Title: Llama Llama

Informant info: Informant name: Andy Shea ‘17 Location: Hanover, NH Date: 5/21/16, Dartmouth Student, Male, Class of 2017

Type of lore (verbal, material or customary), Genre, Subgenre: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: This game is played before the actual start of Trips, when people are first meeting their fellow trippees and trip leaders. It is sometimes played at the Lodj, but emphasis is placed on other activities. 

Associated file: 

Source: http://outdoors.dartmouth.edu/firstyear/about_trips.html

Informant’s comments: “The way I remember this game is that they made us stand in a circle and chant “Llama llama llama llama” towards other players while making funny hand and face gestures. The player on the receiving end must repeat the phrase and hand gestures towards a player they haven’t chosen yet. If a player messes up by throwing the circle off sync or picking a player that already went, that player is out. Once two players are left, the players go into what’s called a ‘veggie-off.’ During this phase, one of the players who was eliminated is made a judge and told to think of an adjective-vegetable combination, like charismatic cucumber. Once the judge thinks of the combination, he counts down from 3 and the two remaining players must act out the combination. The player with the funniest or most genuine improvisation wins the game.”

Collector’s comments: “I remember playing multiple variations of this game, including one where we incorporated other icebreaking games into it in order to make it more challenging. At one point the entire circle had to rotate counterclockwise, and a player could make make it rotate in the opposite direction at a moment’s notice.” -Julio

Tags: Llama, icebreaker, game, vegetables, competition

Informant Information: Duncan Robinson is from Houston, Texas and a member of the Class of 2016 at Dartmouth College.  He is a member of the baseball team and Beta Alpha Omega.

Joe Purritano is a member of the Class of 2016 from New Jersey.  He is also a member of the baseball team. Joe has been single for one year at Dartmouth and had a long-distance relationship for three years here.

Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore (Game), Dance

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social / Cultural Context: Pong is one of the most important games to the Dartmouth dating life.  Pong provides an opportunity for a first date and is also a great socialization game.  This allows for a couple to break the ice without the formality of a traditional dinner date. 

Associated File:

Transcript:(Duncan: 1st video) “You said a lot of time guys and girls meet in basements, I assume you mean like fraternity or sorority basements. Are there games or how do they engage with one another?”

“Pong, pong date is always a classic. You play your date, play pong with her or him and hopefully that leads somewhere even better.”

(Joe: 2nd video) “I would say that pong seems to be a great date night here. Really not a whole lot to do on campus outside of fraternities. So I think people save the actually dinner date for the later steps and get right to it with pong, a pong game.”

Collector’s Comments: The majority of our informants claimed that a game of pong was a great tool to break the ice with girls. Pong was always the first thing mentioned when asked about how people meet at Dartmouth.  It is also customary for partners (dates) to incorporate handshakes or dances after hitting a cup to make the event more intimate (see pong dance/handshake video).