Be the top doc!
Operation is a Dexterity Game from Hasbro (formerly Milton Bradley), developed by John Spinello in 1964. The game is supposed to test a player's eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. The game board depicts a patient named Cavity Sam on the operating table with holes in his body that are filled with pun-oriented ailments made of plastic, which need to be removed in order to cure him. The player must use the tweezers attached to the board to retrieve the pieces from their holes. If the player hits the metal edges on the board, Sam's red nose will light up and make a buzzing noise, either making it the next player's turn, or forcing the player to move on to another ailment when the game is played solo.Ever since its release in 1965, the game has spawned various renditions and Themed Stock Board Game variations.
Operation provides examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: The "Dog Tired" ailment that agonizes Sam in Silly Skill Game is a dog in his foot.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws:
- The original cover features a little boy and girl assisting the surgeons; justified as it's a game for children.
- Two
1990s commercials show children as surgeons.
- Back-Alley Doctor: The doctors on the classic box art. The one on the left is shown carelessly jamming his tweezers into Sam's leg while the buzzing vibration is shown, and the one on the right is making a creepy smile, aiming his tweezers at Sam's chest, and was smoking while letting the ash fall onto Sam's face in the debut box art.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Cavity Sam's genitalia is covered by his body fat.
- Bizarre Belching: One of the ailments in the modern revamp is known simply as "Burp Bubbles" - in this case, literal bubbles inside the stomach causing uncontrollable belching. And this is something that can only be treated via operation...
- Bowdlerize:
- The original 1964 artwork of the game featured a doctor with a cigarette in his mouth, but later editions of the game removed this image.
- The kid holding the bucket of water, on the left side of the artwork, had his skin tone changed from white to black in the 2004 Brain Freeze revamp of the game.
- Cavity Sam appeared naked in earlier versions of the game, but the modern (2007-present) revamp of the game shows him wearing polka-dot pants.
- Brain Freeze: An ailment introduced in 2004, which depicts an ice cream cone in Sam's head.
- Butt-Monkey: This is Cavity Sam's Backstory of receiving all those comical injuries, as many adaptations tell us.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Modern versions of the game show Sam wearing his polka-dot underpants on the table. The Simpsons and Family Guy versions show Homer and Peter in their undergarments as well.
- Cosmic Plaything: Sam has to suffer having a Writer's Cramp, Brain Freeze, Ankle Bone Connected to the Knee Bone, Charlie Horse, Broken Heart, all simultaneously.
- Deadly Walls: The metal edges will cause the buzzer to go off if they come in contact with the tweezers.
- Dexterity Game: The player tries to extract silly plastic organs from a patient. If they hit the metal sides of the holes where an organ is located, the patient's nose lights up and the game emits a buzzer indicating the player messed up.
- Ear Ache: Silly Skill Game has "Ringing in the Ear", a bell lodged in Sam's ear.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The "Ankle Bone Connected to the Knee Bone" ailment is much different in the first version, as it requires the player to loop the rubber band around two posts. When the ailment was revived in 2008 as "Pulled Muscle", the player can now simply pull the rubber band out like the other ailments.
- Face on the Cover: Cavity Sam always appears on the cover art of the original game.
- Formerly Fat: The 2013 rendition of the game reduces Sam's weight in his major makeover.
- Gag Nose: Cavity Sam's big, red clown nose.
- Gasshole: The modern revamp of the game has two examples of this: Sam passing gas under an ailment called "Toxic Gas" that depicts a poisonous gas cloud, and him burping under an ailment called "Burp Bubbles" that depicts green bubbles in his stomach.
- Heart Beats out of Chest: A 1990s commercial featured the kid surgeons removing the broken heart directly from Sam's chest.
- Humiliation Conga: Cavity Sam has to be naked and suffer all those injuries while being treated by back alley doctors in the classic versions of the game.
- Hurricane of Puns: Most of the ailments and/or the item to be removed are punny, though some like "texting thumb" or "tennis elbow" simply represent the consequences of engaging in those leisures for too long rather than involving any wordplay.
- Irony: The easier-to-remove revamp has Sam lose a significant amount of weight, but at the same time contains an ailment called "Growling Stomach", which shows him holding a fork and knife of a sausage and slice of cheese.
- Jumpscare: The loud buzzing sound that occurs when if you touch the metal sides of holes with the tweezers. Even if you do know about it beforehand, it can still be quite startling. The only real way to "mute" the buzzing sound is to play the game without batteries installed. Modern releases replace this with a vibration to be less scary to the target demographic.
- Junior Variant: My First Operation switches the subject to a pig named Roly (who has a tummy ache to sort out) with larger pieces to take out.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Beginning with the “Silly Skill Game” edition in 2008, most editions of the game removed the cards and money system for a new concept where the player who removes the most ailments wins. The classic version returned in 2016.
- Literal Change of Heart: Since the "broken heart" metaphor is taken literally in the game, this is implied to be the outcome of removing the said ailment, restoring the heart to its previous, healthy state.
- Little Miss Snarker: The 1960s commercial of the game has the naughty little girl brag to her brother about winning the game."Ha, ha, HA!"
- Meatgrinder Surgery: The game's implications are made pretty clear through the advertisements. It's a game where surgery is performed on a patient in the most dangerous ways possible - by maneuvering a pair of tweezers around his body while he is fully awake, and inevitably hitting the metal edges at one point or another. This trope is merely Played With as the intention of the game is made abundantly clear to cure Sam rather than torture him.
- Medical Game: This is a board game about doing surgery on a man.
- Modesty Towel: The cover art shows a towel covering Sam's private areas.
- Naked People Are Funny: Cavity Sam remains naked on the operating table for 4 decades and 44 years.
- No-Neck Chump: Averted with the actual game board, but the box art shows no visible neck on Sam and displays his shoulder directly aligned on his cheek.
- Older Than the Demographic: Cavity Sam appears to be middle aged, at least in the 1965/early 2000s variant.
- Operation Game of Doom: The tropenamer. Touching the metal edges of the game board with the tweezers will cause Sam's nose to light up and produce a buzzing noise.
- Pain to the Ass: The Shrek edition has the player remove an ailment of Donkey named "Pain in the Butt", referring to the fact that Donkey is indeed a literal ass himself.
- Pun: A majority of the ailments are wordplay puns based on anatomy.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The cards each feature a short rhyming poem based on the ailment.
- Rule of Funny: The little girl on the right side of the box is seen handing the surgeon the Adam's Apple. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
- Skip the Anesthetic: Cavity Sam's eyes are seen open during the surgery.
- Smelly Feet Gag: Operation Rescue Kit has a slice of cheese on Sam's feet labeled under 'Cheesy Feet', referring to pungent foot odor.
- Smoking Is Cool: Due to the era during which it was released, the original 1964 publication of the game showed the doctor on the right side of the box smoking.
- Toilet Humor: The "Silly Skill Game" versions have introduced a variety of crude-related ailments, them being a runny nose (booger), "Burp Bubbles", "Bad Plumbing" (toilet), and "Toxic Gas" (fart cloud).
- Themed Stock Board Game: One of the most popular board games to use this trope. Variations include SpongeBob SquarePants, Shrek, Lilo & Stitch, Star Wars, The Simpsons, and Despicable Me, each with their own special ailments.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Operation: Pet Scan has players operate on Cavity Sam's dog, Rex-Ray. The dog's ears resemble his owner's hair, he wears a bandanna with the same pattern as Sam's underwear, and of course, he has the same big, red, glowing nose.
- Whammy: The sides themselves. Hitting them with the tweezers indicates the player lost at their turn, while avoiding them gives the player money and lets them move on to the next ailment.