At our Small Group New Year’s Eve party, we played The Newlywed Game. It was way too much fun, or at least way too much fun for our kids to sleep through (I think our constant laughter MIGHT have had something to do with the also-constant stream of children coming back downstairs).
I highly recommend playing with your friends, but here are 12 things that we all learned while playing and/or picking the questions:
- If you pick the question “Who would your husband say was the most attractive to the opposite sex – you or himself?”, there will ALWAYS be one guy who chooses himself. If you happen to have a guess as to who that might be, it’s always best to let them answer last – for dramatic effect, after all of the other wives say “Well, I’m sure my husband said I am, because NO husband would EVER be stupid enough to answer ‘himself’.”
- The REAL winners of the game are the couple might have come in last, but in answering all of their questions, managed to compliment each other so much that you can literally SEE them falling more in love.
(Couple in #1 and Couple in #2 are typically NOT the same couple. Shocker, I know.)
- Husbands tend to overthink their answers, so wives need to overthink overthinking their answers to match their husband’s overthunkedness.
- Asking the question “What is your pet name for your husband?” will most certainly add more fodder for the husbands to make fun of each other.
- When getting questions off of the internet, make sure that you thoroughly go through them and mark usable first. There will be questions that you really, really don’t want to know your friend’s answers to.
- Also – make sure if you swap up emcee-ing with someone else, that they know to ONLY ASK THE MARKED QUESTIONS.
- One thing in particular to keep in mind in this choosing process: If you’re playing with your closest friends, take that into consideration this fact when picking questions. Don’t ask any of the questions that have ANYTHING to do with who their most attractive friend is, who of your friends you would marry if your spouse weren’t around, etc.
Some questions just work better on the gameshow with random strangers than in a group of friends.
AWKWARD.
- Sometimes, your spouse knows you better than yourself, and when they explain why they answered the way they did, you are likely to say, “Oh – You are SO right!”, or “That would have been a better answer than the one I gave!”
(It’s a real shame that you can’t get bonus points for these types of answers.)
(Or that couple in fact #2 might have won the game.)
- The question “What sound does your husband imitate best?” Will get many varied responses. For maximum benefit, make sure that they are made to share said imitations with the crowd. Personally, I’m pretty proud of Chris and I for both coming up with his best imitation “The Old British Lady.” The influences of Monty Python run deeply in our household…
- If you disappoint your husband by coming up with a less favorable response than he hoped, be sure to overcompensate on the next round – even if you know that it means that you won’t get a point. Trust me, it’s worth it.
- Oddly enough, The Newlywed Game is called that for a reason – people who have been married the least amount of time always beat the ones who have been married the longest amount of time.
(That may be due to the #3 “overthinking” thing.)
- And finally, When giving the answer to the question “Who was the last person you dated before you were married”, make sure you answer in the LEAST excited voice possible – your tone should not ever come across as regretful, excited, or as if you are wistfully remembering the good ole’ days.
hahaha! The dangers of overthunkedness! My husband and I would lose for sure.
We had a great time playing! We even played at little mini round with Ryan's parents last weekend. :)
We played with a group from church about 10 years ago and they are still talking about some of Jay's answers!
We played Battle of the Sexes at our New Year's Eve get-together…all of your observations work for that game as well. Very funny!!
We did fall in love all over again, and we had an absolute blast coming in dead last! We're ready to be big fat losers again next year!! I will be practicing my overthinkingness skills in the meantime!
Your small group sounds like such a blast!
10 years ago we got married at one of those all inclusive resorts in Jamaica. We played the Newly Wed game in front of a crowd just like the tv show and my husband totally went #2 on me. But um, I, well, it was 10 years ago and I tried much harder to be cool back then. I think all the women were totally in love with David but everybody did think I was really funny….ah, well….sucker still loves me….hehehehe
HAHA so true! our church did a version of this at a Valentines banquet a few years ago and well, let's just say I wish they had gone through and marked the usable questions first.
and at that time, we had only been married a couple of years, and we won! yep, the newlyweds have it!
We played this at one of our small group gatherings a while back. I actually had the board game. I had to seriously go through the questions before we played. Some of those questions could either cause discord or honestly do I really want to know some of these things about my friends. (: My favorite was whether or not the husbands knew what underwear their wives were wearing. It was fun and we still talk about it. Let me know if you found out anything juicy. (:
April
Haha, sounds like you had a lot of fun! We actually won a version of that game the other day at a dinner party! Surprising since we are usually really bad overthinkers! :)
Mark and I have not played this in 15 years and I have a feeling our answers would be pretty boring now.
You are so right on #3 though.
I was in charge of the "Not So Newlywed Game" a couple of times at church. I made up the questions, so I could totally mess with folks if I wanted to. We learned some REALLY interesting things about a lot of people. I think our pastor and his wife came in last both times.
We'd definately be the overthinkers! haha!! Sounds like ya'll had a blast!
I used to love the Newlywed game as a kid! I would make lists of things in my head to make sure my future husband would know so we could go on the show. Your list is hilarious!
I think we would be Couple #1. My husband likes to pretend he is the funny/pretty/smart one but we both know he married up. Haha!
LOL! This sounds like fun.
But I know I would totally be one of those wives who smacks their husband with a pillow. :)
That sounds like a lot of fun. And you're right, some questions are better left unasked and unanswered! I need to find some gaming friends!
Oh my, sounds like a blast! I just got asked to play with hubby at a couples shower next month. I'll have to share this with him so we can be strategical! lol
ha! I can only imagine how that went with Chuck and Greg involved…lol!
glad yall had fun!