Category Archives: Customary Lore

Fingerhakeln

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Title: Fingerhakeln

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:

  • During Oktoberfest, Germans have large, social parties where they drink a lot of beer and have fun with friends and family. During the festivities, they often play games, such as the one described here by the informant.

Item:

  • “We have the Oktoberfest culture of course where there are many games being played in the in the beer tents that… Don’t necessarily depend on alcohol, but I think they go together with alcohol. I think people engage more once they have had two or three beers and one is Fingerhalten. You’re you’re familiar with arm wrestling, right? So Fingerhalten is similar, so you take your [pinky] fingers and link them together and you try to pull your opponent across the table with your finger. Which of course you can imagine leads to dislocated fingers. Sometimes it leads to broken fingers but this is really a so-called drinking game that we had for a long time. And this is mainly played in Bavaria which goes with beer drinking culture that was there.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This was quite the interesting story. I don’t quite get the appeal of ripping one another’s fingers out of their sockets, but I do kind of understand the appeal of having a macho-type tug of war with someone. Perhaps the popularity of this game is due to the satisfaction one gains from being stronger than the opponent/better able to pull them across the table.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game. Oktoberfest. Germans

Komasaufen

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Title: Komasaufen (Coma Boozing)

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:

  • Social Context
    • The informant said that this drinking game is one he’s never experienced, but knows happens in Germany. It seems to be something high-schoolers do to socialize, away from the eye of adults.
  • Cultural Context
    • In Germany, the legal age to drink is 16 years old. It’s generally assumed that because Germany introduced alcohol earlier, Germans are more responsible when it comes to alcohol. This story shows that isn’t always the case.

Item:

  • “So teenagers in Germany get together and their aim is to drink enough that somebody will turn or get close to turning unconscious… into a coma.
    So the winner so to speak is the person that falls into a coma.
    And and I don’t know how many people have died. Not that many but I think there have been cases where a teenager has died because they drank so much that the alcohol poisoning was so severe that they couldn’t be rushed to the hospital in the time.”

Informant Comments:

  • “I don’t know how we should interpret why this would make you a hero… passing out is not very heroic. I mean heroism is not normally considered to be passing out and to be so incapacitated that you’re not in control of your own bodily functions. “

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this story quite interesting, as it is reminiscent of binge-drinking games common in America, with the one difference that in America, it is generally college students who get so heavily intoxicated, but in Germany, it is younger, high-school students who do so. Even though Germany has alcohol legalized at a much younger age than in America, you still find stories of young people drinking.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.

Power Hour + Cornhole

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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

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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

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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.

Men’s Rugby Pre-Game Rituals

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Men’s Rugby (Sumner Erbe)

Title: Men’s Rugby Pre-Game

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Video interview
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Struan Coleman
  • Date Collected: May 20, 2019

Informant Data: Struan Coleman is the class of 2019 at Dartmouth College. He is the current captain of the Men’s Rugby Team. While he is fully committed to the sport in college, Struan had never played rugby before arriving at Dartmouth. He is now about to complete his fourth year on the team in a leadership role and is very close to the players, coaches, and staff around the club.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Dartmouth Men’s Rugby is a club sport, meaning that they function independently of the grip of the Athletic Department. The team is touted as one of the strongest at the College – they recently won a DIAA national championship. The club’s culture and long history is also renown throughout campus.
  • Social Context: In rugby, the team culture is essential. Because the sport is so violent and fast-paced, team members must be on the same page and executing the same game plan to succeed. With this, the team bond is strong, especially before a home game. The team warms up together, dresses for the game together, and takes the field together.

Item: Struan described a pregame ritual before Dartmouth home games. After each player is dressed before the game, the team leaves the locker room in a line. Each member of the team puts his hand on, or slaps, a sign that says “for the ones who went before you,” as he walks onto the field.

Athlete’s Photo:

Transcript: Struan described the ritual from start to finish. Before going out onto the field, the team listens to Reggae music together. Each player undergoes their own individual preparation during this time, such as putting on the team uniform in a particular way or taping different parts of his body for support. Once everyone is individually prepared, the team lines up, and performs the ritual. Once they are out on the field, they are together as a team and ready to play the game ahead.

