Cup game facts for kids

The cup game is a fun clapping game for kids. It involves tapping and hitting a cup in a special rhythm. Many players can sit around a table and play together. Everyone uses their own cup and taps out the rhythm at the same time. You can even play it as a competition! The rhythm gets faster in each round. If a player makes a mistake, they are out. The game continues until only one player is left, and they win!

How to Play the Cup Game

Learning the cup game is easy once you get the rhythm down. Here's how it usually works, especially if you are right-handed.

Setting Up Your Cup

First, place a cup upside down in front of you on a table. This is your starting position.

The Basic Rhythm Steps

Follow these steps to create the main rhythm:

• Step 1: Clap your hands twice.
• Step 2: With alternating hands, quickly tap the top of your upside-down cup three times using your fingertips. (Sometimes, people tap the table next to the cup instead.)
• Step 3: Clap your hands once.
  • Pick up the cup with your right hand and move it a little to your right.
• Step 4: Put the cup back down on the table. It should still be upside down. Make a firm, tapping sound as you put it down.
• Step 5: Clap your hands once more.
  • Pick up the cup with your right hand again, but this time, turn it so it's right-side up.
• Step 6: Tap the open end of the cup (the top) with the flat of your left hand. This should make a hollow sound.
  • Put the cup down on the table, still right-side up. Keep your right hand on the cup.
• Step 7: Switch the cup into your left hand.
  • Slap your right hand flat onto the table.
• Step 8: With the cup still in your left hand, move it back to its original spot in front of you. It should be upside down again.

Repeating the Rhythm

Keep repeating these steps over and over. The goal is to stay on beat and not make any mistakes. If someone misses a step, knocks their cup over, or gets off rhythm, they might be out of the game in a competition.

Variations of the Game

Some versions of the cup game have fun twists. For example, players might swap cups with each other during the rhythm. Other times, players might slap hands with each other as part of the sequence.

The Cup Game in Music

The cup game has become very popular, especially after being featured in songs and movies.

Early Appearances

• In 1987, Christian singer Rich Mullins used the cup game for his song "Screen Door." It was on his album Pictures in the Sky.
• In 1998, a Brazilian music group called Palavra Cantada used it for their song "Fome Come."
• In 2009, the band Lulu and the Lampshades performed a version of the 1930 song "When I'm Gone" using the cup game. "Lulu" (Luisa Gerstein) changed the song to fit the game.
• Rapper P.O.S also used the cup game in his 2009 song "Optimist (We Are Not for Them)."

Going Viral

• In 2011, Anna Burden made a YouTube video of herself playing the cup game to "When I'm Gone." This video became super popular and went viral.
• Actress Anna Kendrick learned the cup game by watching Anna Burden's video. She then used it in her performance in the 2012 movie Pitch Perfect.
• Anna Kendrick's version, called "Cups (When I'm Gone)," became a huge hit. A 2013 video of her performance was widely copied, and the song climbed high on music charts around the world.