this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Comic Strips

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Alt Text: A cartoon illustration of three men each carrying different items, a rock, paper, and scissors, meeting at a crossroads. Caption reads "It was the historic, first-time, meeting of Roe, Sham, and Bo."

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 44 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I first heard the term "Ro sham bo" from South Park where the game was taking turns kicking each other in the nuts and the first one to flinch loses. It wasn't until years later I saw it associated with Rock, Paper, Scissors.

[–] burgermeister@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thank you for mentioning this lol, that's the only place I've heard of Ro Sham Bo

[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago
[–] mydoomlessaccount@infosec.pub 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The one guy just walks around all day carrying a big-ass rock everywhere he goes? I think he could probably take the other two in a fight, then

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's all hip muscle, and he's letting his skeleton do the work

[–] Matty_r@programming.dev 8 points 3 weeks ago

His skeleton would kick their arses

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Rock is on a side road so has to stop.

Scissors and paper go first, scissors cuts paper, then rock breaks scissors.

[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Is the Roe Sham Bo bit an American thing?

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Rock paper scissors is what I think we can it in the US

[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

*Paper, scissors, rock in the US.

[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] nedwben@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 weeks ago

Rochambeau was a French general for the American revolution. There is no evidence the nick name for rock, paper, scissors has any relationship with the actual man. Janken(rock, paper, scissors) came to America in the 20th century by Japanese immigrants. Roshambo is slang from the West Coast of the US. First evidence of the term was 1936 in Oakland.

Maybe it was named after the general, maybe it's a coincidence, we don't know.

[–] MotoAsh@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

You're going to cite AI as fact?

Ouch...

[–] TheYojimbo@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Never heard before

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Whoever goes second would win.

[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No one would go. They know who ever goes first loses to their weakness. So they dare not go first, but not going at all is also a lose. Thus a forever stalemate.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 16 points 3 weeks ago

The only winning move is not to play.

[–] drzoidberg@lemmy.world -2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That's not how roshambo works.

[–] MotoAsh@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, neither is the comic? They aren't choosing what they get and it's three ways instead of 1v1.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 1 points 3 weeks ago

4 downvotes for the truth, smh

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago

The guy with the big fucking rock is strong, that rock has a lot of inertia, by he gets one shot then he's strong and unarmed

The guy with the scissors will win, if he survives the first shot with the rock.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The madman running around with scissors obviously has an intimidation factor here.

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

Running with scissors also comes with extra risk, so that might even it out again.

[–] epicthundercat@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Paper guy is the most screwed. He better be a fast runner.

[–] dp@thebrainbin.org 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

i'm starting to understand why socrates was just clowning on these idiots 24/7

[–] gray@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

Why does paper beat rock?

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io -1 points 3 weeks ago

Let's assume that they should have colours and that the three colours picture here are the correct ones, then, IMO, Ro should be red and carrying a rock, Sham should be yellow and carrying the scissors, and Bo should be blue and carrying the paper.

It's not clear who is who here, but they don't fit with my colour-item pairings.

Reasoning: Sham is vaguely like French "jaune" which is yellow. B and P are related sounds. There's a bit more to it but the rest is mostly obvious.