History Main / Calvinball

* Many games and sports can seem like this to the newcomer. If you aren't introduced to the rules first, you'll see a bunch of people doing things in a ridiculous specific fashion and avoiding things that appear to be logical, like taking the ball with your hands in basketball, or using the hands in soccer. It's even true if you're familiar with one sport and see another that's kind of similar but not the same (like UsefulNotes/{{baseball}} and UsefulNotes/{{cricket}}).

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', Abed and Anne play "Pile of Bullets", a baffling VCR game that includes multiple tokens, various cards that interact with each other, frequent need to shout "Bang!" at the screen, and impressive amounts of multitasking. There are technically two other players, but they give up on trying to make sense of it almost immediately.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has Blernsball, which is like baseball, but with so many new rules and gimmicks added -- including the ball being attached to a bungee cord, a "multi-ball" mode, and a giant spider that runs the bases -- that hardly anyone can tell what's going on. It's quite obviously a spectator sport, because it at least [[RuleOfCool looks really cool]]. The second time we see it, it's completely different, and [[{{Retcon}} by "A Leela of Her Own"]] it's [[{{Expy}} baseball with a bungee cord.]]

Calvinball is a game which we see characters play but whose rules we don't know. This allows authors to create games that are absurdly silly, complicated, or arcane. Such games typically fall into these categories:

But if the basic rules are described ''to the audience'' in any way, or if the game already exists in RealLife and audiences can look it up, then it's not Calvinball. You may instead be dealing with ThePointsMeanNothing (where the game is explained but the scoring is arbitrary); MovingTheGoalposts (where the game is explained but characters try to change the rules to their own advantage); GretzkyHasTheBall (where the sport is real but the characters play it like Calvinball); ArtisticLicenseSports (where the sport is real but just inaccurately portrayed); ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot (where the fictional game is ''technically'' defined but inconsistently portrayed); or GameplayRoulette (where the rules are defined, but the game itself unpredictably changes them on the players).

When a sport doesn't exist in real life, but has defined rules that can be followed, it's a FictionalSport.

* SteveJacksonGames' ''[[http://www.sjgames.com/knightmare/ Knightmare Chess]]'' uses a deck of cards, from which each player draws with every move, to turn chess into Calvinchess. Typical card effects including blowing up pieces and rotating the board ninety degrees.

* The rules of the card game ''TabletopGame/{{Fluxx}}'' start simple, but the players can play (and sometimes can't avoid playing) cards that change them frequently. This means that players can never be sure that a winning hand this turn will be one next turn. And there is no win condition until somebody plays a card that defines one, which can be overwritten by a new one. ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia'' creator Jordan Mechner explicitly called it a Calvinball card game on an episode of ''WebOriginal/{{Tabletop}}''.

* The rules of the card game ''TabletopGame/{{Fluxx}}'' start simple, but they players can play (and sometimes can't avoid playing) cards that change them frequently. This means that players can never be sure that a winning hand this turn will be one next turn. And there is no win condition until somebody plays a card that defines one, which can be overwritten by a new one. ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia'' creator Jordan Mechner explicitly called it a Calvinball card game on an episode of ''WebOriginal/{{Tabletop}}''.

* At the start of the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick are playing a game that involves bubble-blowing, moving pieces on a chess board with your breath, carrying rocks around, climbing a tree, and other craziness. At one point, Patrick triumphantly shouts "I lose!", until [=SpongeBob=] reminds him, "But it's not Tuesday, Patrick."[[labelnote:*]]It could be a reference to one of the few known rules of [[Franchise/StarTrek Fizzbin]].[[/labelnote]] When an annoyed Squidward asks them what they're doing, they sheepishly admit, "We don't know."

-->'''Squidward''': Could someone please tell me what we are supposed to be doing? What's the point? This entire game is completely random! It jumps from one thing to another, I don't know how you're supposed to win, and [[LampshadeHanging Patrick seems to be making up the rules as he goes along!]]

* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Lumberjanes}} Lumberjanes Issue #49]]'', Molly, Barney, Hes, Diane and Jo are invited to play a game of Emily's making called Penterra, a "multi-tiered, world-building and conquest strategy game". It's ''definitely'' the complicated rules variation (it took twenty five minutes to explain), and it can only be described as Settlers Of Catan taken UpToEleven....thousand, out of a possible three. And it is '''awesome'''.

