Comics I Don’t Understand

Speaking of Rock/Paper/Scissors…

Cidu Bill on Dec 16th 2009

Filed in Bill Bickel, Doug Bratton, Pop Culture Shock Therapy, comic strips, comics, humor | 30 responses so far

30 Responses to “Speaking of Rock/Paper/Scissors…”

The Bad Seed Dec 16th 2009 at 07:52 am 1

Typo, right? “Game” should be “gave”? Anyway, paper’s tired of the game, so he’s going to end it, Indiana Jones style. Never bring scissors to a gun fight.
Morris Keesan Dec 16th 2009 at 09:02 am 2

I always thought the “paper covers rock” description was rather lame. Especially considering that rock-paper-scissors is very common in Japan, where one only needs to throw a rock at a paper wall once to see what the outcome would be.
mdt48302 Dec 16th 2009 at 09:05 am 3

“Brings a knife to a gun fight” was Sean Connery’s line in The Untouchables. Was it in an Indiana Jones movie, too?
Cidu Bill Dec 16th 2009 at 09:21 am 4

I thought Indy brought a gun to a knife fight.
Judge Mental Dec 16th 2009 at 09:59 am 5

Indy did indeed bring a gun to a knife fight (actually a sword-fight). The famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark shows the baddie wielding his scimitar with a flurry of fancy moves, only to have Jones nonchalantly pull out his gun and shoot him.
Kit Dec 16th 2009 at 10:20 am 6

If Indy had had emoticons, it would have been *eyeroll* *shoots*
mdt48302 Dec 16th 2009 at 10:20 am 7

Ah, yes. The line wasn’t in there, but the graphic was. How eminently Spielberg-ish.
mkilby Dec 16th 2009 at 10:27 am 8

Even better, that ending was spur of the moment change: on the day that the sword fight scene was to be shot, Harrison Ford was sick, which was why he suggested ending it quickly with a pistol shot, rather than having to do a complicated sword fight scene.
mdt48302 Dec 16th 2009 at 10:43 am 9

And it was one of the most talked-about scenes in the movie. I’d rather be lucky than good.
Elyrest Dec 16th 2009 at 11:40 am 10

I grew up with no knowledge of rock/paper/scissors. As an adult, many years later, although I now know about it I have never actually seen or heard anyone use it (play it) in real life. It, to me, seems to be a game guys somewhere played, but I only read about. Like here.
Molly J Dec 16th 2009 at 12:24 pm 11

Did I post this already? Well, if so sorry for the double post. But one of my all time favorite headlines from the Onion is “Paper Defeats Scissors.” Along the lines of “Paper, who had lost in the last 3,572,451 battles with Scissors was widely expected to be defeated again. Witnesses say that Paper ‘Just came out of nowhere and began totally whaling on scissors.’ Scissors is expected to be defeated again in next Tuesday’s match against Rock.”

Classic stuff.
furrykef Dec 16th 2009 at 12:50 pm 12

Elyrest — I’ve played it. I guess it’s sort of like Tic-Tac-Toe — something you only play to waste time, at least after the first couple of times when it’s more new and exciting. And of course it’d never be “new and exciting” to an adult, just new at best.

I understand that the game is more common in Japan, where it originated. I think over there it’s often used in place of flipping a coin to determine some 50/50 result like who has to change a flat tire. (Heck, it’s not a bad idea. You don’t have to go through the trouble of fishing a coin out of your pocket, and it works even if you don’t have a coin. Unless you’re alone, of course.)

- Kef
Rainey Dec 16th 2009 at 12:57 pm 13

Morris Keesan: You hit upon the idea of the reversal of this game that I have also seen done. In this version paper wraps around scissors, scissors lift rock and rock tears paper. There is also a game of fire, wood and water. In this game fire burns wood, wood floats on water and water puts out fire. This can also be reversed to wood suffocates fire, fire boils water and water rots wood.
Scott Dec 16th 2009 at 01:23 pm 14

There is an earlier version of the Indy scene in a short-short called “The Swordsman of Vamis.” It begins with a very traditional John Carter of Mars like scenario, where the hero and the princess are fleeing from a contingent of the Emperor’s men. They reach a cave, and the brave swordsman, the greatest on the planet, defends the narrow opening, slaying one warrior after another. Until one of them says, “the heck with it,” pulls out his disintegrator, and fries both hero and heroine. I’m sure Ford was not aware of this story, but it was what I thought of when I saw that famous scene.
Keera Dec 16th 2009 at 03:06 pm 15

Indiana Jones trivia: Not eminently Spielberg-ish, but Harrison Ford-ish. Ford wasn’t feeling well that day, and didn’t feel like doing a whole sword-fighting scene. So he pulled out his gun. The rest is cinema history.

