buck buck
{{short description|Outdoor children's game}}
Buck buck (also known as Johnny-on-a-Pony, or Johnny-on-the-Pony) is a children's game with several variants.{{cite web | url=http://dare.wisc.edu/?q=node/70 |title=buck buck | work=Dictionary of American Regional English |accessdate=20 January 2010}}{{Failed verification|date=February 2021}} One version of the game is played when "one player hops onto another's back" and the climber guesses "the number of certain objects out of sight". Another version of the game is played with "one group of players [jumping] onto the backs of a second group in order to build as large a pile as possible or to cause the supporting players to collapse."
File:BRU - CHD 37.jpg by Pieter Bruegel the Elder shows five boys playing buck buck]]
As early as the 16th century, children in Europe and the Near East played Buck, Buck, which had been called "Bucca Bucca quot sunt hic?{{-"}}{{cite book|pages=221–222|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ealms5PGJj0C&pg=PT221 | chapter=Johnny Ride a Pony|title=The Big Book of Rules: Board Games, Kids' Games, Card Games, from Backgammon and Bocce to Tiddlywinks and Stickball|author=Spadaccini, Stephanie|author2=John Farnsworth|name-list-style=amp|year=2005|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-452-28644-3}}{{cite journal|last=Hindman|first=Sandra|title=Pieter Bruegel's Children's Games, Folly, and Chance |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00043079.1981.10787905 |journal=The Art Bulletin|date=September 1981|volume=LXIII|issue=3|pages=470–471 |doi=10.1080/00043079.1981.10787905}} Pieter Bruegel's painting Children's Games (1560) depicts children playing a variant of the game.{{cite web | url=http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Brueghel/pony.html | title=Game: Johnny On A Pony (Detail from Brueghel's Painting) | publisher=University of Waterloo | department=Elliot Avedon Virtual Museum of Games | date=February 9, 2010 | accessdate=2011-11-15 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120730185418/http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Brueghel/pony.html | archive-date=July 30, 2012 | url-status=dead }}{{cite book| title=Games and Great Ideas: A Guide for Elementary School Physical Educators and Classroom Teachers |author=Clements, Rhonda L. |page=10 |isbn=978-0-313-29460-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYi0CfWmzpUC&pg=PA10 |year=1995| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group}} Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie claim that the game goes back to the time of Nero in the first century.{{fact|date=November 2024|reason=Actually we do have a (claimed) reference in the article Childlore, but we do not have access atm to the book. It is "Opie, Iona Archibald, and Peter Opie. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Trans. Peter Opie. Oxford Paperbacks. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987." Page not given."}}
Other national names and variants
In the United Kingdom, the game is sometimes called High Cockalorum, but has a large number of different names in various local dialects. These include: "Polly on the Mopstick" in Birmingham, "Strong Horses, Weak Donkeys" in Monmouthshire, "Hunch, Cuddy, Hunch" in west Scotland, "Mont-a-Kitty" in Middlesbrough, "Husky Fusky Finger or Thumb" in Nottinghamshire, "High Jimmy Knacker" in east London, "Jump the Knacker 1-2-3" in Watford, "Wall-e-Acker" or "Warny Echo" in north West London, "Stagger Loney" in Cardiff, "Pomperino" in St Ives, Cornwall and "Trust" in Lancashire.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/12/letters.theobserver |title=Your Letters |last1= |first1= |date=12 August 2007 |website=The Observer |location=London |access-date=25 October 2016 }} The game is sometimes played in the sergeants' or officers' messes of the British Armed Forces.{{cite web |url=http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/245199-mess-games-where-s-original-btw.html |title=Aircrew Forums - Military - Mess games |last1= |first1= |date=24 September 2006 |publisher=Professional Pilots Rumour Network |access-date=25 October 2016 }}
In Mexico and El Paso, the game is known as el chinche de agua (water bug).{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/opinion/el-paso-art-murals.html|work=New York Times|date=8 Apr 2021|title=Art Without Borders}}
In the Chile, the game is called Caballito de Bronce (Little Brass Horse) {{cite news|url=https://www.elciudadano.com/regiones/7-juegos-populares-de-la-infancia-para-compartir-este-verano/01/29/|work=El Ciudadano|date=1 Aug 2022|title=7 juegos populares de la infancia para compartir este verano }}
In Australia a similar game is called "stacks-on" the goal being to jump onto the player declared by yelling "stacks-on
A similar game malttukbakgi (말뚝박기) is played in South Korea,{{cite web| url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWp8NR-wY58 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/zWp8NR-wY58 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| via= YouTube| title= Crazy Korean Leap Frog Game| date= September 11, 2012 |publisher= james1111134 | access-date= April 27, 2020}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web| url= http://i.imgur.com/aTaya.jpg| title= Statue depicting Malttukbakgi (말뚝박기)| via= imgur.com| access-date= April 27, 2020}} by children up until high school. In malttukbakgi, there are two teams. The first team has one person stand up against the wall and the rest of the team queue behind them with their heads tucked between the legs of the person in front, in a formation that resembles a long "horse". The second team then jumps up onto the backs of the first team one by one, with as much force as possible. If anyone from any team falls to the floor, that team loses. If everyone stays up, then the person against the wall and the person in front play a game of gawibawibo (rock paper scissors) to determine the winner.
File:Bandirma uzuneşek 2927.jpg
In Turkey, a similar game is uzun eşek ("long donkey").{{cite web| url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S7t7yRicDA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/7S7t7yRicDA |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| via= YouTube| title= Uzun Esek| date= May 6, 2009| publisher= FaRuK2008| access-date= April 27, 2020}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web| url= http://www.turkishculture.org/lifestyles/turkish-culture-portal/turkish-childrens-games-750.htm?type=1 | publisher= turkishculture.org| title= Turkish Children's Games| date= | access-date= April 27, 2020}} The person standing up is the referee and is called the "pillow". One team bends over, then the other team one by one jumps on the "donkey". If the Donkey can stand the pressure, the first person to go in the jumping team puts up one or two with his fingers. If the donkey can guess the number right, they are permitted to jump. If the jumpers fall to the ground, it is the donkey's turn to jump. If the donkey falls, the jumpers jump again.
In popular culture
Bill Cosby's 1967 album Revenge includes a track "Buck, Buck" in which he describes playing the game as a child. He mentions that in his hometown of Philadelphia it was called "Buck Buck", while in New York City it was known as "Johnny on the Pony". This track introduces Fat Albert, "the baddest Buck Buck breaker in the world," who "weighed 2,000 pounds" and could cause earthquakes when he ran down the street. The character would later become the basis for the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids which includes a buck buck episode (season 1 episode 6). Fat Albert and his friends also play a game of buck buck in the film Fat Albert (2004). The same story, in a slightly different form, is also included in Cosby's book Childhood.
In the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, the heroes use a game of buck buck as an attack that is key to their defeat of the main villain.M. Enois Duarte, "[http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/13353/teenagemutantninjaturtles2014.html Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) (Dolby Atmos)]", High-Def Digest (December 17, 2014).
References
{{commons_category|Buck buck}}
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