%%* WebVideo/ShinyObjectsVideos: "On The Couch" features a board game version.

'''Duey''': It was?!

* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' (and its radio predecessor) has the game show ''Numberwang'', "the maths quiz that simply everyone is talking about!" It's portrayed as being so ubiquitous that its rules no longer need explaining, and seems to involve the players just calling out random numbers until the host declares "That's Numberwang!" The only discernible patterns are that every round (including the final round, "Wangernumb") involves variations on the exact same gameplay, rounds involving [[EleventyZillion imaginary or non-numbers]] have rejected "Shinty-Six" and "Brazil" because they are supposedly numbers, Julie (played by Olivia Colman) nearly always loses and suffers some sort of humiliation, and the SuddenDeath round is literal. What constitutes a "Numberwang" is never fully elaborated: the official HomeGame includes 200-sided dice and a 37-volume rulebook (each about the size of a dictionary), and a documentary about the history of ''Numberwang'' suggests that even the hosts cannot determine Numberwang without the help of Colosson, a supercomputer which has extreme views as to what should be done to things that aren't Numberwang.

* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' (and its radio predecessor) has the game show ''Numberwang'', "the maths quiz that simply everyone is talking about!" It's portrayed as being so ubiquitous that its rules no longer need explaining, but seems to involve the players just yelling out random numbers until the host declares "That's Numberwang!" The only discernible patterns are that every round (including the final round, "Wangernumb") involves variations on the exact same gameplay, rounds involving [[EleventyZillion imaginary or non-numbers]] have rejected "Shinty-Six" and "Brazil" because they are supposedly numbers, and Julie (played by Olivia Colman) nearly always loses and suffers some sort of humiliation. What constitutes a "Numberwang" is never fully elaborated: the official HomeGame includes 200-sided dice and a 37-volume rulebook (each about the size of a dictionary), and a documentary about the history of ''Numberwang'' suggests that even the hosts cannot determine Numberwang without the help of Colosson, a supercomputer which has extreme views as to what should be done to things that aren't Numberwang.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has a number of strange alien games, such as Dom-Jot, Dabo, and Tongo; a full list can be found [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Category:Recreation here]]. These, at least, are codified InUniverse, as opposed to "Fizzbin", which Kirk invented to [[WeNeedADistraction distract the guards]] and allow the crew to escape capture; it's basically poker with whichever rules Kirk feels like adding. Strangely, though, it may have picked up a codified ruleset, as Quark is shown playing a hand in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. The DS9 episode "Move Along Home" has Quark forced to play a weird and unnamed board game, with members of the station's senior staff as unwitting pawns, and progress through the game dictated seemingly at random.

** Carl teaches several Meatwads how to play Texas Hold'em Poker... with flash cards. One of Carl's winning hands is a full house AND a pair.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'', during the episode, "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!", Launchpad and Steelbeak play a game of Baccarat. But since they obviously have no idea just how the game is played, [[GretzkyHasTheBall they pretty much make it up as they go along]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'', Launchpad and Steelbeak play a game of Baccarat. But since they obviously have no idea just how the game is played, [[GretzkyHasTheBall they pretty much make it up as they go along]].

** ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' introduces two: "Crockett", a cross between cricket and croquet which takes all day to explain the rules; and "Pork Saddle", a combination of spillikins, halma, and brandy -- its rules are entirely forgotten, and there is some doubt that there ever really were any.

** Similarly done on the album ''Monty Python's Previous Record'' on the cut "Radio Quiz Game." (The show was called "What Do You [[''sound of cuckoo clock'']]?" with rules so lengthy and complex that there was no time for the contest.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has a number of strange alien games, such as Dom-Jot, Dabo, and Tongo; a full list can be found [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Category:Recreation here]]. These, at least, are codified InUniverse, as opposed to "Fizzbin", which Kirk invented to [[WeNeedADistraction distract the guards]] and allow the crew to escape capture; it's basically poker with whichever rules Kirk feels like adding. Strangely, though, it may have picked up a codified ruleset, as Quark is shown playing a hand in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' fits the bill, depending on how you see it. Only the GM is allowed to see any of the rules beyond the setting description and character creation guide; for the most part, they can make up whatever rules they want beyond that if it keeps the game interesting. In keeping with the spirit of the game, questioning the rules will result in painful death for the players.