696: Strip Games

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Strip Games
HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF STRIP GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR?
Title text: HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF STRIP GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR?

Explanation[edit]

The frequency of strip versions of various games is measured by means of Google search results. Strip versions of popular games are a common activity at parties, especially when alcohol is involved. The obligation to remove pieces of clothing is supposed to add an extra zest to the game. A very widespread variant is Strip Poker, followed by strip versions of regular party games like Truth or Dare or Spin the Bottle.

However, the comic also suggests playing other games in a way that involves stripping. In reality, playing such games as "Strip Tennis" or "Strip Agricola" is rather unusual. The Chris Van Allsburg picture book Jumanji and the Robin Williams movie adaptation Jumanji are about a magical board game that manifests dangerous creatures and traps from the jungle and lost civilization therein; a theoretical Strip Jumanji would probably not remain very titillating during the chaos (evidently, therefore, "strip Jumanji" refers to the real-life board game based on the movie).

The last column features games of which strip versions are (according to Google) nonexistent. While the other columns named sports or board games where a strip variant would be at least conceivable, the last one includes the zero-player Game of Life and the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, which is a theoretical example in game theory. It is therefore left to the reader to imagine how a strip version of these pseudo-games would appear.

"Global Thermonuclear War" in the title text is a reference to the film "WarGames", where a young hacker accesses a US military supercomputer and starts a nuclear war simulation, believing it to be only a computer game. The film ends when the computer is shown that nuclear war is "a strange game" in which "the only winning move is not to play". The computer then proposes (on its all-caps screen): "HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?"

Strip global thermonuclear war is a patently absurd idea; while it is a common trope for people to engage in one last moment of intimate pleasure before certain doom, foreplay (including strip games of any type) is a time-consuming practice, and time is something you don't have much of considering that the bomb could drop on your place of residence at any moment. Besides all that, the act of betting on which city is going to go up next in a nuclear inferno tends not to be an effective aphrodisiac for most people.[citation needed] But at least you wouldn't be wearing your radioactive clothes!

Table of games[edit]

Frequency Name Explanation
Frequent
n > 1%
Poker Poker, a card game with rounds of betting, is a game with common "strip" variations, see strip poker.
Spin the bottle Spin the bottle is a party game where players must kiss a randomly selected other player. As this is a semi-sexual party game, strip varieties seem like they could be popular.
Beer pong Beer pong is a drinking game common at universities and colleges.
Never have I ever Never have I ever is a drinking game where players take turns asking other players about things they "have not done".
Truth or Dare Truth or dare? is a party game, in which players are given the choice between answering a question truthfully, or performing a dare.
Rare
1% >= n > 0.01%
Chess Chess is a board game between two players. Theoretically, clothing could be removed whenever a piece is captured.
Blackjack Blackjack is a gambling card game, played between players and a dealer, in which players do not play against each other.
Tennis Tennis is a racket sport played between 2 players (or between teams of 2, in the case of doubles).
Settlers of Catan Settlers of Catan is a strategy board game, where players compete to "settle" an island by harvesting resources.
Pictionary Pictionary is a party board game, involving drawing and guessing words.
Extremely rare
0.01% >= n > 0
Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport, commonly played in the UK, India, and other Commonwealth countries. The laws of cricket (and, given that cricket is an outdoor sport, public obscenity laws) disencourage the players' removal of clothing, though it is far from unknown for spectators to do so.
Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game, released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast.
Stickball Stickball is a game similar to baseball, using a broom handle and a rubber ball.
Agricola Agricola is a farming-inspired strategy board game.
Jumanji Jumanji is a 1995 fantasy film (based on a picture book by Chris Van Allsburg) that centers on a supernatural board game. A board game based on the film was released by Milton Bradley.
Nonexistent
n = 0
Poohsticks A children's sport mentioned in the Winnie-the-Pooh books played by dropping sticks into a river and watching them reappear on the other side of a bridge. Despite the kid-friendly origins, and unlike the other games below it, a "strip" version of Poohsticks is actually viable.
Podracing Podracing appears in the Star Wars films as a racing competition held with hovering vehicles. How a "strip" version would work between two racers is unclear, but a determined set of spectators "wagering" their clothes on the races could probably hammer out a system.
Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma The prisoner's dilemma is a "game" that is analyzed in game theory, showing why rational individuals may not cooperate, even if it is in their best interest to do so. This does not seem like a "playable" game that could involve removing clothing.
Chess by mail Could conceivably work if the players include increasingly-nude photographs of themselves in their correspondences. The problem is, a game by e-mail can take days to finish, and a game by snail-mail can take upwards of several months. The titillation factor is far too spread out to satisfy the desires of anyone who would elect to play a game of strip chess in the first place. It could be an interesting idea for a long-distance relationship, however.
Conway's Game of Life Conway's Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is not a "game" in the traditional sense, so "stripping" would also be very difficult, if not impossible.

Transcript[edit]

Frequency of Strip Versions of Various Games
n = google hits for "strip <game name>" / google hits for "<game name>"
(at the time of this writing)
Frequent
(n > 1%)
-Poker
-Spin the Bottle
-Beer Pong
-Never Have I Ever
-Truth or Dare
Rare
(1% >= n > 0.01%)
-Chess
-Blackjack
-Tennis
-Settlers of Catan
-Pictionary
Extremely Rare
(0.01% >= n > 0)
-Cricket
-Magic: the Gathering
-Stickball
-Agricola
-Jumanji
Nonexistent
(n = 0)
-Poohsticks
-Podracing
-Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
-Chess by Mail
-Conway's Game of Life


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Discussion

Um, Chess by mail:
My next move is Kf8 and this is my picture without pants.
108.162.254.161 08:37, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Strip Conway's Game of Life:
If three spaceships come out of that structure, you get my shirt. 199.27.128.71 03:52, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Rule 34 means progress!

game base strip category
poohsticks 40,500 167 rare
podracing 101,000 87 rare
iterated prisoner's dilemma 67,000 605 rare
chess by mail 11,000 180 frequent
Conway's Game of Life 226,000 113 rare

108.162.254.37 18:01, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

The 1-dimensional celular automata rule 34 141.101.99.117 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

All the "nonexistents" now are frequent except for chess by mail, which is rare. 173.245.50.140 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Did he do this because the comic number started with 69? Reedman72 (talk) 08:01, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Or perhaps even "69" from both sides? --- 29 January 2016 108.162.245.181 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Shall We Play A Strip Game? Joshua 08:11, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Not sure about any of the others but, while cricket may not be easy for players to 'strip' to (more for padding/helmet/box reasons, and maybe the complexities of working out how it works in a team game), streaking in cricket is a thing. (Perhaps it helps that it's typically a warm, dry weather sport, hot sun, plenty of time to drink alcohol in the stands, and then if you find the opportunity to wander near the pitch with the idea of a less-than-fully-clad 'invasion' and there's nobody currently there to stop you, well...) Was going to add something like [https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/20-instances-of-streaker-invasions-in-cricket-part-i-517971 this link to the article, but it's terribly written (and patronisingly so) and in an ad-avalanched page that I don't care to casually encourage anyone to visit. It's there if you want it, but I couldn't put this caveat in the main explanation. Instead I linked to the wikipage of a random example individual I found (who seems not to regret her initial streaking 'fame') as a representative of the genre. 172.70.86.22 12:47, 12 February 2022 (UTC)