Games - Charades

	Games - Charades

::For the 1963 movie starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, see Charade.

Charades or charade is a word guessing game.

In the form most commonly played today, it is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase, often by pantomiming similar-sounding words, and the other players guess the word or phrase. The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to convey the meaning to another party.

Though less commonly heard with this meaning nowadays, the word charade was originally also used to indicate a riddle either in verse or prose, of which the listener must guess the meaning, often given syllable by syllable—see riddle. In France the word charade still refers to this kind of linguistic riddle.

Charades has been made into a television show in the form of the Canadian Acting Crazy
, the British Give Us a Clue, and much more recently the 2005 debut of Celebrity Charades on the AMC television network in America. Give Us a Clue has also been parodied in Sound Charades
, played on the BBC Radio 4 panel game show I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue: while in the original game players were not permitted the use of their mouths, resulting in much hilarity, this version differs in two ways.

Rules of the acted charade

The rules of the acted charades used vary widely and informally, but these rules, in some form, are common to most players:

The players divide into two teams.
Each player writes a phrase on a slip of paper to create the phrases to be guessed by the other team. In some circles, the phrases can be anything, while in others, the phrases must be a person, movie, or book.
One team member is selected to be the pantomime, is provided with a randomly selected word or phrase in secret (usually on a slip of paper drawn from a container), and then has a limited period of time in which to convey this to his teammates.
No sounds or lip movements are allowed. In some circles, even clapping is prohibited, while in others, the player may make any sound other than speaking or whistling a recognisable tune.
Usually, any gesture is allowed other than blatantly spelling out the word, but some play that indicating anything about the form of the phrase is prohibited, even the number of words, so that only the meaning may be acted out.
The teams alternate until each team member has had an opportunity to pantomime.

Since so many rules can vary, clarifying all the rules before the game begins can avoid problems later.

Standard signals

A number of standard signals have come into common usage in charades, though they are not required. To indicate the general category of a word or phrase:

;Person :Stand with hands on hips.

;Book title :Unfold your hands as if they were a book.

;Movie title :Pretend to crank an old-fashioned movie camera.

;Play title :Pretend to pull the rope that opens a theater curtain.

;Song title :Pretend to sing.

;TV show :Draw a rectangle to outline the TV screen.

;Quote or phrase :Make quotation marks in the air with your fingers.

;Location :Make a circle with one hand, then point to it, as if pointing to a dot on a map.

;Event :Point to your wrist as if you were wearing a watch.

;Thing :Make the "crazy" signal, i.e. point to your head and wave your finger in a circle.

To indicate other characteristics of the word or phrase:

;Number of words in the title :Hold up the number of fingers.

;Which word you're working on :Hold up the number of fingers again.

;Number of syllables in the word :Lay the number of fingers on your arm.

;Which syllable you're working on :Lay the number of fingers on your arm again.

;Length of word :Make a "little" or "big" sign as if you were measuring a fish.

;"The entire concept" :Sweep your arms through the air.

;"On the nose" (i.e., someone has made a correct guess) :Point at your nose with one hand, while pointing at the person with your other hand.

;"Sounds like" :Cup one hand behind an ear, or pull on your earlobe.

;"Longer version of" :Pretend to stretch a piece of elastic.

;"Shorter version of" :Do a "karate chop" with your hand.

;"Plural" :Link your little fingers.

;"Proper Name" :Tap the top of your head with an open palm.

;"Past tense" :Wave your hand over your shoulder toward your back.

;A letter of the alphabet :Move your hand in a chopping motion toward your arm (near the top of your forearm if the letter is near the beginning of the alphabet, and near the bottom of your arm if the letter is near the end of the alphabet).

;A color :Point to your tongue, then point to an object of the color you're trying to convey. If no objects are available, then pantomime an object that typically possesses the color in question.

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