Talk:The Name Game

Laura Branigan's Version

Makes a huge error. Instead of saying Fred drop the "F" she says Hugh drop the "H" go "ooooo." This doesn't work because you use the substitute letters B, F, and M you never use H so you'd never drop it. So the first two letters can only be the same with B, F and M. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.142.45.254 (talk) 05:53, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Banana

While I'm sure the source is correct I have never heard a version where it is not said "BO-na-na" not Ba-NA-NA" Thus they are not pronouncing banana correctly

Sentence on children getting others to swear

I took the following sentence out of the article. It may be true, but even if it is, it's clearly original research that is not on either of the two external links. 69.177.176.154 23:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

When children discover that names like Chuck or Mitch will result in gratuitous swearing in the course of the song, they invariably encourage their unsuspecting friends to use such names when they sing it.

When children discover that there's a Wiki page which purports to list all the profanity that can potentially be created by the game, they're invariably encouraged to rack their brains to add all manner of salty though I daresay not outright profane language to the article. As neither the original song nor any of the notable recordings mentioned contain these words, why is it in the article? While I can sympathize that most parents and teachers don't want their kids chanting mantras of phallus and fart, for example, are they actually profane words? As you can see by examining the edit history, other editors have removed such potentially colorful names time and again, only to have them re-added by either said naughty kids or embarrassed guardians. Is the service provided to the latter worth having this sentence here as a magnet to the former and an endless cycle of adds and deletes? We do have better things to do, no? Abrazame (talk) 19:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Why are Alice and Dallas listed in the article, because they result in "phallus" or am I missing another word? "Phallus" is neither crude nor profane, it is a scientific term. 68.81.180.171 (talk) 00:00, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Maybe, but assuming the kids had ever heard that word, it would get them to giggling, hence "mission accomplished". Presumably, "Enos" would suffer a similar fate. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:09, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Regardless, the wording of the article says "profanity or rude language" and the word phallus is neither. And more importantly as you imply, there are likely few kids that have heard of the word phallus. Penis is a much more well known word, hence Enos would be a more worthwhile inclusion in the list (but still, penis is neither rude nor profane.) 68.81.180.171 (talk) 11:54, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Depends on the situation. It's technically medical, though not the way Beavis and Butt-Head used it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:26, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

I added the name "Helen" to the list of names which will result in profanity, because it results in "felon," which has a negative connotation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kdp2004 (talk • contribs)

A "negative connotation" is neither swearing or profanity. In addition, there is no requirement that the list be comprehensive. --LarryMac | Talk 19:04, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

In fact, a lot of it (if not most of it) is original research. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:24, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

I, for one, am sick and tired of the idea that a self-evident truth counts as "original research." Kostaki mou (talk) 20:48, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

(X−1) as the name without the first consonant sound

Should this be "as the name without the first consonant sound and its preceding vowels?" or "as the name without any beginning consonant sound" - I mean, if you have Adam, does he become Afam, Abam etc. (implied by the current wording), Fam and Bam (the former disambiguation), or Fadam and Badam (the latter)? If there's no general consensus on this, it should be mentioned instead of just ignoring the case of names beginning with vowels. -VJ 19:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

• Well, considering that the song itself uses an example that starts with a vowel (Ono, or however it's spelled), I'd say the third one. Sensei Le Roof (talk) 16:38, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Munchkin

Ah, now I know where the space version of the card game "Munchkin" gets "bobaser" and "bananafanafofaser". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 131.181.251.66 (talk) 04:59, 23 March 2007 (UTC).

Scentless Apprentice

The main riff to this Nirvana song is very similiar to the melody to the Name Game. Also , the article for Scentless Apprentice says that it was written as "chuck bo buck" on early set-lists. Chuck is one of the names that will result in profanity from the Name Game. If anyone has a source for this then it should be in the In Popular Culture section of this article. Connör ^(talk) 00:28, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

US States name game is a terrible example

Due to the limited number of states, this game would be over almost as quickly as it started. Why? Consider:

• Over 40% (21 out of 50) of states end in the letter 'A'. Of the four states that start in 'A', three (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona) also end in 'A', and the fourth, Arkansas, would lead you to either South Carolina or South Dakota, both of which end in 'A', and thus you'd be stuck in an endless loop of 6 states from which you cannot escape. This loop is almost completely unavoidable. The example given in the article is already stuck in this loop.
• Almost as many (18 states) start with a letter that no other state ends in. So the only way these states would ever come up in gameplay is if you started with them. Of these states, we also have the only state ending in a 'T' (Connecticut) and the only state ending in an 'H' (Utah). Thus, you can add Hawaii, Tennessee, and Texas to the list of states that will almost never come up.
• The only way you won't end up stuck in the endless 'A'-loop is if you somehow land on one of the five states (Delaware, New Hampshire, Tennessee (unlikely as seen above), Kentucky, and New Jersey) that end in a letter no other state starts with, at which point the game would be over.
• There are numerous other pitfalls; consider Ohio. You could either loop endlessly on Ohio, or go to Oklahoma, thus falling into the 'A'-loop, or you could go to Oregon. From there you could go to Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, and North Dakota, all falling again into the 'A'-loop. Or you could hit New Hampshire or New Jersey, both game enders, or New Mexico, which just takes you back where you started, or finally New York. New York then leads to Kentucky (ending the game) or Kansas (falling via South Carolina or South Dakota back into the 'A'-loop yet again.)

Maybe Nations of the World would be a better example. There's more of them for one thing, though still quite a few ending or starting in 'A' (and again a large number of which both start and end in 'A', so the loop still exists, but it's larger and easier to get out of). Also, most letters of the alphabet are represented at the beginning or end of at least one country, so you'd be less likely to get stuck, and there aren't so many of them which could never appear. (A few exist - can't think of any countries ending in 'J', 'V' or 'Z' - sorry Jordan, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, probably more but I'd have to do a more thorough search.) Anyhow, maybe I'm crazy for noticing stuff like this, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Lurlock (talk) 18:36, 12 April 2009 (UTC)