History Main / Calvinball

* ''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 two contestants calling out random numbers until the host declares "That's Numberwang!", and they score somehow. The only discernible patterns are that Julie (played by Olivia Colman) nearly always loses and suffers some sort of humiliation, and that [[EleventyZillion "Shinty-Six" and "Brazil"]] are supposedly numbers. In addition, the SuddenDeath round is [[ExactWords literal]]. What constitutes a "Numberwang" is never fully elaborated: the official HomeGame includes two 400-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.

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Calvin from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', who has no patience for games with rules, as described in the page quote.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyMakeYourMark'' episode "The Jinxie Games" focuses on Bridlewood Forest Critter Field Day, in which pony/critter teams compete in a variety of bizarre events whose rules are never explained. Ponies can win events they're not even participating in, and a tree even wins a trophy at one point.

* ''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 two contestants calling out random numbers until the host declares "That's Numberwang!", and they score somehow. The only discernible patterns are that Julie (played by Olivia Colman) nearly always loses and suffers some sort of humiliation, and that [[EleventyZillion "Shinty-Six" and "Brazil"]] are supposedly numbers. In addition, the SuddenDeath round is [[ExactWords 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.

** Dom-Jot appears to be a cross between billiards and pinball, shooting a ball around an obstacle course with a spring-loaded cue.
** Dabo is essentially space roulette.
** Tongo

->''"Other kids' games are such a bore!\\
They gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!\\
Calvinball is better by far!\\
It's never the same! It's always bizarre!\\
You never need a team or a referee!\\
You know that it's great, 'cause it's named after me!"''
-->-- '''''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'''''

%%* ''Website/CollegeHumor'' has "Ooper Putz".

* Izaya from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' plays a game involving a TabletopGame/{{Go}} board, chess pieces, Shogi pieces, playing cards, and matches (and eventually gasoline). Apparently it corresponds in some way with the [[TheChessmaster games he plays with the citizens of Ikebukuro]]. Other than that, only he knows. His hired secretary can't even fathom how it works.

** In "Shindig", the crew plays a card game that uses round cards with pictures of fruit on them. "Tall card... plum. Plums are tall." In fact, the actors demanded that the writer make up a full set of actual rules for the game so that they'd know what they were doing, but since we never find out what the rules are, it comes off as Calvinball.

* The audio commentaries of Peter Jackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies include a couple of stories about "Tig". It started with a few of the cast members simply poking each other and saying various nonsense words, but Creator/ElijahWood thought they were playing an actual game. They proceeded to make up rules as they went along just to mess with him. It was over a year before he realized that it wasn't a real thing.

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', Abed and Annie 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.

* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Urban Ed" opens with the Eds getting Johnny to play a game consisting of seemingly random stunts (like shooting peas through a straw to pop balloons, or throwing marshmallows into a tuba bell). When the last step turns out to be "put a quarter in the jar", Johnny sees through their BavarianFireDrill and walks off, saying "Nice try, Eddy."

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

* Whenever Website/FourChan's /tg/ tries to play a game (usually Connect Four, chess, or tic-tac-toe), it inevitably turns into this. Usually, the first few moves are okay. Then someone calls in reinforcements. Then someone else deepstrikes a team of [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Space Marines]]. Then someone else [[NukeEm nukes the gameboard]]. Then someone else breaks out the trading cards. A [[http://i.imgur.com/zT8gcLm.png picture]] near the end of one thread shows just how insane they can get. [[note]]E2-E4, F7-F5, E4-F5, black King turns out to be three white Kings, [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Stalfos]] appears on the board, [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask the Moon]] threatens to crush the board, the game switches into the third dimension, red Connect Four piece gets placed, game divides into two alternate timelines with one involving a star wizard battling a DMPC [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons kobold]] with hypercubes and the other involving [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Vorse Raider]] battling a defense-position rook with the ability to make forcefields.[[/note]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

--> "Basically, there's three grabbers, three taggers, five twig runners, and a player at Whackbat. Center tagger lights a pine cone and chucks it over the basket, and the whack-batter tries to hit the cedar stick off the cross rock. Then the twig runners dash back and forth until the pine cone burns out and the umpire calls hotbox. Finally, you count up however many score-downs it adds up to and divide that by nine."

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', in the Upper River, you can join the card game that the superstitious Evenlode constabulary play. Your character observes its nebulous rules and numerous odd little rituals and is mystified by them. The varying success text mentions players can cash out and bring in substitutes at any time, the rules sometimes change to Whist and sometimes to poker, card passing behavior changes at specific times and for specific lengths of time, and there's a point during your game where the dealer accidentally destroys a pair of sevens and replaces them with an eight an a six, and no one even raises an eyebrow. You don't win anything playing with the constables; rather, you pick up on secrets.

* ''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 two contestants calling out random numbers until the host declares "That's Numberwang!", and they score somehow. The only discernible patterns are that Julie (played by Olivia Colman) nearly always loses and suffers some sort of humiliation, and rounds involving [[EleventyZillion imaginary or non-numbers]] have rejected "Shinty-Six" and "Brazil" because they are supposedly numbers. In addition, the SuddenDeath round is [[ExactWords 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.

* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', the pilots are often seen playing a card game known on the original show as "Pyramid", referred to on the reboot as "Triad". The cards are six-sided with a variety of symbols and colors to designate suit and rank. The rules are not shown consistently and the actors more or less improvised them; fans have tried to put together a consistent ruleset, but it's been tough going.

* British radio show ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' gives us [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) Mornington Crescent]], a game centered around UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground; supposedly, you move around between stations, and the first to reach Mornington Crescent wins. The problem is that the rules are far from intuitive, it has many [[{{Metagame}} arcane stratagems]] and [[HouseRules many more variants]], and in fact much of what takes place consists of wordplay between the participants, or satirical ShoutOuts to OTHER game shows such as ''Radio/JustAMinute''
** it is in some respects, a ShoutOut to a Game Theory problem called Finchley Central (also involving following a route to a tube station) which DOES have the purpose of analysing how to manipulate other players into creating the opportunity to win.

%%* [[http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/skrnsson-takes-gold-in-uphill-nordic-skjord-2-20180210144051 This]] article from ''WebOriginal/TheDailyMash''. All of it.

** Sheldon invented a bizarre chess variant by trying to invent a three-way chess game[[note]][[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-way_chess which has been around]] in some form or another [[AluminumChristmasTrees since 1722]].[[/note]] and ending up inventing a number of new pieces with interesting effects (such as Prince Joey, the King's well-meaning but [[TheKlutz klutzy]] brother, who has a one-in-five chance of accidentally killing himself every time he moves). The end result includes a catapult, transporter pad, golf cart, and [[TimeTravel time machine]]. Sheldon being Sheldon, he may just have been trying to invent something so complex only he would understand it (and win at it).