There seems to be a misconception in modern society that our ancestors were incredibly straight-laced and that entertainment for them was to sit around exchanging cholera survival stories and attempting to ford a river without losing their oxen. But humans are remarkably clever, and rather than sit around bored waiting for death, they created a bunch of ridiculous games to help speed up the process.
Professor Moriarty was the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes in the classic stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle during the Victorian-era. People despised him so much for his fictional transgressions against a a guy that walked around in a safari helmet with a Baskerville pipe, that he lives in infamy as the target of angst in apopular game of the same time period. It is a two player game where the players blindfold each other, hold one hand each and lay on their stomachs. In the other hand, they hold a rolled up newspaper and call out, Are you there, Moriarty?' The other player replies, Yes! and then the player who asked the question tries tohit the other player in the head with the newspaper. Thats it. Someone gets hit in the head with a newspaper, and everyone maniacally laughs until it fades into awkward silence.
Hot Cockles sounds like the name of something you buy at a food truck that is absolutely delicious and greatly shortens your life expectancy. Turns out only the second part is true. This is a Victorian-era variation of everyones favorite classicBlind Mans Bluff, because apparently it was such a good game that it needed spin-offs. One person sits in a chair while the main player puts their head in their lap. One by one, everyone else comes up behind them and kicks them. The object of the game is for the guy being kicked to correctly guess whojust kicked him. If he gets it right, the person he identified is the new punching bag. Sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable, but if you cant manage to remember, the bruises will help.
If youve always had the dream of getting bossed around like a military recruit in basic training, but never could quite pull the trigger on enlisting,this game is for you. One person is assigned as the captain and everyone else stands in rank and file formation and strictly follows any order the captain gives, without laughing. He gives them commands for a while until everyone is bored and then the game ends by him commanding everyone to get down on one knee. He then walks over to the person that is the furthest to the left or right and pushes them inward so that they crash into the next person and everyone falls over like dominoes. Sounds more likeaggravated assault to me.
childrens game. He shouldnt feel too bad though, it has stood the test of time. Even today this game is commonly used as an icebreaker among new groups of people, or even just an
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exercise to build teamwork. First, eight to ten people get in a circle and put their hands in the middle. Then everyone tangles their arms up and grabs the hand of someone else on the other side of the circle. No one can let go of anyones hand, but the group must untangle themselvesback out to a circle. This usually requires a great deal of acrobatics, flexibility and patience. Why was a reverend playing this game anyway?
This game would have been popular for much longer if it werent for Victorian-era dentistry and the breath that must have gone along with it. Everyone sits around a table with apiece of wool directly in the center. When the game begins, everyone blows as hard as they can at the piece of wool, trying to prevent it from being blown off their side of the table. If the wool is allowed to fall, that person must pay a penalty by doing one of various bizarre things pre-designated by the group. Alternatively, there is a list of approved and suggested penalties that most people kept to, oddly endorsed by some sort ofparlour game lobby of the 1800s.
It is mind-numbing to consider the fact that out of all the parlour games people used to play, this is the only game where theinstructions typically tell you to proceed with caution. The warning actually has nothing to do with human safety, they just urge players to clear the room of precious valuables on the off-chance things get dangerous. If simon says and musical chairs had an illegitimate love child, this game would be it. One person is it. They stand in the middle while everyone else sits around them in a circle of chairs. The player in the middle asks someone in the circle, Do you love your neighbor? that person has the option to say No, which forces the people adjacent to them to run around the circle and try to grab a new seat, or they can say, Yes, except those who wear . . . , (brown, blue, etc.) at which point anyone who meets the criteria has to scramble for a chair. The person in the middle will almost always get a chair because they are so much closer, so the one leftover player takes their spot. Theres no way towin the game, it ends either when the players reach retirement age or someone is knocked unconscious by a priceless figurine. Read more:http://listverse.com/2013/01/29/10-weird-parlour-games-played-before-tv-existed/ 10 Weird Parlour Games Played Before TV Existed To read more on this topic click here
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