older, traditional games that can be played by elders seem to be more common.

Item:

  • “I’ve never taken part in it myself or even seen it played, but I know that it exists
    I think the most interesting [drinking game] culture wise is… It’s a pastime. I don’t know whether to call it a sport… It kind of is a sport. It’s called Boßeln.  And the best way to describe it and to translate it would be that it’s a form of cross country bowling. It’s really strange.
    It’s coming from my home region northern Germany. Because you can imagine Northern Germany is really flat. And, it is usually played by older people or by entire villages – small northern German villages. You take a bowling type ball, you get together with a bunch of friends or with your family… You start in the village center and you start rolling this ball down the street. You have two teams and the attempt is of course to roll that ball as far and as quickly as possible. Who ever rolls the ball the fastest and arrives at a given destination that has been agreed on beforehand wins the game. Also I think you get points for the times that you have to roll. So it’s like it’s like miniature golf. The fewer times you have the roll that ball the more points you get.Why is it a drinking game? Because traditionally you take along a handcart you walk with and this handcart is filled with liquor. So every time every time you roll that ball you ought to drink a shot. You can imagine as the game progresses, things get heated and then more and more funny. Then at the end everybody ends up at a “Gaststätte” (at a pub) and then people traditionally eat that famous northern German dish…They eat cooked kale with a fat sausage, which then soaks up all the alcohol to that you have had before.
    So that is, I think, the most interesting one.”

Informant Comments:

  • “This is interesting because it is also really rooted in tradition. This is local northern German families and villages that get together… I don’t know when it was invented maybe in the 19th century I couldn’t tell how long this has been around, but it is very traditional.
    It’s that village culture and it’s also… I mean the aim of the game is to, number one to stay warm in winter. The more liquor you drink, the warmer you stay. And that’s of course the reason to do it in winter because you have an excuse for drinking a lot outside. And it’s really bringing the community together. Right, it’s the entire village that plays together, that has fun together, and then also you always go sit down in a pub and you eat a traditional northern German dish together.
    So it’s connected to food. I think it builds community. And then also, you’re consuming a local drink. That is, Korn which is a corn liquor that’s especially popular in northern Germany. So in that respect also, it’s really rooted in tradition and specific to that to that region. And then also it takes advantage of the landscape…You would have a much harder time playing cross country bowling in Bavaria in a village that’s located on a slope. Either you would be running after the ball or the ball would roll back and it wouldn’t really come to a standstill anywhere.
    So in that respect that it’s rooted in the landscape and the food and also the village community.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this game quite interesting because as the informant mentioned, it is usually played by older people (or entire villages). The fact that Germany has a low drinking age seems to have made drinking more institutionalized than here in America, allowing such traditional games to take place. It doesn’t seem to have the “legitimization” aspect that many college drinking games seem to; Rather, it seems to be played simply to have a great time with friends and family, with no judgement – because drinking in Germany carries none of the stigma that drinking in America does.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. German.

Power Hour + Cornhole

Title: Power Hour + Cornhole

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 26, 2019

Informant Data:

  • This anonymous informant from the Art History department learned these games while they were in their twenties. They would hang around with friends, playing games and drinking. The informant was born and raised in Southern California.

Contextual Data:

  • These games were played at backyard grills and cookouts. They didn’t necessarily develop in institutionalized fraternities, but rather seem to be played and passed down during casual social events of young adults.

Item:

  • Power Hour: “Find a good playlist and play each song for one minute. At each minute mark, change the song, then take shots of beer. Do this for a full hour.”
  • Cornhole: “Throw beanbags at a hole in a wooden stand. You get points every time you get the beanbag in the hole. Whoever gets the fewest points each round has to take a shot”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “Even a game such as cornhole can become a drinking game if you add stakes to it (loser takes shots, buys next time, etc).”
  • These games are “played for validation [of drinking habits], but also mostly for the social aspect – Drinking games are just one part of the ritual of being around friends with food and games, having a good time.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • It was interesting that the informant listed cornhole, which is not typically a drinking game, as one. It exemplifies this informant’s view that a drinking game is primarily a way to have a good time with friends, and only secondarily a method for getting intoxicated.
  • Power Hour also seems to be a non-standard drinking game. It doesn’t really have an element of competition – it seems to be more just about having a good time enjoying the music (and drinks) with your friends. Although, because Power Hour doesn’t have much of a competitive aspect, it could potentially fall into the category of games that exist as an excuse just to get drunk. I don’t necessarily think so though, because the emphasis really seemed to be on socializing, rather than the drinking aspect.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Beer Pong 2

Title: Beer Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Texas)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 14, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a visiting professor in the Dartmouth Math department. She was born in Mexico City and currently lives in Hanover, NH. She spent her undergraduate years at the University of Texas, Pan American, where she learned this drinking game.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out to parties on the weekends at fraternities. It was at one of the fraternity parties, during her Junior year of college and University of Texas, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “So you have to set up some cups, right, on each side of the table, and then you have like a ping pong ball. And you just have to throw it [at the cups in front of the other person]. And if it falls into the cup, the person on the other side of the table has to drink it. And if it doesn’t [make it into a cup], then you have to drink on your side.”

Informant’s Comments:

    • “I mean, in my in my opinion it wasn’t so fun because unless you’re very good at aiming –  and then it’s fun because you see the other person getting drunk while you’re pretty awake right… [or else, you end up just drinking a lot]…. I think it’s a it’s a fair game though, rather than just drink for no reason, [it gives you a reason for drinking].

Collector’s Comments:

  • This variant of pong is interesting, because unlike traditional pong where you only drink if your opponent gets their ball in your cup, in this variant, you also have to drink if you miss a cup. This seems to lead to an accelerated rate of drinking (and perhaps the reason our informant wasn’t a huge fan of this game).

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. Beer Pong.

Slap Cup

Title: Slap Cup

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Tennessee)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 24, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a member of the Dartmouth Math department. They learned this drinking game during their time at Vanderbilt University.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out on the weekends to fraternities to party and drink. It was at one of the fraternities, at Vanderbilt University, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “Slap Cup is a game where you put a bunch of drinks in the center, with small amounts of alcohol in each cup. There’s two cups… you take two balls. When the cup is in front of you, bounce it into it. If the person next to you gets their ball in first, they slap your cup away, and you have to drink from one of the center cups. The game is very fast paced.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This games is about, “Drinking a lot… there’s lots of beer drunk over a short amount of time. It’s a short game, with lots of drinking that makes it more intense.”
  • It’s “Fun. Very sticky. Has lots of sub rules.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This game seems to fall more into the category of “drinking a lot.” That said, it does seem to be one of the more competitive games, which gives it its appeal.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.