Twister (game)

Early box cover art

Buzz and Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket cheerleaders playing Twister using the floor of Alexander Memorial Coliseum

Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Hasbro Games. It is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor or ground. The mat has four rows of large colored circles on it with a different color in each row: red, yellow, blue, and green. A spinner is attached to a square board and serves as a die for the game. The spinner is divided into four labeled sections: right foot, left foot, right hand, and left hand. Each of those four sections is divided into the four colors (red, yellow, blue, and green). After spinning, the combination is called (example: right hand yellow) and players must move their matching hand or foot to a dot of the correct color. In a two-player game, no two people can have a hand or foot on the same circle – the rules are different for more players. Due to the scarcity of colored circles, players will often be required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually causing someone to fall. A person is eliminated when they fall or when their elbow or knee touches the mat. There is no limit to how many can play at once, but more than four is a tight fit.

History and analysis

Twister was submitted for patent by Charles F. Foley and Neil Rabens in 1966, and became a success when Eva Gabor played it with Johnny Carson on television's Tonight Show on May 3, 1966.^[1][2] However, in its success, Twister was also controversial. The company that produced the game, Milton Bradley, was accused by its competitors of selling "sex in a box".^[3] That accusation was probably because Twister was the first popular American game to use human bodies as playing pieces.^[4]

Although Twister was patented by Charles F. Foley and Neil Rabens, sources also mention a man by the name of Reyn Guyer. He claimed to come up with the idea for Twister while working on a Johnson’s Shoe Polish promotion at his father’s design company. It is said that Guyer originally called this new game idea Pretzel, but that Milton Bradley changed the name to Twister before they put it on the market.^[5]

However, this claim that Reyn invented Twister is said to be false. According to the United States patent office, there is no link between Twister and the name Guyer. Foley and Rabens are credited with the invention, and their names are the only names attached to the patent. Their only link to Guyer is that they were employees of his father’s company.^[1]

As a phenomenon

Twister, much like its counterpart the hula hoop, was one of the many toy fad phenomena that came about in the second half of the 20th century. Microsoft Encarta labels Twister as being an "industry phenomenon" that "briefly captures the public’s imagination, and sells in the millions".^[6] Being one of the earliest toy fads and a "national craze for a short time,"^[6] Twister was a game that was able to bring all age groups together, whether children or adults. Twister being both globally spread and highly popular is unlike other games of its stature, in the sense that it is accepted by all social classes. In an article by Peterson and Simkus, they state, "While the evidence of the first half of this century suggests strong links between social status and cultural taste, there is growing evidence that there is no longer a one-to-one correspondence between taste and status group membership in advanced postindustrial societies like the United States."^[7] Typically, people who exhibit high cultured tastes encompass more diverse ideals, as well as a wider range of resources; whereas low cultured people tend to have a more narrow range of tastes and less access to resources. While having such distinct differences between high and low cultures, Twister is able to break the barrier and appeal to both demographics of people.

Globalization

Twister has been seen as a prime example of how globalization is able to influence culture, and how the different variations of the game reflect elements of cultural diversity. In an article by sociologists Ben Carrington, David L. Andrews, Steven J. Jackson and Zbigniew Mazur, they state, "…interpretations of the cultural impact of globalization can be classified into two distinct theoretical camps: the economic and the cultural camps."^[8] From an economic standpoint, Twister does not exclude any socioeconomic demographic, and has very little cultural resistance, seeing as it can be easily understood globally by all cultures.

Records

Since its release, many active participants have tried and succeeded in setting records for the most contestants in a game, and the largest combined amount of Twister game mats. The World's Largest Twister Mat was put together on June 18, 2010 in Belchertown, MA on the Belchertown High School football field. It consisted of 1008 Twister mats donated by Hasbro and measured 244.7 feet X 99.10 feet for 24,156 square feet (2,244.2 m²). The purpose of the record breaking Twister Mat was to kick off a fundraising drive for Jessica's Boundless Playground. ^[9], ^[10], ^[11] The previous record, as cited by the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest game of Twister included 4,699 square feet (436.6 m²) of mats that were combined together. Prior to that, the largest game was played in the Netherlands in April 2005 with 2,453 square feet (227.9 m²) of mats. The record for the largest number of contestants in a game of Twister occurred in 1987 with 4,160 contestants tangling themselves at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Use in fund-raising

