On Telephone-Pictionary

In which a game is introduced, misunderstandings arise, and Nazis stop by to say hello.


Have you ever been in a room of 8-12 people and wondered aloud, "What is an activity that we can all do and, more importantly, enjoy?"  I know when my friends and I find ourselves in this position an old standby is the wonderful game known as "Telephone-Pictionary."  This is an incredibly simple game that requires only pens, quarter sheets of paper, and your imagination¹.  Here is a quick introduction to the game.  For this demonstration imagine that there are 8 individuals playing.  Each person has in front of them 8 quarter sheets of paper and a pen.  Everyone writes a phrase of their choosing on the top sheet (often movie lines or song lyrics), once done you pass the entire stack of paper to your right.  The next person reads your phrase and must draw a pictorial representation of the phrase on the next sheet.  The stack is then passed again to the right and the next person must write a phrase based on what they think the drawing is this pattern of writing and drawing continues until the stack returns to the originator of the phrase.  Then everyone shares with the group the journey their phrase took.

A couple of additional notes.  Firstly, there are no winners or losers, so the game has a low level of pressure.  However, if you suck at drawing prepare to be mocked.  The purpose of the game is not for your phrase to make it all the way around, it is funnier when thing go awry.  Oh, and did I mention that the rounds are timed²?  Because they are, so draw quickly.

So this all may seem complicated to read about.  But no worries, I've got your back with an example from this very weekend.  Please note: all names have been changed to protect the innocent and terrible artists.

This is the phrase that starts off the game for this stack of papers, it was written by "Jack."  Once Jack writes this phrase he passes to the right to "Liz."  Liz then draws...

Not too bad Liz, we've got someone leaving and the other person is crying because of it.  Liz then passes the stack to "Jenna" who looks at the drawing and writes...

Alright, I can see where Jenna is got this, she then passes the words to "Tracy" and Tracy draws...

So we've now got Tracy's drawing of the Von Trapp family singing and waving goodbye, the stack is passed and "Topher" writes...

Whooooops³, looks like Topher kind got kind of confused, looks like that Nazi flag threw him a bit.  Well nothing to do but press on and see what "Cerie" drew...

Nicely done Cerie, those are some nice looking Nazis you've drawn there.  What does "Kenneth" have to say about all of this?

Yes, that does look like a shrinking Nazi, what wonderful art can "Frank" come up with based on this phrase?

Nicely done Frank.  And there you have it, from "Can't stand losing you" to "Shrinking Nazis" in eight easy steps.  So next time you find yourself sitting around thinking what you should do with yourself give Telephone-Pictionary a try, you won't regret it.

Well, you might regret it, especially if Jecca is playing...she is a little "wang obsessed."

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¹Imagination not included.
²The times are completely arbitrary.
³