Every now and then I see videos of American students playing competitive musical chairs while the entire school is watching them usually in an indoor basketball court, and only now have I realised that I’ve never seen that in person before.
Is this something American schools do for fun, or is this a weird sport or are those one-off events that don’t actually happen?
Also, why does the entire school gather to watch 10ish people battle for chairs?
8 comments
yeah it’s a common casual game at childs birthday parties, definitely not a sport. we would play it at school during field day or a pep rally, so maybe that’s an occasion where the whole school would gather to watch.
The only time I ever saw this was when I did cross country summer camp in high school, but it was super competitive there. If you lost, you got a bucket of ice dumped on you. It was part of a larger event where we did a bunch of competitive things between the teams at the camp, but musical chairs was the finale.
It’s something we do for fun! It can be competitive but that’s only because the people playing it make it competitive, you don’t have to be. I love playing musical chairs! Not good at winning it though. 😂
Your description sounds like you saw part of a pep rally.
US middle schools and high schools hold pep rallies which are essentially school spirit events.
Everyone gets called into the school gymnasium during the school day and the band performs, the cheerleaders do a routine, and the Poms squad and color guard perform. Then they call out the members of the school sports teams. Then they might hand out awards or play silly games for prizes. Musical chairs might be one of those games.
My school did competitive musical chairs as a charity fundraiser a few times. Several faculty members would choose a charity, then students would pay a dollar or two for a ticket to watch them compete at a pep rally. All the ticket money went to the winner’s charity.
It was a fun way to see the adults make fools of themselves, because musical chairs is inherently undignified.
It’s also played at some bridal showers or baby showers. The winner may get a gift bag.
This would not be a sport or anything people specifically gathered to watch, rather it would be a single ‘fun” part of a larger event. Say a pep rally, student assembly, some type of lecture. Maybe a charity event.
Team A wins X charity gets assistance. Team B Y charity type thing.
It’s a fun game.