No. 77 Laughter Games
There is a whole class of games of which the object is to excite to laughter by means of some ridiculous action.
Such games are sometimes played with a lighted candle. The players approach each other from opposite sides of the room, and sustain a dialogue in solemn tones, while they must keep a grave countenance on penalty of paying forfeit. For example:
“The king of Turkey is dead.” “What did he die of?” “Doing so” (some ridiculous gesture).
A more characteristic version (in Nantucket, Mass.) had it: “The royal Russian princess, Husty Fusty, is defunct.” To which it was necessary to answer soberly—“I’m very sorry to hear it; even the cats bewail her loss.”
A game which was formerly popular with children in Massachusetts was to lean a staff in the corner, while a player was seated in the centre of the ring. Another child now entered, took up the staff, approached and addressed the one sitting, and a rhymed dialogue ensued:
“My father sent me here with a staff,
To speak to you, and not to laugh.”
“Methinks you smile.” “Methinks I don’t.
I smooth my face with ease and grace,
And set my staff in its proper place.”
If the staff-bearer laughed, he or she must take the chair; otherwise the next player continued the game.
A third amusement is for girls to excite one another to laugh by gently pinching in succession the ears, nose, lips, etc., while making use of some ridiculous expression.
This usage is alluded to more than three centuries ago by Rabelais.
In a Swiss game, this performance is complicated by a jest. Each child pinches his neighbor’s ear; but by agreement the players blacken their fingers, keeping two of the party in ignorance. Each of the two victims imagines it to be the other who is the object of the uproarious mirth of the company.