Aforementioned title issa nod to Rockstar and Friends’ current pun obsessions*…
The movie Tag features 5 primary school friends who keep up a game of Tag for 23 years. Antics include crashing weddings and funerals, plenty of disguise… I would’ve written about it sooner, but well the full movie has some pretty dirty jokes (caveat!) so here are some cleaner clips:
And so by means creative, devious and often extreme, the 5 friends over the years block off a month a year, during which they enlist the help of spouses, get cleaning jobs in each others companies and just all around prank each other (if you’re wondering, the Over-The-Top Never-Been-Tagged player is – not the CEO – a personal trainer, who has a whole chain of gym outlets):
Now Get This – the movie is based on a real life story. Also, the part where someone gets “Tagged” during a funeral really happened.
Here are the Fab 10 Real Life Taggers:
(One of ’em is wearing a priest’s collar, isn’t he?! <images of would-be Taggers chasing the priest about during sermons>)
Oh, the joys of play. Real play, that real kids did, where real friendships were formed, before everyone went and grew up too fast. In the movie, the CEO alludes in his Wall Street Journal interview to how the creativity in play continues to inspire him in his day job. In real life, lawyer Patrick Schultheis drafted the Tag Participation Agreement, a binding legal document in which rules like No Tag-Backs allowed, and that you are bound to answer honestly if asked if you’re “It,” are laid down.
I especially like the part in the legal document where the “parties” didn’t wish for said game “to degenerate into the bawdy spectacle of mayhem, disarray, terror, plague, pestilence and danger” – like, what were these guys doing before they put that down in writing?
It goes on for about 4 pages, in which the penalty for being “It” each year is to consolidate a USD 25 donation from each of the other participants and donate it to their school alumni association.
Anyway, back to the original bit about how far our childhood experiences can take us (there is after all so much talk about how kids can be “scarred” in childhood etc etc right? Well then the flip side is also true, and we can derive some real strength and inspiration from that time too, right? Such…. crushing responsibility :D, yet also opportunity…)
*”The Play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King…” was originally spoken by Hamlet, who suspects his uncle has murdered his father – he dithers for almost an entire Shakespearean play and then decides to hold a play (yes, a play within the play) depicting what he thinks really happened. Then he watches for any guilty reaction by the new King, his uncle. Obviously that bit has nothing to do with the title of this post –Pun-ny enough for you guys? Well thank YOU for having been so welcoming and accepting of Rockstar during all the changes and new groups he has come into. And for the pun inspiration, been hearin’ bout your punnin’ for months… 🙂
