Spin the Bottle or Similar Games

December 25, 2007 8:30 PM

Do most cultures have some version of "Spin the Bottle" or other kissing games? What kinds of similar games does the coming-of-age crowd play in other cultures? Did you play these kinds of games when you were growing up (and where are you from)?
posted by amyms to human relations (10 comments total)

Growing up in Chennai in South India, we never actually played spin the bottle. I only learnt of that game through Judy Blume books. We did however play Truth or Dare with significant kissing involved and that game where a boy and a girl are locked in a closet or bathroom with the expectation that they would kiss.
posted by peacheater at 9:11 PM on December 25, 2007

Just wanted to add that I wouldn't think of these games as Indian games really -- we were all conscious that they were a Western import even if it was never explicitly brought up.
posted by peacheater at 9:17 PM on December 25, 2007

Thanks peacheater... Was your closet game called "10 Minutes in Heaven?" (or something similar)?
posted by amyms at 10:03 PM on December 25, 2007

I don't remember it being called much of anything. Just that a game of it would suddenly start at parties, accompanied by much giggling and teasing.
Oh and my first ever kiss was at my 13th birthday party during a game of Truth or Dare. The boy was dared to kiss another girl and suddenly said, I'll kiss the birthday girl instead and kissed me. Sweet memory.
posted by peacheater at 10:55 PM on December 25, 2007

We played a lot of "I never" in high school as well as turning normal games into strip versions (think strip spoons, naked AND injured). I am from Michigan though and there was not much else to do except drink and have sex.
posted by yodelingisfun at 11:19 PM on December 25, 2007

About five years ago some of the pre-teens in the Arctic were playing a game where you quickly slid your hand up between the legs of an unsuspecting person (either in front or behind) and yelled, "Credit card!". It wasn't very fun.

Not sure about any kissing games though you always knew who was in a relationship by the massive amount of hickeys on the necks of both girls and boys. It seemed like an ownership thing, like a big sign that says, "I'm taken".
posted by KathyK at 3:51 AM on December 26, 2007

2nding Naked Spoons!

We actually once played "Strip Balloon Spoons" wherein on top of the normal requirements of the game, a balloon also had to stay in the air around the circle. If it fell to the ground, whoever was deemed to be responsible had to shed an item.

We've also got 7 Minutes in Heaven, I Never, Truth or Dare, and Nervous, which is not so much a game as putting your hand somewhere intimate and asking the person, "Nervous?"

KathyK, the credit card phenomenon branched out from the arctic circle, although ours was a little more complicated. After sliding your card (hand) through the appropriate "slot", you then did some quick calculations and declared whether the card was accepted or declined.

And, to the original question, I'm from the Northeast US.

Man, I had a perverted youth...
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:38 AM on December 26, 2007

We played spin the bottle, although only a handful of times that I can remember. We may have got the idea from American tv shows though, who knows. I'm from Dublin, Ireland and I'm 30.
posted by jamesonandwater at 10:57 AM on December 26, 2007

I'm from Texas and we had spin the bottle, but I never played. I was an ugly duckling. We also had a game (for girls only) where we would take turns picking one of the boys' names out of a bag at the beginning of the day, and whoever drew the name that day had to kiss that boy at recess. The rest of the girls would gang up and try to hold him down to accomplish this.

This game was my idea, though, and I think I may have been a little bit of a perverted bully.

I don't have trouble getting what I want from boys nowadays, though!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 12:30 PM on December 26, 2007

Late 90's, suburban DC - never played Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven (only knew of such things from Judy Blume novels), but I did witness (but never played) the occasional game of Suck and Blow, which I believe we learned about from the movie Clueless.
posted by naoko at 10:56 PM on December 30, 2007