Play the Game: The Little Drummer Boy Challenge
It is that time of year again. A time when the sounds of the season fill literally every public space you find yourself in. Now some people, yours truly included, love Christmas music. Others, not so much. Many more go along blissfully throughout their holidaze unaware they are being followed by... (big dramatic music flourish here) The Boy.
Not to get all Matrix/Morpheus on you, but what if I told you that you are playing The Little Drummer Boy Challenge and didn't even know it?
While he openly doesn't take credit for creating the game, Michael Alan Peck is the man behind the social media-driven version of The Little Drummer Boy Challenge. I sat down with Peck (well, I was sitting as I typed the questions and I presume he was as well for the answers) to talk about the LDBC, it's origins, deeper meaning and most importantly how you have been playing it for years but didn't know it.
A special note before we begin: If you are actively playing, there are links to versions of The Little Drummer Boy in this interview. I've made them obvious so you won't click them. If you are a newcomer to the Little Drummer Boy Challenge, consider this my special rule addition to the game: If you are sure you haven't heard the song yet anywhere else, once you read to the end of the article consider yourself actively playing, and have fun!)
Liner Notes: For the uninitiated, what are the rules of the LDBC?
Michael Alan Peck: Beginning at 12:00 am the morning of Black Friday, try to make it to 12:00 am the morning of Christmas Eve Day (Dec. 24) without hearing the song “The Little Drummer Boy.” All versions and interpretations count, including live renditions, but you can’t be taken out by someone intentionally playing it for you or trying to trick you into hearing it. Once you hear it, you report the details of your demise via the official reporting form and then post to the Facebook wall (or Twitter feed), if you like, where you will be alternately comforted or mocked, according to the whims of anyone who happens to be paying attention. And we are a fickle bunch, so there’s no guarantee that anyone will be. In fact, we tend to be rather oblivious, worrying more about our own selfish needs at any given point in time.
Liner Notes: What was the inspiration for the LDBC?
Michael Alan Peck: When we were living in San Francisco, a friend of my wife and I told us that he and a group of friends used to try to avoid the song during the holiday season. Being me, I promptly forgot about it until we’d moved to Chicago, and my wife came home from Burrito House, complaining that it was only November 10, and she was already out of the game. I created the page on Facebook, a bunch of friends quickly joined in. (My friends are much like us—easily amused by things, and the dumber, the better.)
Liner Notes: Why LDB specifically and not another song?
Michael Alan Peck: I can’t say for sure since I didn’t actually conceive of the game. (Since starting this thing, I’ve heard additional reports from West Coasters who’ve been doing it for some time.) But it’s the perfect song for this type of thing. It’s played just enough to make it challenging, but not so much that it’s impossible. It’s also rather harmless, albeit kind of dopey. Unless you buy into the conceit that a newborn child really would like to hear someone banging on a drum, and that his parents know that, and that there just so happens to be a kid with a drum near this manger.
Liner Notes: When did the LDBC first start?
Michael Alan Peck: The tradition got rolling in 2010, so we’ve been adding fear and apprehension to a growing number of people’s holidays for going on four years now.
Liner Notes: What has the reaction been like as more people have learned of it?
Michael Alan Peck: It’s the kind of thing that people either instantly get or are instantly perplexed by. I knew that a number of my Facebook friends would get it since we’re all cut from the same cloth—eccentrics with socially questionable tastes who love nothing more than the opportunity to waste time with obscure cultural references, bad puns, feigned outrage, and the chance to drop f-bombs right and left in text. But I was a little surprised by how many other people jumped in. It’s slowly gotten media coverage via places such as The Village Voice, The Onion AV Club, The Sun-Times, and a few Skype appearances I’ve done on Good Day Sacramento.
What I love, though, is how many amazingly smart and funny people weigh in on the Facebook page, devoting time and effort to writing hilarious accounts of their downfall. At first, it’s a little counter intuitive that there are so many creative and sharp people playing such a childish and stupid game, but that’s the whole appeal of it. Smart people love stupid things. I know I do, and I’m not particularly bright. But as opposed to major brand sites you see, where the commenters can’t be bothered with the shift-key and can’t even spell “LOL,” the LDBC people are intelligent and hysterical, particularly when truly upset by going out of the game early. See some of our LDBCer Dispatches, for instance. These people are great.
Liner Notes: Do you have a favorite version of LDB? (WARNING! The Boy is near!)
Michael Alan Peck: I really do like Vince Guaraldi's "My Little Drum," from the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (ed. note: I concur!). That one always claims its share of lives each year because people forget it’s on that disc. And I’m kind of partial to the Bing Crosby - David Bowie take, which I see as the signature version for the game just because the video for it is so lovably goofy, but rather pretty just the same. (ed. note: I'm partial to Joan Jett and The Blackhearts oft ignored version found on their breakout album, I Love Rock 'n' Roll.)
