History Main / Calvinball

* In [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4502785/6/Scordatura chapter 6]] of ''Scordatura,'' an ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' fanfic by Davner, Urd is forced into an actual game of Calvinball against her sister Skuld in a sequence that parodies the Thunderdome sequence of ''MadMax: Beyond Thunderdome''.

** Series two offers the home version, which comes with the rulebook in twenty volumes; it also has a history sketch which shows a 1930's episode where "the boffins" take several hours to work out whether the first move was Numberwang or not (among other segments), and even an episode of the show in Germany (With a reference to the movie ''TheGreatEscape''). There is one discernible rule: Julie (portrayed by Olivia Colman) always loses (and suffers some humiliation such as being whacked by a frying pan repeatedly) while Simon (portrayed by Paterson Joseph) always wins (Except for the one episode where the game went to SuddenDeath)
** There's the SpinOff series Wordwang which is the same show but with one difference, and that's words!

* In ''Film/PlayMistyForMe'' ClintEastwood's character plays a game of "Crybastion" with his barkeeper to get a woman to strike up a conversation with them.

* Mao is a simple card game where the only rule the players are told is that they cannot be told the rules. While this in itself does not make it Calvinball a popular version states that whoever wins the game makes up another rule. The game can very quickly get incredibly odd.

* ''EvenStevens'': In one episode Louis and Twitty play a game called "Sweaty Sock Ball" which the rules seem to change at will and depending what day it is and if you do a certain thing; very similar to the rule changes in the Trope Namer.

* In ''FantasticMrFox'', the animal school's official sport is Whackbat, an incomprehensible game similar to baseball and cricket played with a flaming pinecone. A sequence of the game in play features animals hitting the pinecone, running around in random directions and spinning in place.

Compare NoodleIncident (in fact, NoodleImplements are often a staple of this trope), SparseListOfRules, and TakeOurWordForIt.

Also, the trope does not include games to which every single rule has not been given. If the basic structure of the game is laid out it is not an example of Calvin Ball. After all these are fictional games which appear in some kind of narrative, and we should not expect a full manual of rules to interrupt the flow of the story. If it's merely the ''points'' system that's arbitrary, it's ThePointsMeanNothing. When one player changes the rules of a game with clearly established rules to their own advantage, it's MovingtheGoalposts.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV1bpMamCtY This game of chess.]]

* In ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'', this is what Australian Rules Football boiled down to. Of course, the fact that ARF is a real game with a well-defined set of rules is irrelevant, it was just a catch-all term for whatever wacky sports game they were playing on the satellite.

** Ricky and Fred to a similar thing to Lucy with a fictitious version of golf on one episode of ILoveLucy. I dare not reveal what comes of it.

* In MysteryScienceTheater3000, this is what Australian Rules Football boiled down to. Of course, the fact that ARF is a real game with a well-defined set of rules is irrelevant, it was just a catch-all term for whatever wacky sports game they were playing on the satellite.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'':

** Chess as Calvinball? A good demonstration parodied in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xdocUKqRwUY How Chess Was Meant To Be Played.]]

* The trope's first reported instance was in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' back in the 60s, when they invented a college game called [[http://www.madcoversite.com/quiz_olympics.html 43-man Squamish]]. Details are sketchy, but when official gear includes a shepherd's crook and flippers, odds are the game wasn't meant to be played anyway. Still, apparently some actual teams were formed for a bit. An excerpt from the rules:

Also, the trope does not include games to which every single rule has not been given. If the basic structure of the game is laid out it is not an example of Calvin Ball. After all these are fictional games which appear in some kind of narrative, and we should not expect a full manual of rules to interrupt the flow of the story. If it's merely the ''points'' system that's arbitrary, it's ThePointsMeanNothing.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdocUKqRwUY&feature=youtu.be This game of chess.]]

* In ''Bedknobs and Broomsticks'' (well, it's part-animated!) the animals (all animated) playing football. It's basically implied the king makes up the rules as he goes along. HilarityEnsues.

* The StarWarsExpandedUniverse features the card game known as sabacc. Its something like a bizarre fusion of poker and blackjack.. except the cards ''change into random other cards at random times''.

** Series two offers the home version, which comes with the rulebook in twenty volumes; it also has a history sketch which shows a 1930's episode where "the boffins" take several hours to work out whether the first move was Numberwang or not (among other segments), and even a German Version of the show (With a reference to the movie ''TheGreatEscape''). There is one discernible rule: Julie (portrayed by Olivia Colman) always loses (and suffers some humiliation such as being whacked by a frying pan repeatedly) while Simon (portrayed by Paterson Joseph) always wins (Except for the one episode where the game went to SuddenDeath)

** Even though in one of the games you have to ''play'' it.

** "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."
*** "Hotbox!"

* The most important rule of the card game {{Mao}} is that you can't tell anyone else the rules. The point of the game is to guess them. New players are introduced to the game with the phrase, "The only rule I can tell you is this one." You are penalized for every infraction of the rules.
** One popular rule is that the winner can also add one more rule to the next game.
*** I thought that WAS the whole point of Mao...
*** Some players attempt to keep these new rules through every new session of the game, forever. This can lead to players being confused about whether a 6 of diamonds means they should play a heart, skip their turn, or say the name of a MotleyCrue song. Or whatever. Or all of the above.
*** The best part is that when playing with someone who's using a different set of rules than the [[DungeonMaster Mao Master]], they tend to claim that they learned Mao in a different region, and thus the rules are different by way of excuse. Bonus points if the "foreign" player tries to force their rules on the Mao Master. This usually doesn't end well at all for anyone involved.
** There are three main types of Mao. There's bureaucratic Mao, where discussion about the rules is allowed when not playing the game, but the rules are numerous and hard to keep track of all of them. There's fraternal Mao, which is what was described above. And there is dictatorial Mao, where a single player has full control over all rules and enforcement, but generally does not play to win, changing the rules at his whim.

