A Drinking Game for Every Movie

2 Oct, 2013

Pop culture has inspired its fair share of traditions over the years, with one of the most enduring stalwarts being the drinking game. You know how it works … gathering around the TV with your friends and a favorite cocktail, and imbibe that beverage when the program reaches a particular occurrence, such as the utterance of a well-worn phrase.

For example, if you’re watching “The Big Bang Theory,” you could take a sip every time Sheldon says “Bazinga,” or a shot every time Raj talks to a girl.

It can literally be anything agreed upon by the group. If it can be put on a screen, then someone can figure out a drinking game for it.

If it helps, come up with a few standing rules that could apply to anything you watch. My brother and I years ago came up with a standing rule to drink every time a performer who has died in real life appears on the screen (call it a show of respect, if you will).

We dubbed it the "Benoit Rule," after pro wrestling superstar Chris Benoit. Shortly after Benoit tragically killed himself and his family in 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment reportedly started editing him out of the archive footage they used on TV and released on DVD, with the notable exception of the 2004 Royale Rumble, which he won. (For those who don’t know, the Royale Rumble is one of the WWE’s biggest matches of a given year, so it would have been difficult to leave off the whole match from the anthology DVD sets released in 2008.)

Like many a young American, my brother and I had been fans of pro wrestling in our youth (I was fascinated by the storytelling aspects of it), and though our interest waned in adulthood, the DVDs released en masse over the past few years were always good for nostalgia. So the original idea behind the Benoit rule was that, if he was going to be cut out of the shows, then when he did appear we would take a drink. And then we noticed other wrestlers on the DVDs had since passed away (Mr. Perfect being a notable example), so we expanded the rule to include the appearance of any wrestler who was now dead. And so on and so forth, until we just started doing it for any movie or TV show we were watching.

That’s just one example of a rule people could come up with if they want to play a drinking game while watching something. And for those who don’t want to think too hard about it, there are plenty of variations to be found online.

In fact, Ulysses Press just put out a book called Lights Camera Booze: Drinking Games for You Favorite Movies, which should be a good starting point for anyone looking to liven up their movie nights at home. The book offers rules for 33 movies, plus a cocktail recipe tailored for each film, as well as trivia and other activities.

Some of the movies include Back to the Future, American Pie, Ghostbusters, The Hangover, The Goonies and Pulp Fiction. The rules themselves are listed with stylized text and sketches that can be a little distracting, but they should do the trick.

Or, make up your own. You never know what new details you might uncover about your favorite movies or TV shows when the conditions are right.