Buckeye Game

A listener from Richmond, Virginia, remembers an old game called buckeye that consists of metaphorically pulling someone’s leg, then calling Buckeye! and tugging one’s own lower eyelid. Martha suggests that it may be related to a 19th-century use of buckeye that refers to “something or someone inferior,” like a country bumpkin or a rube. Thus, calling “Buckeye!” may be equivalent to calling someone a sucker for getting tricked, or punk’d. Still, any explanation for the eyelid exposure is still pending. This is part of a complete episode.

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