Dupa biskupa

Social game

Dupa biskupa is a party game that works with any deck of cards and any number of players, and it can go on for as many rounds as you like. A general rule is that more players means more cards are needed. To start, cards are dealt so everyone gets the same number. Going in order, players place a card face-up where everyone can see it.

After laying the card, the player must perform a specific action that was decided before the game began, based on the card’s suit and rank. Some cards require no action at all. In the very first round, only three types of cards have actions: when a queen is played, everyone must say “Bonjour, madame!”; when a king is played, everyone must say “Bonjour, monsieur!”; and when an ace is played, everyone must say “Dupa biskupa!” All other cards have no assigned behavior in this first round.

The winner of each round gets to assign actions to other cards for the next round, but the actions for queens, kings, and aces stay the same. If a player does the wrong action or fails to do one when required, they have to take the whole pile of cards. If multiple players mess up, they split the pile between them. A neutral observer should watch the game to point out mistakes and say who is at fault.

Popular culture

The first player to get rid of all their cards wins. In a popular version of the game, the first round is skipped, and these actions are used from the start: when a 10 is played, everyone must put their hand on the card stack, and the last person to do so takes all the cards; when a 4 or 9 is played, nobody does anything; when a jack is played, everyone must salute. In the Polish adult animated comedy series Włatcy móch, two recurring zombie characters, Marcel and the Colonel, who live in a local graveyard, were shown playing dupa biskupa on a tombstone. The Colonel won that game.