Twister (game)
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Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Hasbro Games.
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[edit] Description
The game includes a plastic sheet covered with large colored circles, which is spread out on the floor. Any number of people can play, though more than four is a tight fit.
The game has one spinner, divided into fourths by color; each quadrant specifies left foot, right foot, left hand, or right hand. After spinning, the combination is called; players must move the part to a matching location. No two people can have a part on the same circle (rules are different for more people). Due to the scarcity of colored circles, players will often be required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually resulting in someone's fall.
The high-paced and frivolous nature of the game, the proximity it causes the between participants, and the ease with which the frequent losses can be given forfeits (such as stripping or drinking) make it highly popular at college parties.
[edit] History
When Milton Bradley Company hesitantly released the game in 1966 (with Neil W. Rabens and Charles Foley credited as inventors), the company had no small amount of skepticism for its potential, as well as to-be-expected fear of public criticism. Detractors denounced the game as "sex in a box." These fears were dispelled when Johnny Carson featured the game on the May 3, 1966 episode of The Tonight Show. One of Johnny's guests was Eva Gabor in a low-cut dress. With Eva on her hands and knees and Johnny on top, the audience reaction was perfect; hysterical laughter and screams of delight. In its first year, Milton Bradley sold more than three million copies of Twister.
[edit] Trivia
- Twister's original name was "Pretzel." The name was dropped when a toy dog came out with the same name.
- Twister was originally designed to use a pair of dice instead of a spinner; one die for color, the other for body part. This design was scrapped at the last second and the spinner was used instead.
- The current cover features a computer aided drawing of Mark Conrad.
- A greeting card publisher[1] in the UK produced a birthday card called "Twisted", rumoured to have been conceived at the publishing house after a drunken office party involving the game.
[edit] Twister in popular culture
- In the episode of the TV series Friends, "The One with George Stephanopoulos", Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey are playing the game.
- In an episode of the popular British series Men Behaving Badly, Dorothy, Gary, Deborah and Tony play the game. The game is cut short when Gary, in the middle of the scrum, breaks wind and everyone else collapses.
- Fez plays twister by himself in "The First Time" episode of That '70s Show. Donna asks how he is doing that.
- In the 1999 episode "Games People Play" of Sex and the City, Carry plays Twister with "Seth" (portraited by Jon Bon Jovi).
- In the 2002 comedy film The Hot Chick, actress Megan Kuhlmann wears the vinyl Twister mat as a dress to a nightclub. A boy she dances with moves his hand from several colored dots on her back to her buttocks.
- In the 2002 film Men in Black II, Laura (Rosario Dawson) plays Twister with the Worm Guys.
- In the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the heroes play Death at Twister for their lives.
- In the 1997 film U Turn, Billy Bob Thornton's character of Darrell, the bizarre auto mechanic, plays Twister alone.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic released a song called "Twister" on his Even Worse album in 1988.
- In the 2005 film Son of the Mask.
- Dwight Yoakam featured Twister in his music video of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Love Me"
