The best-documented celebrity Rock Paper Scissors games happened on talk shows, above all Jimmy Fallon's "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie", played with guests such as Lucy Liu, Jennifer Garner and Jada Pinkett Smith. Beyond that, the list of on-camera celebrity games that can actually be sourced is shorter than many websites suggest, so this page sticks to appearances with a clip or a news report behind them.
A quick note on what is not here
Older versions of this article, and plenty of other sites, repeated stories that do not hold up. The claim that Rock Paper Scissors "saved Drew Barrymore's life" is one of them: I searched for any interview, article or clip supporting it and found nothing, so treat it as invented. The same goes for vague claims that a given star is a "huge RPS fan" with no source. If you have a real clip we have missed, I would like to see it.
The sourced list
| Who | Where | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Lucy Liu | Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) | Played Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie against Fallon |
| Jennifer Garner | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, March 2015 | Played the Pie version and took a pie to the face |
| Jada Pinkett Smith | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon | Played Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie; NBC hosts the clip |
| Ellen DeGeneres | The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 2003 | Took on a world Rock Paper Scissors champion in the studio |
| Keisuke Honda | Pepsi Japan campaigns, 2019 and 2020 | Played the public on Twitter for free cola in 2019, then WRPSA world champion Ken Watson in a filmed 2020 match |
| Dwayne Johnson | Rampage press junket, 2018 | Recreated the "The Rock, The Paper, The Scissors" meme himself |
Jimmy Fallon's Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie
Fallon has done more for celebrity Rock Paper Scissors than anyone. The format is simple: normal rock paper scissors, but the loser of each round turns a crank on a pie-throwing machine sitting in front of their own face. The machine fires at random, so every loss is a small gamble. The tension is real and so is the whipped cream.
Lucy Liu played it on Late Night, before Fallon moved to The Tonight Show. When he brought it back on The Tonight Show in 2015, Jennifer Garner was the guest, and outlets including Rolling Stone and HuffPost wrote it up. Jada Pinkett Smith is among the later guests, and NBC still hosts that clip on its site.
From a strategy point of view these games are pure chaos. Guests are laughing, watching the machine, and not thinking about patterns, which is exactly when people fall back on habits like opening with rock. Our own data shows rock is the most common first throw; see how to predict your opponent for why.
Ellen and the world champion
In November 2003 Ellen DeGeneres invited a reigning world Rock Paper Scissors champion onto her show for a game on air. The show's own clip is titled "Ellen Meets the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion!". It is a good example of how the old competitive circuit, run then by the now-defunct World RPS Society in Toronto, briefly crossed into mainstream TV. For the real champions of that era, read the world's greatest Rock Paper Scissors champions.
Keisuke Honda and Pepsi Japan
In April 2019 Pepsi Japan ran a Twitter campaign in which people could play janken against the Japanese footballer Keisuke Honda, with free drinks for winners. It turned into a small controversy over how rarely anyone won. In 2020 Pepsi Japan followed up with a filmed match, "Honda and Rock Paper Scissors 2020", flying WRPSA world champion Ken "Whitey" Watson to Brazil to face Honda. The full story is in Keisuke Honda vs Ken Watson.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Johnson did not play a match, but he did the next best thing: in 2018 he recreated the internet joke that pictures him as "The Rock", "The Paper" and "The Scissors". We cover it in detail in the Dwayne Johnson rock paper scissors meme.
Honourable mention: the cast of The Big Bang Theory
Jim Parsons, as Sheldon Cooper, explained Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock in the 2008 episode "The Lizard-Spock Expansion", which is how millions of people learned the five-move game. It is scripted acting rather than a real game, but it is the most famous on-screen RPS moment of all. See Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock for the rules, and pop culture for more TV and film appearances.
Why talk shows love it
Rock Paper Scissors needs no equipment, no explanation, and resolves in seconds. Add a stake, a pie or a free drink, and every throw gets a reaction. That is ideal television, and it is also why the game works so well at parties and events. If you want to try it without the pie, you can play online for free.
FAQ
Did Rock Paper Scissors save Drew Barrymore's life?
There is no evidence for this. I could not find any interview, article or recording that supports the story.
Which celebrity has played Rock Paper Scissors the most on TV?
Jimmy Fallon, by a wide margin, through his recurring Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie segment.
Has a celebrity ever won a Rock Paper Scissors championship?
Not that we can verify. The historical championship winners were ordinary competitive players.