The king elephant starts the game by raising his/her signal and then the signal of another animal player. The chosen player makes a signal of their own animal as well as that of another animal. The play goes on with these sorts of interchanges until one player makes a mistake. This player becomes the last person in the play circle while the rest of the players move up.

The purpose of the game is for each player to try and become the king elephant. The king elephant however, can only be overthrown by a mistake being committed and the assumption of the identity by a new king elephant. From here it is easy to depose the rest of the king elephants, since it is easy for them to confuse their previous animal signals with the new elephants signal.

It is a good indoor party game that can be played by between eight to fifteen players. It does not demand any special props. Since it is a rhythm game players need to stay on beat and rise quickly when called to. The rhythm is in a 1-2-3-4 pattern where 1 is a pat to the knee, 2 a clap and 2 and 4 the right and left thumbs or signals. So starting from the king elephant all other players repeat the four patterns.

Here are some people enjoying a game of King Elephant: