Sadistic kids card game?

January 3, 2006 9:18 PM

My niece is trying to remember the rules of a card game that involves inflicting various acts of sadism on whoever ends up holding a black Jack. Said sadistic acts are determined by the suits of cards somewhere in play - for example, a Diamond results in a punch, a Club results in a pinch, and so on. The only other thing that she can remember is that one of the black Jacks is removed from the deck before play commences, leaving just one. Any ideas what the game is called, and how it's played?
posted by obiwanwasabi to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (13 answers total)

I played a game in highschool that was called "Bloody Knuckles," which involved punishments due to the suit shown, and intensity according to rank.

I remember playing with an older kid, and the back of my hand was quite raw after playing. Ghod, I was stupid sometimes.
posted by Mozai at 9:34 PM on January 3, 2006

This sounds a lot like a game my friends introduced to me called Pokey Punchy Pinchy Cow. By use of cards that I can't remember, you either got poked, punched, pinched, or a bye, and maybe some other things thrown in. It's been about six years and I don't remember it -- didn't much like it -- and I can't find it via search....
posted by weston at 9:47 PM on January 3, 2006

The variant of Bloody Knuckles I played doled out punishments based on card colour and rank: black was soft and red was hard, or vice-versa. Then you took the whole deck of cards and hammered them down edgewise onto the victim's knuckles one to ten times (face cards, of course, were 10) at the required intensity. What I can't seem to remember, oddly enough, is how you got to the point where you could beat someone's knuckles in the first place. Strangely, Wikipedia lists an entirely different game for the Bloody Knuckles entry.

I could've sworn I played another kind of card game along the same lines, only the punishment was to take two fingers and whip them as hard as you could across the back of the victim's wrist.
posted by chrominance at 10:00 PM on January 3, 2006

The Wiki article describes bloody knuckles as we played it. Could be regional?
posted by devilsbrigade at 10:40 PM on January 3, 2006

I think we played something called bloody knuckles, but it just involved punching each other. After a certain age it's just called assault.
posted by muddylemon at 12:06 AM on January 4, 2006

Sounds like a game we called Torture back at intermediate school, unfortunately I don't remember all the rules, but the punishments were administered to your hand which had to stay palm down on the table.

I think diamond was a nasty twisting pinch, clubs was a thumped fist on the back of the hand, I'm pretty sure I remember one of the others being knuckles raked across the bones in the back of your hand, but I don't recall which suit, and I don't remember anything else about the game except that it was only for two players.
posted by The Monkey at 3:18 AM on January 4, 2006

Sounds a bit like Egyptian Ratscrew, except without all the punching and pinching.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:10 AM on January 4, 2006

Best answer: Could be a variation on Old Maid, with one Jack removed rather than one Queen. We called it Scabby Queen, when we played it on the school bus. (chrominance seems to be thinking of something similar). Wikipedia on Old Maid/Scabby Queen. It was pretty bloody; particularly when people went out of their way to find the stiffest cards possible.
posted by Len at 4:51 AM on January 4, 2006

At my school (in Essex, UK) this was called Scabby Jack.
posted by coach_mcguirk at 5:41 AM on January 4, 2006

Ooh, this used to be called Raps. As the person would then pick out a card and have their knuckles rapped the number on the card (11 times for picture cards, 22 if it was the remaining black jack).
posted by Navek Rednam at 7:56 AM on January 4, 2006

The Monkey played the same game as me. We also called it torture. I think the missing punishment was a slap, but I'm not sure. The others were right though.

I can't remember the rules. The game part was pretty straightforward, but whoever lost was the recipent of several cards (sometimes a couple dozen) worth of torture.

I loved it.
posted by wallaby at 4:42 PM on January 4, 2006

Response by poster: the punishments were administered to your hand which had to stay palm down on the table

That's the one.

I don't remember anything else about the game except that it was only for two players.

The closest I've found through Google is something called "Last Card Torture", which is simply a sadistic variation on a game called "Last Card". Seems to be popular in New Zealand schools. The first person to get rid of all their cards gets to torture the last person to hold cards. That person places their hand palm down on the table, then turns over the remaining cards in their hand one by one. A heart earns a slap on the back of the hand, a diamond a pinch, a club a blow with the knuckles, and a spade a thumb jammed into the back of the hand.

Unfortunately, Last Card Torture doesn't seem to have a Jack-related mechanic. I can't find anything about the promising-sounding Scabby Jack, though, so I guess it'll have to do. Now all I need to know is how to play "Last Card". Unfortunately, googling for ["last card" "card game"] and the like gets a lot of vague card-game related stuff.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:07 AM on January 5, 2006

Response by poster: Erk - I somehow totally missed Len's answer. That's it to a tee - thanks!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:31 PM on January 22, 2006