PREPWORK.
1. Get together with a bunch of friends. Any number will do. The more, the better. Divide said bunch of friends into two teams.
2. Get a bunch of blank pieces of paper. 3×5 cards ripped in half work nicely.
3. Distribute a number of blank papers to each person playing the game. Anywhere between 5 and 7 papers per player is a good number.
4. Have each player write a different “clue” (noun) on each piece of paper. Examples of nouns I’ve seen played: Tuba, Crabs, Ron Swanson, Michael Jackson, 4th Degree Laceration, Pi (3.14).
5. Fold all of the papers in half, and throw them into a large bowl. Mix’em up real good.
GAMETIME.
ROUND ONE: CATCH PHRASE
Set a timer for 1 minute. Each player has one minute to “Catch Phrase” as many of the clues/nouns as he/she can. After his/her one minute is up, a player from the other team takes a turn. Continue alternating teams until all of the clues from the bowl are used. Each team scores 1 point for each correctly guessed clue. (Note: In each round, when the last clue is answered, have the player yell “TIME!” so the timer can be stopped. That player will begin the next round, and will use only the time remaining. So, for example, if they used 30 seconds to finish the Catch Phrase round, they will have 30 seconds to play the first turn of Round #2).
Examples: (Clue: Crabs) “This is an STD! And also, SEAFOOD!”
ROUND TWO: CHARADES
Put all of the clues back into the bowl*. (*Using the same words again creates a ‘word bank’ which helps make the next three rounds possible.) Set a timer for 1 minute. Each player has one minute to silently act out as many clues as he/she can. Classic charades rules apply. No noise allowed. Continue to alternate turns between teams until all the clues are gone. Each team scores 1 point for each correctly guessed clue.
ROUND THREE: ONE WORD
Put all of the clues back into the bowl. Set a timer for 1 minute. Each player has one minute to elicit as many correct guesses as he/she can from his/her teammates by saying ONLY ONE word. Any “uh”s or “um”s count as the one word, and the players team must just guess by recalling as many of the words in the wordbank as they can. No gesturing of any kind allowed. Just the one word.
Examples: STD! (crabs); MUSTACHE! (Ron Swanson); BRASS! (Tuba); THRILLER! (Michael Jackson)
ROUND FOUR: SOUND EFFECTS
Put all of the clues back into the bowl. Set a timer for 1 minute. Each player has one minute to elicit as many correct guesses as he/she can from his/her teammates by only making noises. No words allowed. This round is undoubtedly the most difficult, because the OTHER rule for this round is that all of the player’s teammates have to close their eyes, so that they can’t see any gestures that the player is making. If the player is smart, he/she will not make any gestures, because the other team will most certainly be watching, and they will have an advantage if you get stuck on a noise that your teammates can’t figure out because they can’t see you riding your imaginary bucking bronco. (But, just so you know, not gesturing at all during this round? That’s almost impossible.)
Examples: Scampering noise (CRABS!); Tuba sound (TUBA!); Humming Thriller (MICHAEL JACKSON!) Humming Africa* by Todo (SARAH HOOD! [A girl on the ski trip who's about to move to Africa])
The team with the most number of correctly guessed clues at the end of Round 4 wins.
Y’all. Go play this game. Then come back, and tell me how much you loved it. It’s pretty outrageously fun. It should be noted, by the way, that I recommend using double entendres for all your nouns, (BUSH!), because that’s just how I roll. It makes the sound effect part way, way more fun.
*That was my brilliant move, by the way. Not an easy clue, but they toooootally got it. Booyah.
