Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Games That I Invented That Are Fun
Celebrity Sighting! With a group of friends (paid actors will work in a pinch, if you do not have friends) sit along a public street or thoroughfare. Take turns identifying each person who walks by as a specific celebrity, as in "Look, it’s Tobey Maguire! Someone slap him!" or "Oh, there’s Kirstie Alley! I read about her struggle with weight gain in People Magazine!" (Hint: Given the un-celebrity-like appearances of many real people, it may be useful to have an arsenal of uglier celebrities—the Steve Buscemis and Camryn Mannheims—at your disposal.) The first person unable to quickly come up with a semi-plausible identification loses, but come on, when celebrities get mocked we all win.
Overrated/Underrated. This game can also be played with celebrities, but it’s more fun to use people from your office, bowling league, or synagogue. As a group, the players name and discuss individuals they know and analyze whether those individuals are overrated or underrated as overall human beings. Remember, the question is not the quality of the individual so much as how that quality compares to the person’s reputation. So Mother Teresa, while a genuinely selfless, caring, delightful human being, must be deemed overrated given the unparalled amount of "sainthood" press she’s received, while my sophomore year roommate, who had screaming fights with himself, never washed his hair, and worshiped the band Queensryche, got mocked enough for any three hopelessly-out-of-touch obsessive compulsives, and thus earns the underrated designation. It’s the precise distinctions that make this fun. Oh, and the mocking of people.
The Bad Joke Game. With several accomplices in the room, tell a really bad joke that literally makes no sense. Seriously. Combine some words in random order and start laughing to yourself while you tell it like it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever heard. Mine is always about a black bear and a white bear who go over a mountain, at which point the black bear tells the white bear he’s got a TV on his back. See? It makes no sense. But your accomplices will start laughing like crazy, making everyone else in the room feel insecure like maybe they’re just not getting the joke, until they eventually pretend that they do get it and start laughing as well. Then your own laughter becomes genuine. Playing with people’s minds is, you guessed it, fun.
Celebrity Sighting! With a group of friends (paid actors will work in a pinch, if you do not have friends) sit along a public street or thoroughfare. Take turns identifying each person who walks by as a specific celebrity, as in "Look, it’s Tobey Maguire! Someone slap him!" or "Oh, there’s Kirstie Alley! I read about her struggle with weight gain in People Magazine!" (Hint: Given the un-celebrity-like appearances of many real people, it may be useful to have an arsenal of uglier celebrities—the Steve Buscemis and Camryn Mannheims—at your disposal.) The first person unable to quickly come up with a semi-plausible identification loses, but come on, when celebrities get mocked we all win.
Overrated/Underrated. This game can also be played with celebrities, but it’s more fun to use people from your office, bowling league, or synagogue. As a group, the players name and discuss individuals they know and analyze whether those individuals are overrated or underrated as overall human beings. Remember, the question is not the quality of the individual so much as how that quality compares to the person’s reputation. So Mother Teresa, while a genuinely selfless, caring, delightful human being, must be deemed overrated given the unparalled amount of "sainthood" press she’s received, while my sophomore year roommate, who had screaming fights with himself, never washed his hair, and worshiped the band Queensryche, got mocked enough for any three hopelessly-out-of-touch obsessive compulsives, and thus earns the underrated designation. It’s the precise distinctions that make this fun. Oh, and the mocking of people.
The Bad Joke Game. With several accomplices in the room, tell a really bad joke that literally makes no sense. Seriously. Combine some words in random order and start laughing to yourself while you tell it like it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever heard. Mine is always about a black bear and a white bear who go over a mountain, at which point the black bear tells the white bear he’s got a TV on his back. See? It makes no sense. But your accomplices will start laughing like crazy, making everyone else in the room feel insecure like maybe they’re just not getting the joke, until they eventually pretend that they do get it and start laughing as well. Then your own laughter becomes genuine. Playing with people’s minds is, you guessed it, fun.
