Parlour game

A parlour or parlor game is a group game played indoors. They were often played in a parlour. These games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes in Great Britain and in the United States during the Victorian era.

A game of "Questions and Commands" depicted by James Gillray, 1788

The Victorian age is sometimes considered the "Golden Age" of the parlour game.[1] During the 19th century, the upper and middle classes had more leisure time than people of previous generations. This led to the creation of a variety of parlour games to allow these gentlemen and ladies to amuse themselves at small parties. Boxed parlour games were very popular from around 1920 until into the 1960s, especially around Christmas. Parlour games competed for attention with the mass media, particularly radio, movies, and television. Though decreased in popularity, parlour games continue to be played. Some remain nearly identical to their Victorian ancestors; others have been transformed into board games such as Balderdash.

Many parlour games involve logic or word-play. Others are more physical games, but not to the extent of a sport or exercise. Some also involve dramatic skill, such as in charades. Most do not require any equipment beyond what would be available in a typical parlour. Parlour games are usually competitive, but cumulative scores are not usually kept. The length and ending time of the game is typically not set; play continues until the players decide to end the game.

Parlour games are also interchangeably used with carnival games such as, but not limited to, "ping pong toss", "dart throwing", "strong man", and "dunk water". These can be played either indoors or outdoors and is usually accompanied with a token prize (i.e. stuffed animal) upon winning.

Examples
A Christmas 1867 advertisement for a parlor game called "Oliver Twist," issued by Adams & Co. of Boston and based on the story by Charles Dickens.
An American newspaper advertisement for a parlor game, circa 1900.

Examples of parlour games include:

As a metaphor

By analogy, the phrase "parlour game" has been used to accuse political opponents of using deliberately nebulous or confusing language when describing their positions on issues.

gollark: I mean, not releasing your software is... your choice, it's your stuff, I might not really like it but I don't consider it particularly bees.
gollark: !quote 723983650043199568
gollark: If you have useful, popular tools you can probably get PRs for them, and it saves people working in the same field from just implementing their own versions.
gollark: Or, well, failing to improve its security and deliberately exploiting that?
gollark: You're making software less secure for everyone else.

See also

References
  1. Beaver, Patrick (1978). Victorian Parlor Games, p.14. T. Nelson. ISBN 9780840766083.
  2. Jones, Myfanwy (2010). Parlour Games for Modern Families, unpaginated. Penguin UK. ISBN 9780141963020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.