TV Drinking Games

About

TV Drinking Games, also known as Show Drinking Games, refers to a series of fan-made drinking games with specific cues based on in-jokes, character attributes, catchphrases, tropes or other distinct characteristics of a television show or broadcast event. The fan-created rules of each game differ and are meant to be read as a series of jokes about the show. Often combined with some sort of unique imagery from the show for identification purposes, the instructions usually follow a "Take a sip when…" or "Take a shot when.." or "Chug when…" format.

Origin

The precise origin of television-themed drinking game images remains unknown. However, the earliest known instance is based on the 2000s American comedy drama series Gilmore Girls, posted by GilmoreGirls.org^[4] forum user SydneyGirl in a thread titled “Gilmore Girls Drinking Game” on June 28th, 2006. The post was viewed 41,825 times.

Precursor

The 1987 black comedy Withnail and I is an early example of a drinking game being tied to a film or television show ^[7]. There are several sites, including DrinkWiki ^[2] and Barmeister.com ^[3] which aggregate the rules of TV-based drinking games. Newer blogs with sections devoted to Drinking Games, like the Drunken Moogle, often combine the image and text format for the games they invent. ^[8]

Spread

In 2008, shareable images of drinking game instructions appeared on several different publications and blogs. On October 15th, 2008 The Gray Flannel Suit posted an article about playing a drinking game to go along with the show Little People, Big World (shown below, left), illustrated by an image of the rules of the game transposed on a publicity shot from the show ^[5]. On November 8th, 2008, New Zealand culture site Throng created a similar image to explain the rules of a drinking game based in the 2008 New Zealand presidential election^[6] (shown below, right).

 

Show Drinking Game images spread in tandem with the television seasons, peaking during premiers, sweeps weeks, award shows, and series finales, when people often gather for themed parties. In addition to fan-created images, many TV Drinking Games are created by the promotional teams of television shows or publications. After sporadic creation throughout the early 2000s, several separate images became popular concurrently in the second half of 2011, coinciding with the premiere season. On October 27, 2011, Funny or Die blogger YouAreNowDrunk created and posted "Community Season 3-I-N-G-O"^[9], a Bingo-like TV drinking game based on an episode of American TV sitcom Community. Some more recent popular examples include the Adventure Time Drinking Game posted on FunnyJunk, which received 17,363 views,^[10] and Tumblr user keefaction's Hannibal drinking game, posted on February 20th, 2014, which received 15,038 notes ^[11].

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References