* ''{{Film/Baseketball}}'' arguably started this way - the protagonists invented rules on the fly to make it impossible to win for their competitors (obfuscating this through various "are you stupid? How could you not now this? Obviously it's ..."). Eventually however, rules are set and there are even national games.

** This is arguably well-defined enough not to count. But it's still ''really weird''.
* Arguably, any game show created by Jay Wolpert, especially ''{{Whew}}''. Just [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135115/plotsummary look at the rules]].

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' featured Cups, a card game invented by Chandler to transfer money to Joey without him recognising it as charity. BeginnersLuck is a vitally important feature.
** And later the quiz show ''Bamboozle!'' which involves "Wicked Wango Cards" and "The Wheel Of Mayhem".
*** This actually becomes a plot point in-show, as the [[ExecutiveMeddling studio execs]] want to change it to a more conventional quiz show because it's too complicated for the audience to follow.

** Also Phoebe Ball, which Phoebe makes up and names on a whim, and which appears to consist of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Phoebe]] asking questions and arbitrarily awarding points for the answer closest to the description she was thinking of. This being Phoebe, the others gets frustrated after one round.

** Series two offers the home version, which comes with the rulebook in twenty volumes; it also has a history sketch which shows a 1930's episode where "the boffins" take several hours to work out whether the first move was Numberwang or not (among other segments), and even a German Version of the show (With a reference to the movie ''TheGreatEscape'').
*** Of course there's also the SpinOff series Wordwang which is the same show but with one difference, and that's words!
** Actually, there is one discernible rule: Julie (portrayed by Olivia Colman) always loses (and suffers some humiliation such as being whacked by a frying pan repeatedly) while Simon (portrayed by Paterson Joseph) always wins (Except for the one episode where the game went to SuddenDeath).
* ''Series/{{Mash}}'' had Double Cranko, played with a poker deck, a chess board, checkers, dice, and [[ThereAreNoRules no rules whatsoever.]] When Colonel Potter finally turns the tables on Hawkeye in it, Hawkeye proceeds to invent ''Triple'' Cranko.

** An earlier episode had Hawkeye and Trapper playing a similar venue, but as a DrinkingGame.

* Okay, so technically, Counterfactuals from ''BigBangTheory'' isn't a Calvinball game, since it has specific rules and cards, but "freestyling" it in RL probably would do. The game involves extrapolating an Alternate Universe from a certain concept and answering a bizarre question about it. For example, in the show, a question was, "InAWorld where mankind is ruled by beaver overlords, what food does not exist?" The answer? [[spoiler:Cheese Danishes]]. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext Watch the episode to learn why.]]) In the show, the answers are rigid (as befitting Sheldon's personality), but if you "freestyled" it, making up the questions, then the answers could be literally anything, as long as it could be explained.
** In another episode, Sheldon figured out how a three-player chess game would work (by attaching three chessboard halves to a triangular center field), and in the process invented two new pieces, the Serpent and the Old Woman (the latter of which could become the equivalent of a GodModeSue in the right circumstances). Later he considered adding [[RuleOfFunny Prince Joey, the King's well-meaning but klutzy brother]], who apparently had a one-in-five chance of killing himself every time he moved...
*** ...and by the end of the episode, there are many more pieces, including the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin catapult, the transporter pad]], the golf cart (which also, presumably, has a MeaningfulName), a [[TimeTravel Time Machine]], the beekeeper, the jetpack... ''and those are just the pieces we either know or can guess how they work''. The [[NoodleImplements gorilla and pope]] pieces are also mentioned, but good luck guessing how they work.
*** Sheldon could have saved himself the effort, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-way_chess three-way chess]] [[AluminumChristmasTrees has actually been around in one form or another]] [[OlderThanTheyThink since 1722]]. Of course, this being Sheldon, he probably wants [[NoTrueScotsman to ensure that he'll always win]].

* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Bushwhacked" opens with a spirited game of Calvinball in the cargo bay.
-->'''Simon:''' They don't seem to be playing according to any civilized rules that I know.
-->'''Inara:''' Well, we're pretty far from civilization.
** For the interested, about the only discernible rules were that there are some form of teams and it at most resembles a variant of half-court basketball where the court is circular and the hoop is in the center.
** Also a semi-example is found in "Shindig," where they're playing 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 they'd know what they were doing, but since we never find out what the rules are it comes off as Calvinball.

* The ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode "Atlantic City" features an unfathomable casino game called "Xing hai shi Bu Xing", which features cards, poker chips, Mahjong-like tiles, changing seats with other contestants, a wheel of fortune, and a jellybean. Marshall is the only one who could figure out the rules just by watching the game while everybody else stands there befuddled ''and'' he's even able to give Barney game-winning advice. This is hardly a surprise, considering:

** Also Marsh-Gammon, involving a Candy Land board, poker chips, playing cards, a buzzer, handwritten "Autobiography cards", a Twister spinner and some dice. This was featured in "Game Night", which reveals that Marshall is very good at games.
*** BilingualBonus for "Xing Hai Shi Bu Xing": The title of the game translates from Mandarin as "Series/DealOrNoDeal"
** On top of the ridiculous rules, the only player who spoke English was Barney, yet Marshall still somehow worked out the rules in time to form his awesome move.