Some games manage to slip into the cultural bloodstream. Twister, with its bright polka-dotted mat and rules that require contortionist manoeuvres, is one such game. What began as a quirky marketing idea in the 1960s quickly spun into a phenomenon that continues to be referenced, parodied and played more than half a century later.
The story begins in 1964 when Reynolds “Reyn” Guyer, a toy designer in Minnesota, was experimenting with ideas for a promotional product involving coloured spots on a mat. His team at Reynolds Guyer Creative House, including Charles Foley and Neil Rabens, developed the concept into a game called “Pretzel”. Players would place hands and feet on different coloured circles according to the spin of a dial. It was a novel invention in one crucial way: it used people’s bodies as the playing pieces. Milton Bradley, one of the biggest game manufacturers of the time, bought the idea and rebranded it as Twister.
At first the game nearly collapsed under controversy. Retailers balked at its suggestion of physical intimacy – men and women tangled together on the floor in ways that might have seemed risqué in mid-1960s America. Critics derided it as “sex in a box”. But then came 3 May 1966. That night, Johnny Carson invited Eva Gabor, the glamorous star of Green Acres, onto The Tonight Show. The two played Twister live on television, laughing, tumbling and, in effect, nationally endorsing the game’s playful physicality. Sales skyrocketed overnight. In its first year, more than three million copies of Twister were sold.
From there, the game became embedded in the popular culture. It was marketed as both wholesome family fun and a cheeky party icebreaker. College students played it at dorm gatherings, children sprawled across living room floors, and adults found it a humorous way to blur the lines between play and flirtation. The simple mechanics meant anyone could join in, regardless of age or skill.
It shows up in sitcoms, movies and advertising as shorthand for youthful fun or physical comedy. From episodes of Friends to product tie-ins with brands like Coca-Cola, Twister has remained a visual and cultural touchstone. It has even inspired fitness adaptations, oversized outdoor versions and competitive tournaments.
The Guinness World Record [RR3:35] for the most participants in a single game of Twister is 4,160 people, who played at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on 2 May 1987. The largest Twister mat measured 2521.01 m² (27135.98 ft²) and was achieved by Thomas Rhett and Big Machine Label Group (USA) at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on 23 September 2015. The Twister “board” was made up of 1,200 Twister mats put together.
Today, almost 60 years on, Twister is recognised not only as a game but also as a cultural artifact of the 1960s. It blurred boundaries between play and intimacy, between wholesome and provocative – and in doing so, it helped redefine what a game could be.
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game)
wikihow.com/Play-Twister
Images
1. Patent: "Aparatus for playing a game wherein the players constitute the game pieces" and classic Twister game
2. Twister patent
3. Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor play Twister on The Tonight Show, 3 May 1966
4. Video: Original 1966 Twister Game Commercial
5. wikiHow to play Twister
6. Twister on Friends, season 1, episode 4, 13 October 1994
7. 4,160 people play Twister at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on 2 May 1987
8. The largest ever Twister mat at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on 23 September 2015
9. Inflatable Twister. Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer
10. Video: "Twister' at 50: The Classic American Game Celebrates Five Decades" NBC Nightly News, 2016
