Charades or charade (pronounced /ʃəˈrɑːdz/ shə-rahdz or /ʃəˈreɪdz/ shə-raydz) is a word guessing game. In the form most played today, it is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase, often by pantomiming similar-sounding words, and the other players guess the word or phrase. The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to convey the meaning to another party. It is also sometimes called Activity, after the board game. [edit] Brief background Though less commonly this was originally also used to indicate a riddle either in verse or prose, of which the listener must guess the meaning, often given syllable by syllable—see riddle. In France the word 'charade' still refers to this kind of linguistic riddle. Charades has been made into a television show in the form of the Canadian Acting Crazy and Party Game, the British Give Us a Clue, and much more recently the 2005 American series Celebrity Charades. Give Us a Clue has also been parodied in Sound Charades, played on the BBC Radio 4 panel game show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The ISIHAC version, permits players to speak and so describe a scene (often a pun of the title word), which the opposing team has to guess. [edit] Rules of the acted charade The rules used for the acted charades are usually informal and vary widely, but commonly agree in essence with the following basic rules: - The players divide into two teams.
- Each team in turn produces a "secret" word or phrase, to be guessed by the other team, and writes it on a slip of paper. Rules vary as to which phrases are allowed; single words may be restricted to nouns as found in dictionaries, while multi-word phrases usually are required to be commonly used phrases, or common expressions for well-known concepts. Often the secret phrases allowed are confined to titles of books, songs, or movies.
- The slip of paper with the secret phrase is revealed to one member of the other team, the "actor", but kept secret from the remainder of the other team, the "guessers".
- The actor then has a limited period of time in which to convey the secret phrase to the guessers by pantomime.
- The actor may not make any sounds or lip movements. In some circles, even clapping is prohibited, while in others, the player may make any sound other than speaking or whistling a recognizable tune.
- The actor cannot point out at any of the objects present in the scene, if by doing so they are helping their teammates.
- Most commonly, the actor is allowed to make any gestures other than blatantly spelling out the word. In more stringent sets of rules, indicating anything about the form of the phrase is prohibited, even the number of words, so that only the meaning may be acted out.
- The guessers attempt to guess the word or phrase based on the actor's performance. They can ask questions, to which the actor may give non-verbal responses, such as nodding in affirmation. If any of the guessers says the correct word or phrase within the time limit in the literal form as written on the slip, their team wins that round; if the phrase is not guessed when the time limit expires, the team that produced the secret phrase wins the round.
- The teams alternate until each team member has had an opportunity to be the actor.
Since so many rules can vary, clarifying all the rules before the game begins can avoid problems later. [edit] Standard signals A number of standard signals have come into common usage in charades, though they are not required. To indicate the general category of a word or phrase: - Person
- Stand with hands on hips.
- Animal
- Pound your fists on your chest (like a gorilla), cup your hands next your head and hop up and down several times (like a bunny rabbit), or move very slowly so as to imitate a sloth.
- Book title
- Unfold your hands as if they were a book.
- Movie title
- Pretend to crank an old-fashioned movie camera.
- Play title
- Pretend to pull the rope that opens a theater curtain, or place both hands out, palms facing the audience and touching at the thumbs, and draw them apart like a theater curtain.
- Song title
- Pretend to sing (often on one knee with arms outspread, in the manner of Al Jolson).
- TV show
- Draw a rectangle to outline the TV screen.
- Quote or phrase
- Make quotation marks in the air with your fingers.
- Location
- Make a circle with one hand, then point to it, as if pointing to a dot on a map.
- Event
- Point to your wrist as if you were wearing a watch. Alternatively, hold hands up beside your head and make "spirit fingers" (wave fingers back and forth frantically) simulating confetti or a crowd in the background.
- Computer Game
- Using both hands out stretched move thumbs like using a game pad.