Liner Notes: How about a least favorite?
Michael Alan Peck: One word: Bieber. If I have to explain, you have no place in our little game. (ed. note: I will not be linking to that)
Liner Notes: Do people try to trick others into hearing it now that the LDBC is a thing?
Michael Alan Peck: Various players report that happening, especially from disgruntled spouses (are there any other kind?), but it’s easy enough to shut down when you mention that it’s impossible to be taken out intentionally. I’m not sure what it says about us that we neutralized malicious intent early on, knowing it would be an issue, but it was necessary. (ed. note: It shows you have prescience that some game/user experience designers don't!)
Liner Notes: What impact has social media had on the LDBC?
Michael Alan Peck: The LDBC was born of social media. It lives and breathes it, and the terror of The Boy would never spread so far or wide without Facebook, Twitter, and the blog. The site gets visits from Fiji, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, you name it. That would never have happened without social. On a perfectly serious note, this thing started partly as an experiment to learn things I could use in my day job, which involves content strategy and social media. And it illustrates a concept that so many big companies have such a hard time with: large followings quickly gained don’t count for much when nobody cares about what you’re posting. (ed. note: As a fellow Social Media expert, I couldn't agree with you more!) But if you’re patient, you’re not giving people a hard sell, and you just keep creating stuff that people can laugh at, you’ll have a much more engaged, hardcore group of people, which I’ll take over 100,000 people who hide me from their feed any day.
Liner Notes: If the LDBC continues to grow and gain popularity or sentience like Talk Like a Pirate Day, Rex Manning Day, Movember) what do you see in its future?
Michael Alan Peck: I’m totally fine with the creeping growth we’ve experienced so far. It’s a goof, a lark and it’s fun, so I don’t really have any goal for it but to show people a good time and get some laughs out of it. If it ever became really big, and people were up for it, maybe I’d try to raise some money for charity by selling winner/loser tree ornaments or something, but that’s just an idea. I think what makes the whole thing successful so far is that I’m not trying to sell anything, and I’m not trying to make any money off of it. The kind of people who are drawn to something like this would be the first to run if I ever tried to profit from it. I know I would if I were them. So I’m happy to just watch it grow and bring funny people into the fold.
Liner Notes: What are your words of advice to anyone undertaking the LDBC for the first time?
Michael Alan Peck: Everyone is undertaking the LDBC, even those who don’t know they are. The world’s population is made up of LDBC winners and losers, most of whom don’t know there is such a game or that they’ve won or lost it. As I tell friends and loved ones, you can’t opt out of it. If you’ve heard it, you’ve lost. If you haven’t, you’ve won. You’re playing whether you like it or not. (ed. note: To quote Neo, "Whoa.")
But seriously? Sure, be mindful of what’s on your playlist if you like, but there’s no need for it to be something that creates real tension for your holiday season. The whole point of it is luck and happenstance, for the most part—just seeing how long you can go without hearing it. We had one woman say she abandoned her shopping cart in Target because she was sure she was going to hear it. Hey, go nuts like that, if that’s what you want to do. But you don’t have to. There are measures you can take to increase your odds, but in the end, if your number’s up, and The Boy’s gonna find you, he’s gonna find you. Then you just relate your downfall as hilariously as possible, and you wait to either provide comfort for the others who join you, or you opt to make fun of them without mercy. I mean, in the end, aren’t terror and mockery what the holidays are all about, really?
-fin-
Major thanks to Michael Alan Peck for taking the time to be interviewed! When I originally requested the interview from him, I was still in the game. I firmly believed it would be the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts version that would get me, likely spinning up in Shuffle mode on ye olde iPod. However...
It was a very cold night. Southern California doesn't get cold. We were either born here or chose to escape to where you can check out any time you like because it doesn't get cold. I was attending a birthday dinner and once we were seated I realized I needed to go back out to the car. That is when it happened. There he was, in all his puh-rum-pum-pum-pum'ing glory. The Boy.
It took a moment to realize it. The song had actually begun when we were seated, but in the rather loud restaurant it wasn't noticeable. But as I approached the lobby and the front doors, it came upon me, slowly at first, creeping like an eldritch Lovecraftian abomination. And then, as I made my way to the egress, it hit me. It was subtle, ironically island-themed for the winter's chill. Yes, Sean Kingston's bouncy version from A Very Special Christmas 7 had, quite literally sang to me, "You've just lost the game".
Whether you love or loathe holiday music, there is one thing we should all agree on, and that is the Little Drummer Boy Challenge is a brilliant way to interact with music and to raise your awareness levels during an annual period where environmental input overload can very easily lead you to distraction.
If you are still in this year's Little Drummer Boy Challenge, be careful out there. The Boy is always out there. Waiting. And drumming.
(puh-rum-pum-pum-pum...)
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