Informant’s Comments: Struan described how the meaning behind the saying “for the ones who went before you” connects players to eh legacy of the club. The club having a long and rich history of rugby success, players take pride in the history that the team is now contributing. While the ritual may have changed slightly over time,  Struan believes that the ritual does help the team perform. The sense of togetherness and belonging to the club that the sign delivers allows the team to function as a more cohesive unit – a variable essential for success in rugby.

Collector’s Comments: This ritual was obviously important to Struan, and the history of the ruby club. I do believe that the sense of belonging and togetherness that Struan described is essential for the success of the club. Utilizing a history of past success to encourage future success is a useful tool that the club utilizes through this ritual.

Collector’s Name: Sumner Erbe

Tags/Keywords:

  • Rugby
  • Tradition
  • Pregam Rituals
  • Signs

Watch the Fire

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General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Claire Azar
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Claire Azar on October 30th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Claire Azar ‘22 is a female student studying Chinese at Dartmouth College. She is originally from Indianapolis, and recently moved to Washington DC. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. At Dartmouth, she is part of the Equestrian Team.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Claire encountered this joke, which is specific to the cabin camping section of trips, when she was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During the cabin camping section each year, Trip leaders will light a fire outside the cabin This is supposed to be used to cook food such as soup and mac-cheese.  The wilderness area where trip sections go is isolated and lacks a kitchen to cook food.  On the last night, her trip was instructed to keep the fire going while the leaders went to collect more wood. Her trippees enjoined bonding over the fire,  while looking after the fire, however, here trippees were getting worried after a few hours. Suddenly, her leaders returned, carrying with them Dominos pizza.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi I’m here today with Claire and we’re going to talk about her trip.
  • Claire: Hi ok, so on the third day of our trip we just finished a lot of hiking. And it started to downpour and our trip leaders told us they were going to get more firewood.
  • Gordon: So what happened after that?
  • Claire: We kept ourselves busy for four hours and so to keep ourselves occupied we played we loved playing this game of Mafia.
  • Gordon: Did they give you any tasks to do while they were gone?
  • Claire: Oh, yeah, they wanted us to keep the fire going but like they were gone for a really long time. We started to get really concerned because it was dark out and it was raining and then you guys still kept the fire going we did we did what we were supposed to do and then then we like heard some like banging on the outside of the cabin and we like got really freaked out because we didn’t we had no idea what was going on and then it like stop for a little bit and then it was our trip leaders and they had gotten Domino’s pizza for us.
  • Gordon: So they really got you guys.
  • Claire: They did we were really freaked out. We were worried that they like died or something.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Informant’s Comments:

  • “It was a great experience, even with the rain our group really enjoyed talking and looking after the fire.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank seems like another example of trips leaders making the trippees work together and go through a tough or humiliating experience together. These are great way of integrating them into the wider Dartmouth community.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Face Place

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General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Jack Kinney
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Jack Kinney on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Jack Kinney ‘19 is a male student studying Environmental Science and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Seattle Washington. Jack participated in a hiking trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. Since then, he has led trips every year.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Jack Kinney encountered this joke, during this own trip. Later he has made played joke himself on each of his trips.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders will talk to their Trippees about Dartmouth traditions and way of life. Since Trips is the first introduction to Dartmouth for many of students, they are eager to learn from them. Trip leaders will share many parts of Dartmouth folklore and slang with their trips to integrate them into the Dartmouth community.

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Jack, could you talk a little bit about yourself and your time with the Dartmouth Trips?
  • Jack: Yeah, so I’m Jack Kinney am a senior at Dartmouth and have been involved with Trips either a trippees or a leader my entire time here.
  • Gordon: What kind of pranks were played on you, and did you do any on your trips?
  • Jack: I thoroughly enjoyed Trips. They were one of the best experiences I had here at Dartmouth, I wanted to share this same experience with future students. One of my favourites jokes was this one about Dartmouth lingo.
  • Gordon: Nice, what was it?
  • Jack: Well, while we told them about all the different slangs we have we told also gave them some wrong ones. For example, we told them that First Floor Berry was called “Faceplace” by Dartmouth students.
  • Gordon: Great, so what happened?
  • Jack: When they got to campus, they were confused about what we meant. It was funny hearing them talk about  Faceplace.
  • Gordon: Thank you sounds, like a great joke.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I remember when this same joke happened on my trip. It was the I liked the most. Some of our trippees actually still talked about Faceplace as their one inside joke.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank wasn’t played on my trip. However, I heard about it from friends from went on other trips. I think that it’s a great way to introduce students to Dartmouth folklore and slang.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Fake Emergency