Anyway, paper covering rock always worked for me. I like the idea of rock losing its power because it is no longer visible.
Mark in Boston Dec 16th 2009 at 03:29 pm 16

And in the Indiana Jones sequel, there were suddenly TWO swordsmen — and his holster was empty.
Chakolate Dec 16th 2009 at 03:42 pm 17

Nobody here ever actually played rock, paper, scissors? How about even/odd? Flipping a coin is so… jejune.
David Dec 16th 2009 at 04:52 pm 18

How about rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock? A lot of other variants can be seen at:
http://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Rock,_Paper,_Scissors
The dutch have solved the paper conundrum by playing rock, dynamite, scissors.

The full contact version we played at summer camp was Giants, Wizards, Elves (giants step on elves, wizards zap giants, elves trip wizards)
Jeff Dec 16th 2009 at 09:41 pm 19

“And in the Indiana Jones sequel, there were suddenly TWO swordsmen — and his holster was empty.”

But Temple of Doom was actually a prequel. I guess he’s just always shooting swordsmen.

“There is also a game of fire, wood and water.”
That’s “Battle Beasts”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5O26Dtubh0
Doug Bratton Dec 16th 2009 at 10:15 pm 20

The Bad Seed is correct. It should have been “gave.” When a typo gets through, I find out almost instantly based on the number of email responses I receive from the comic. Everyone loves to correct a typo!

Thanks for reading and posting Pop Culture Shock Therapy. I enjoy the site!
The Bad Seed Dec 17th 2009 at 09:15 am 21

Yeah, I knew I was referring to 2 diffferent movies, but my original draft just seemed too wordy and over-referenced. Sometimes concision is just funnier.
Doug Bratton Dec 17th 2009 at 09:27 am 22

Speaking of concision being funnier–I had another draft of this where Paper was just pointing the gun at Scissors (who was thinking the same thing) with no caption. I went with this version for a variety of reasons–one being that I didn’t know if Paper & Scissors would be instantly associated with the Rock/Paper/Scissors game without a caption.

Any opinions on which version you all would like better?
mitch4 Dec 17th 2009 at 09:57 am 23

Yes, you can treat it as a randomizer game. And (as pointed out in the comments in the related thread a few days ago) the game-theoretic optimal strategy would be to randomize one’s own throws.

BUT there are people who go about it as a game of bluff and aggression. They talk up their attitude as seeing through yur psychological defenses, as though it’s predictable whether you will switch your throw after four rather than five repetitions, etc.,
Julie Dec 17th 2009 at 10:38 am 24

My husband and I use the game as a decider of who gets to change our daughter’s diaper. We usually do best of 3.
Also, I think I would have recognized the game from just paper and scissors.
Elyrest Dec 17th 2009 at 12:02 pm 25

I wouldn’t have recognized the game w/o the caption, but the joke would have still worked. It would have been a slightly different joke as I would have assumed that the piece of paper could now stop the scissors from cutting him. Paper had power. The caption changes the joke. Better? I like it better w/o, but I’m not a big rock/paper/scissors fan so don’t go by me.
John Small Berries Dec 18th 2009 at 10:20 am 26

@Doug: I think it would have worked fine without the caption, personally.

Just out of curiosity… do you think “$#!+” would have make it past the editors as a bowdlerization for the obscenity, or would they bounce it for being too obvious?
Todd Dec 18th 2009 at 04:26 pm 27

I mentioned in the other thread my old siblings would include dynamite, but I think they threw that in just to make up their own rule and beat me no matter what. “Dynamite blows up (whatever I throw).” Then I throw dynamite, and they throw scissors. I finally got smart and stopped playing.
Dan Dec 18th 2009 at 04:54 pm 28

I’m more bothered by that stupid typo. I mean, the “v” and the “m” aren’t even next to each other on the keyboard.
Doug Bratton Dec 18th 2009 at 06:17 pm 29

@ John Small Berries–Pop Culture Shock Therapy is almost exclusively in college papers, so $#!+ would make it through in most of them without a problem. In fact, I could probably use the real word in many, I just don’t. In a mainstream daily, there is no way in the world it would get through, unless an editor just didn’t get it. If you watch Nickelodeon, there are gags that make it onto a TV-7 television show that would not be allowed on the comics page. To me, that is sad, and one of the reasons (ie, ridiculously strict standards of what is considered appropriate) that newspaper comics today often struggle to be consistently funny. Imagine what a comics page would look like if cartoonists were held to the same standards as 8pm prime time television programming! A lot of good gags that stay in the sketch book would find their way into print.

@Dan–yup, it was a stupid typo! I missed it, and my editor missed it. It happens. I recently saw a typo in a collection of comics published by the largest publisher of comic compilations in the world, which means the cartoonist missed it, the syndicate editor missed it, and the book copy editor missed it. But hey, $#!+ happens!
Buzz Killington Dec 23rd 2009 at 01:54 am 30

…and you don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight.