05/05/05 Great Parlour Games of the 20th Century

interesting date today.
The previous date in this sequence would have been 4th April 2004.
For a moment I thought that it was 1904. That would have made this first paragraph more interesting. Never mind.
Great Parlour Games of the 20th Century
No. 23 "Goodnight John Boy!"
Props ; A rolled up newspaper (preferably a chunky broadsheet)
The best environment for this game to prosper is in a house after an evening of hearty drinking at a local hostelry, involving ideally 10-12 participants.
Each participant in the game assumes a character name from the much loved, groundbreaking show "The Waltons".
The contestants sit in a circle.
A volunteer is selected to initially stand up and go in the middle, wielding the rolled up newspaper.
He says "good night" to any character in the circle, eg "Goodnight Mary Ellen".
The contestant who has adopted the monicker "Mary Ellen" must say goodnight to another selected Walton's character. eg "Good Night Wreckless"
Any hesitation can be seized upon by the person in the middle, and they are at liberty to thwack "Mary Ellen" over the head with the newspaper if they hit her before she utters the next "Good night..."
Furthermore, any character who has been said "Good Night" to, cannot immediately say "Goodnight" to the character who has just said "Good Nght" to them, nor can they ever say "Good Night" to the person in the middle.
Any offenders are summarily thwacked over the head and then become the person in the middle.
With the addition of liberal amounts of alcohol into the equation, reaction times are shot to pieces and the game becomes a festival of slapstick violence.
Obviously, this was in the days before computer games...