The American writer Norman Mailer was said to be passionate about thumb wrestling. Reportedly, it was his favourite “sport”.
As you are likely aware, the objective of a “thumb war” is to "pin" the opponent's thumb, sometimes to a count of three. In 2003, San Francisco Chronicle book editor Oscar Villalon (himself somewhat of a thumb wrestling champion), in his article "1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war", referred to the game as "the miniature golf of martial sports”.
No one is exactly sure who invented thumb wrestling. According to Wikipedia, Julian Koenig — the advertising copywriter who helped coin the slogan “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” for Timex — claimed to have invented the game in 1936 while at summer camp. Meanwhile, author and humorist Paul Davidson claims that his grandfather Bernard Davidson invented the thumb war in the 1940s.
A thumb wrestle is typically initiated with both the players uttering the rhyme "One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war", passing their thumbs over each other in time with this rhyme. In South America, the starting song is "ésta es la pulseada china", as in France, "un, deux, trois, bras de fer chinois" ("this is the Chinese arm wrestling") … with the same thumb dance as in English.
In New Zealand, the rhyme goes, "Pea-knuckle, pea-knuckle, one, two, three. I declare a war on thee” … or less formally “One, two, three, four I declare a pea-knuckle war; four, three, two, one the pea-knuckle war has just begun”. [Ed: Kiwis love to be different.]
There are official World Thumb Wrestling Championships that have taken place in Norwich, UK which has been contested by thumb wrestlers from across the globe annually since 2016. Previous winners have come from United States, Ireland, Poland and the United Kingdom. The World Thumb Wrestling Championships superseded the British Thumb Wrestling Championships which was first held in Lowestoft, Suffolk in 2010.
Want your thumb wrestling game to feel a bit more official? Well, then you’ll need a professional thumb wrestling ring. These colourful gadgets feature a platform with two holes, and ropes of course, for serious thumb wrestlers to use as they duel.
In 2004 Austrian artist collective Monochrom pioneered what they call “massively multiplayer thumb wrestling”. On their website, they share the basics for how to create a game between three or four players, hooking hands in a star formation. They also created several architectures for assembling an even bigger game — from the “Big Gang”, where a dozen people form a circle and lock hands in the center, to the “Chain”, where traditional two-player games are interlocked, to the “Down Under”, where players bend over and play between their legs.
In 2013, inspired by Monochrom’s work, game designer and TED speaker Jane McGonigal managed to get an entire room of TEDsters to stand up and connect with one another for one big thumb wrestle. Watch that talk HERE.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
____________________________
References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_war
sfgate.com/entertainment/article/1-2-3-4-i-declare-a-thumb-war
wikihow.com/Dominate-at-Thumb-Wars
monochrom.at/daumen/netzwerk-eng
blog.ted.com/titans_of_thumb_wrestling
Images
1. Thumb wrestle. Credit: kieferpix / iStock by Getty Images.
2 & 3. Thumb wrestling. Credit wikiHow.
4. US Marine Corps Cpl Abraham Porath thumb wrestles with an Afghan boy, 2013
5. Thumb wrestling ring
6. Lucha libre thumb mask
7. Video: "Massively multi-player… thumb-wrestling?" Jane McGonigal at TEDGlobal 2013