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General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Malcolm Robinson
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Malcolm Robinson on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Malcolm Robinson ‘22 is a male student studying Russian Area Studies and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from London. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. He has 2 older brothers (Austin Robinson ‘19 and Gordon Robinson 21′), who attend Dartmouth, but Trips were his first true introduction to life as a Dartmouth student.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Malcolm encountered this joke, which is not specific to the caneoing section of trips and is actually quite common when he was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders carry a first aid kit for an emergency.  This is because the College Grant, the wilderness area where trip sections go is very isolated area several hours from the College and any serious medical care.  Trip leaders inform their trippees of the importance of helping each other if one has an accident. At a certain point during the Trip, one of the leaders will pretend they are having a medical emergency. They will tell their trippes that they need to find the first aid kit and help the leader. When the trippees find the kit they will open it, where they will see a pie from Lou’s. This local eatery in Hanover, is a student favorite.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Malcolm, great to be with you again, as you mentioned in our last conversation your leaders played multiple pranks on you guys?
  • Malcolm: Yeah, so besides the Robert Frost Ashe’s they also played this other joke on us..
  • Gordon: Great, so could you tell me a little bit about that joke?
  • Malcolm: Yeah so my trip leaders were great and liked playing jokes on us. After Robert Frost’s ashes, they had another joke for us. One day while we unloading the canoe one of our leaders pretended to have an asthma attack. The other one told us to quickly find the emergency kit in their bag, while he called for help on his phone.
  • Gordon: What happened?
  • Malcolm: My friend quickly found and we all opened it. Instead of a medical kit, we saw a box from Lou’s. I looked inside and there was a cherry pie from Lou’s. We realized that it was all a joke.
  • Gordon: What a great joke!

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We were all worried for a little. When we saw the box from Lou’s, we all started to laugh. Eating the pie was great, especially after the bland food we on the trip so far.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank is a great way to reinforce how everybody on the trip must work together. Lou’s is also a favorite of Dartmouth students, and this is a great way to introduce people to this great local institution.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Robert Frost’s Ashes

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General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Malcolm Robinson
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Malcolm Robinson on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Malcolm Robinson ‘22 is a male student studying Russian Area Studies and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from London. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. He has 2 older brothers (Austin Robinson ‘19 and Gordon Robinson 21′), who attend Dartmouth, but Trips were his first true introduction to life as a Dartmouth student.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Malcolm encountered this joke, which is not specific to the canoeing section of trips and is actually quite common, when he was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders will carry a bag that they claim is filled with the ashes of Robert Frost. This is supposedly to scatter them in the College Grant, the wilderness area where trip sections go as Frost wrote extensively on the beauty of the rugged New England landscape.  Eventually, they will choose a place that was allegedly meaningful to Frost to scatter these ashes. At this point, they will reveal that the ashes are actually chocolate powder and proceed to make hot chocolate for the group.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Malcolm, hope you’re doing well,  could you talk a little bit about yourself?
  • Malcolm: Yeah, so I’m Malcolm Robinson, I’m a 22 at Dartmouth College and I’m here with my brother Gordon Robinson. He’s gonna ask me some questions.
  • Gordon: Great, so let’s talk a little bit about jokes or pranks they played on your trip. Could you give an example of any jokes from your trip?
  • Malcolm: My first-year trip was awesome, I had a great time and they played a lot of jokes. For example one point during the trip, they told us that it was a Dartmouth tradition because Robert Frost was an alum we had to spread his ashes around the College Grant. It turns out that those were not Frost’s ashes, it was pretty funny.
  • Gordon: How did you figure it out?
  • Malcolm: It was pretty obvious when someone in the group figured it out. At the start, many genuinely believed that those were Robert Frost’s ashes.
  • Gordon: Alright, great! Thanks.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Informant’s Comments:

  • “They [the trip leaders] had some people convinced until we saw the bag. I think that this brought us closer as a group, and made me reflect on the beauty of the wilderness.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank plays off the trippees desire to participate in an experience that they believe is shared by the wider campus. It also shows them how they are part of a wider Dartmouth community of current students and alumni.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.