February 7, 2008

Cowboy Bear Ninja
Vilcabamba, Ecuador

At dinner tonight, one of the travelers at the table was explaining a variation of rock, paper, scissors that I found particularly entertaining.

It's called "cowboy, bear, ninja", and the two opponents start the decision-making game by standing back-to-back with each other—like an old pistol duel. Both take one large step forward, spin, and make one of three motions (sound effects are encouraged):

  • Draw out invisible pistols, Wild West style, and start shootin' from the hip
  • Turn your hands into claws and raise them up like a grizzle
  • Make your best impression of a ninja martial arts move

Much like rock, paper, scissors, this too has moves that beat out another:

  • Cowboy shoots bear
  • Bear eats ninja
  • Ninja slaps the guns out of the cowboy's hands

He didn't know the origins of the game, though would have loved to claim it as his own. I just find the whole notion of the thing to be rather entertaining. Good times.

Recently in this country...

Comments:

Edward

February 26th, 2009

Hey Craig,

I was introduced to this game around 2003 at an ultimate frisbee tournament, which is where I hear it originated (started by an ultimate frisbee player as a substitute for a disc flip).

Eddie

The United States

Ry Koteen

October 2nd, 2011

I am one of the originators of BCN and I just ran into it at the bookstore and didn't realize how far it had spread.

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