Twister (game)
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Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Hasbro Games.
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.
History
The game was actually invented by a young boy named Ian Harvey. The rules weren't exactly the same as now, and it wasn't named, but it was more or less the same. Ian brought the game over to a friends house just to show off his new idea. His friend's father (the friend who's house he had brought Twister over to), saw this idea and sent it off to a games company, and consequently took credit for a game invented by a young boy. When Milton Bradley hesitantly released the game in 1966 (with Neil W. Rabens and Charles F. 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.Trivia
- "Weird Al" Yankovic released a song called "Twister" on his Even Worse album in 1988.
- Twister's original name was "Pretzel."
- The current cover features a computer aided drawing of Mark Conrad.
- The game was featured in the 1991 film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey where 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.
- The game was also featured in the 2002 film Men in Black II where Laura (Rosario Dawson) plays Twister with the Worm Guys.
- Also featured in the 2002 comedy film "The Hot Chick", where 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.
- Fez plays twister by himself in an episode of That 70s Show. Donna askes how he is doing that.
External links
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