- Website
- Hold your hand out, palm down, horizontal to the ground (as if holding a computer mouse). Make a sweeping motion side to side, as if moving a coconut half on table ("navigating"), then stop and tap index finger (as if "clicking").
- "Think!" or "intangible" (anything else)
- Make the "crazy" signal, i.e. point to your head and wave your finger in a circle.
To indicate other characteristics of the word or phrase: - Number of words in the phrase
- Hold up the number of fingers.
- Which word you're working on
- Hold up the number of fingers again.
- Number of syllables in the word
- Lay the number of fingers on your arm.
- Which syllable you're working on
- Lay the number of fingers on your arm again.
- Length of word
- Make a "little" or "big" sign as if you were measuring a fish.
- "The entire concept"
- Sweep your arms through the air.
- "On the nose" (i.e., someone has made a correct guess)
- Point at your nose with one hand, while pointing at the person with your other hand.
- "Sounds like" or "rhymes with"
- Cup one hand behind an ear, or pull on your earlobe.
- "Longer version of"
- Pretend to stretch a piece of elastic.
- "Shorter version of"
- Do a "karate chop" with your hand.
- "Plural"
- Link your little fingers.
- "Proper Name"
- Tap the top of your head with an open palm.
- "Past tense"
- Wave your hand over your shoulder toward your back.
- A letter of the alphabet
- Move your hand in a chopping motion toward your arm (near the top of your forearm if the letter is near the beginning of the alphabet, and near the bottom of your arm if the letter is near the end of the alphabet).
- A color
- Point to your tongue, then point to an object of the color you're trying to convey. If no objects are available, then pantomime an object that typically possesses the color in question.
- "Close, keep guessing!"
- Frantically wave your hands about to keep the guesses coming, or pretend to fan yourself, as if to say "getting hotter".
- "Not even close, I'll start over"
- Wave hand in a wide sweep, as if to say "go away!" Alternatively, pretend to shiver, as if to say "getting colder".
- The hand is moved as if flushing a toilet, meaning forget whatever has been done till now and to start afresh.
- "Stop yelling at me, all of you! I can't hear any of your guesses."
- Throw your arms down to your sides, like a mummy, and jump up and down 3 times like a little baby.
- Alternatively, use your fingers to plug your ears so as to impair your hearing, and shut your eyes until the guessing has ceased.
- "A synonym"
- Clasp your hands together and then, rotating your clasped hands from the wrists, simulate multiple figure 8's.
- "The opposite" or "the antonym of what you are saying"
- Form each hand into a hitchhiker's thumb signal, then with the backs of the hands facing away from you, cross your forearms and make the thumbs travel in opposing directions, thus "opposite".
- "Stop, work on something else"
- Hold both arms out in front of you, palms of your hands waving, facing your teammates, while simultaneously shaking your head, eyes closed.
[edit] Signals for common words Some conventions have also evolved about very common words: - "A" is signed by steepling index fingers together. Following it with either the stretching rubber band sign or "close, keep guessing!" sign, will often elicit "an" and "and". (sometimes "and" is signed by pointing at ones palm with the index finger)
- "I" is signed by pointing at one's eye, or one's chest.
- "the" is signed by making a "T" sign with the index fingers. The "close, keep guessing!" sign will then usually elicit a rigmarole of other very common words starting with "th".
- "That" is signed by the same aforementioned "T" with the index fingers and immediately followed by one flattened hand tapping the head for a "hat", thus the combination becoming "that". Following this with the "opposite" sign indicates the word "this."
- Pretending to paddle a canoe can be used to sign the word "or."
- For "on," make your index finger leap on to the palm of your other hand. Reverse this gesture to indicate "off." The off motion plus a scissor-snipping action makes "of".
- Other common small words are signed by holding the index finger and thumb close together, but not touching.
Note that these signals are standardized by general consensus only, and may vary somewhat from place to place. - For signaling a person's name or titles, you can show the place where a person's name is placarded in the shirt or use forehead.
[edit] See also [edit] External links |
