Do you remember that game 'telephone' where you whisper a message to the person next to you and they whisper to another person and so on until at the end you end up with something that may or may not resemble the original message? This is kinda like that but instead of whispering words you pass pictures and then describe them. Then the description gets passed and the next person draws a picture. The translation from pictures to words and back again by a series of different people has some surprising results that I hope will not only demonstrate the subjective nature of language but also make you laugh. If you still don't get it there's a more detailed description at the bottom of the page. Here are some examples I've done with my friends:
I highly recommend you try it out yourself.
Here's what you'll need:Count the number of people in your group and give that many blank cards to each person. For example, if you have 6 people then you'll need 6 cards for each person. Each person stacks their cards together and thinks of something to write on the top card. This can be a sentence, phrase, object, idea or anything else that you think of. When you're done, pass your pile to the left, face-down, and wait until everyone else does the same thing. Pick up your new pile and look at the top card. After you read it, put it on the bottom of the pile to hide it from everyone else. Use the blank top card to draw a picture of what it says. Again, when you're done just pass it to the person on your left, face-down.When everyone is ready, pick up your new pile and look at the picture on top. Now you have to try and guess what the original words were from the picture. Don't think about it too much. Just go with your first impression if you have any doubts. And don't forget to put that picture card on the back so that the next person doesn't accidentally see it(just like you did with the text-card before). Your interpretation of the drawing should be on top, so go ahead and pass it to the left. The game is over when all the cards are used up. There are no official winners or losers, but unoffically I'd like to think that the winner is the person who draws the best picture and the loser is the person with the least accurate interpretation of a drawing.
So that's the whole game. To recap, it goes like this:
