Be the top doc!
Operation is a Dexterity Game from Hasbro (albeit originally from Milton Bradley in 1965), 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 the patient, Cavity Sam, on the operating table with holes that are filled with pun-oriented ailments made of plastic that need to be removed. In order to cure the patient, the player must use the tweezers attached to the board and retrieve the pieces from their holes. If the player hits the metal edges on the board, the patient's red nose will light up and buzz, thus making it the next player's turn.Ever since its release in 1965, the game has spawned various renditions and versions based off franchises.
Operation provides examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: The "Dog Tired" ailment that agonizes Sam in the newer versions.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws:
- The original cover features a little boy and girl assisting the surgeons, something that wouldn't pass in Real Life due to child labor restrictions; justified as it's a game for children.
- A few older commercials of the game showed child actors as surgeons.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Look at the page image. Those doctors... don't seem to be curing him that much.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Cavity Sam's genitalia is covered by his body
- 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 revamp of the game, possibly to avoid complaints about racism.
- Cavity Sam appeared naked (albeit no genitalia showing) in earlier versions of the game, but the modern (2008-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 likely Cavity Sam's Backstory of receiving all those injuries.
- The Chew Toy: Cavity Sam is subject to some laughably miserable medical conditions.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: More recent versions of the game show Sam wearing his polka-dot underpants on the table. Some other versions of the game, such as The Simpsons and Family Guy ones, invoke this trope too by having the character from the respective franchise in their undergarments as well.
- Cosmic Plaything: Poor ol' Sam. He 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: You try to extract silly plastic organs from a patient. If you hit the metal sides of the holes where an organ is located, the patient's nose lights up and you hear a buzzer indicating that you messed up.
- Ear Ache: The 2008 rendition 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 game.
- Formerly Fat: The 2013 rendition of the game has given the courtesy of loosening Sam's weight in his major makeover.
- Gag Nose: Cavity Sam's big, red 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.
- Hell Is That Noise: The buzzer. It's so unexpected and frightening.
- Humiliation Conga: Cavity Sam has to be naked and suffer all those injuries simultaneously while being treated by unprofessional medics.
- Irony: The easier-to-remove revamp has Sam lose a significant amount of weight and at the same time contains an ailment of a "Growling Stomach" showing him holding a fork and knife of a hot dog and slice of cheese.
- 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 in favor of a new concept where the player who removes the most ailments wins. Fortunately, 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 it to its previous, healthy state.
- Little Miss Snarker: The classic 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 man in the most dangerous ways possible - by maneuvering a pair of tweezers around his naked body while he is awake with seemingly no anesthesia, and inevitably hitting the metal edges at one point or another. Despite this, 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 oddly displays his shoulder directly aligned on his cheek.
- 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 featuring the ailment the player is to remove 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, strongly implying that no anesthesia was applied.
- Smelly Feet Gag: Operation Rescue Kit has a slice of cheese on Sam's feet named 'Cheesy Feet', referring to foot odor.
- Smoking Is Cool: Due to the era in which it was released, the original 1964 publication of the game depicted 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.
