Play

The players sit on chairs in a circle, preferably without a table in the way, and have an object such as an empty plastic drink bottle or even a genuine pair of scissors. In turn, each player passes the object to the player on their left stating whether they are passing the scissors open or passing the scissors closed. As each player does this the others say whether they have got it right — the players who already know the game judge whether the passing was correct or not. The objective of the game is to work out what is going on and consistently find the correct method of passing.

Solution

The most common solution to this game is that scissors are passed closed if your legs (or even ankles) are crossed, or if the passer's hands are closed, and the scissors are passed open if uncrossed or if the passer has their hands open. At the beginning of the game positions and movements should be natural. Towards the end, they will need to be heavily exaggerated.

Other variations

Other variations of this game theme are common, where different objects work as the "scissors" with the same solution, or with slightly different solutions — for example, the legs may need to be uncrossed when not passing, or the pass may need to be done so that the passing arm crosses the body. There may also be a combination of actions, such as needing to pass a pair of scissors blade-first to the next player as well as crossing or uncrossing the legs; the player may realise that one part is necessary but not the other.

In Finland, a similar game is played under the name Näin räätäli sakset antaa ("This Is How The Tailor Hands The Scissors"). As in the version described above, the trick is also to cross your legs or ankles while passing the scissors to the person next to you, but the same phrase, "this is how the tailor hands the scissors", is repeated no matter if the scissors are open or closed. Players who know the trick may fool others with complicated hand gestures and by emphasizing one of the words. The clueless ones will then try to mimic the previous person who had it right. There is a game judge who knows the trick from the start and will watch people when they make the move, telling them "that's right" or "no, that's wrong". The thing is that when time passes, people may incidentally have their legs crossed and eventually most people will figure out that's the trick.

Origin

The origin of the game is unknown, but a similar game was referred to in the Los Angeles Times in 1899:

The version now played was included in a 1905 games book:

See also

• Psychiatrist (game)
  Psychiatrist (game)
  Psychiatrist is a party game in which all but one player takes the role of a patient suffering from the same affliction, and the remaining player is a psychiatrist who must diagnose them with a series of indirect questions....
  
  
• Mao (game)
  Mao (game)
  Mao is a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules...
  
  
• Bugs (game)
• List of games with concealed rules