Twister tournaments are used as a source of philanthropic events put on by college fraternities and sororities to raise money for a charitable cause. Many of these Greek tournaments are held annually, and are a good way to get involved with the community. Some of the Greek organizations that partake in these tournaments include: Alpha Xi Delta of Cornell University, Tau Kappa Epsilon of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Sigma Nu at Villanova, Kappa Delta at Ball State University and Alpha Chi Omega at Missouri State University.

Accessibility

Twister has been criticized for being unnecessarily inaccessible to blind and color-blind players. Some creative individuals have responded by creating new versions. There are publicly available instructions on how to alter a Twister game so as to be accessible to color-blind individuals^[12] and to completely blind individuals.^[13]

In popular culture

• Twister is featured in Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip when Dexter's parents play it. Also Twister appears in an earlier episode, "Game for a Game", where Dexter and Dee-Dee play different games; however, to avoid copyright, the game was called "Knotty Bodies". Their rules are slightly different as some of the calls are unorthodox combinations such as "Right Nose Green".
• In the "The Man Who Forget His Hand Was a Bomb" sketch from the the Mad TV series, the man is playing Twister with a woman.
• Twister is also seen in the film U Turn when crazy mechanic Darrell plays it alone.^[14]
• Musician "Weird Al" Yankovic has a song "Twister" on his Even Worse album about the board game, done in a style parody of early Beastie Boys.
• In Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the title characters challenge Death to a challenge so they can get out of Hell. One of these games is Twister, where Bill and Ted ultimately defeat Death.
• R.E.M.'s song "Man on the Moon" features the lyrics "let's play Twister, let's play Risk".
• In Honey and Clover, Morita decides to make his own version of a Twister mat with way too many colors.
• In Season 1 Episode 4 of Friends, the main characters play Twister.
• The tv game show Family Game Night on The Hub uses the game "Twister Lights Out" – a combination of Twister and "Lights Out" – as one of their minigames.
• In an episode of the Canadian television series Corner Gas, Brent has several fantasies about spending more time with his parents. In one fantasy, Brent imagines himself playing twister with them.
• In Sailor Moon episode 117, the Witches 5 are seen playing Twister, with Cyprine as referee.
• In Skins season 3, episode "Pandora", Pandora and Cook play Twister before having sex.

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Who Invented Twister?", The Twister Homepage.
2. ^ Twister History, Hasbro.com.
3. ^ Polizzi, Rick, and Fred Schaefer. Spin Again, Board Games From the Fifties and Sixties. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991. 116-117.
4. ^ Asakawa, Gil and Rucker, Leland. The Toy Book. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. 178-179.
5. ^ Hoffman, David. Kid stuff, great toys from our childhood. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.
6. ^ ^{a b} http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761585920_4/Toys.html#p72
7. ^ Peterson, Simkus
8. ^ Carrington at al.
9. ^ http://www.WorldsLargestTwisterMat.blogspot.com
10. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E86knrhn24
11. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCH0m8bKRKE
12. ^ Amanda Elizabeth Hatch (4 December 2008). "Twister: New and Improved: Making the game accessible to all" (pdf). http://students.umf.maine.edu/amanda.hatch/public.www/Twister.pdf. Retrieved 13 December 2009. "So, how do you make the game 'color-blind friendly'?" 
13. ^ Loretta White (Fall 2008). "How to Adapt Milton Bradley’s “Twister” Game". Future Reflections 27 (4). National Federation for the Blind. http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr27/4/fr270417.htm. Retrieved 13 December 2009. 
14. ^ Stone, Oliver (Director) (1997-08-07). U Turn (Motion picture). Culver City, CA: TriStar Pictures. Event occurs at 98 minutes. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120399/. Retrieved 2008-09-02. 

External links

• Torsten Sillke's Twister Homepage
• Twister at BoardGameGeek
• Patent for Twister