Piggy in the Middle

Piggy in the Middle is a children's game played in the Anglophone world and Turkey, with a name subject to broad regional variety: Donkey Ball, Hide the Pickle, Keep Away (and Keep Away From____, filling in the blank with the name of the player in the middle), Monkey in the Middle, Pickle in a Dish, Pickle in the Middle, Pig in the Middle, or Rat in the Middle, among likely others. Piggy in the Middle is principally British; Rat in the Middle is Turkish; and Monkey in the Middle is common along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States.

A sort of reversed Dodgeball, competitive catch, or modified Tag, the object of the game is to pass the ball among players without letting the player in the middle—the donkey, the piggy, the monkey, or “it”—intercept [Page 480]it. If they do intercept it, they leave the middle and are replaced by the player whose throw was intercepted.

Although a game, there are elements of bullying, just as there can be with Dodgeball. The players outside the middle often sing teasingly, “Monk-ey in the mid-die” or “Keep a-way from Si-mon,” and the line between middle player and victim can be a narrow one; few other games disadvantage one child so greatly relative to the rest of the players without some artificial limitation like a blindfold. The game may be “played” involuntarily, bullies having taken a child's schoolbag and proceeding to taunt him by playing “keep away” with it—emphasizing not only his vulnerability but his inability to do anything about it.

When played as a sincere game, the game often involves more than two players outside the middle, and the circle may be clearly delineated with chalk. The ball may be required to bounce once inside the circle, which makes it more difficult for the outside players. The ballholder may not be allowed to reposition himself once he has possession of the ball, which encourages a faster-moving game.