The Terrible Party - A Social Experiment

[brinstar]

Sometimes people throw theme parties. For example, each party member has a celebrity pinned to the back of their shirt/blouse/whatever, and the other party members treat them as that celebrity. Sometimes there are contests built-in, like the first person to guess what's on their back gets a door prize or something. I went to a holiday party last year where everyone picked up a bracelet (like a LiveStrong type band) at the door that had a party persona on it-- antisocial, bitch, slut, perv, etc. and the hosts instructed us to behave as such as often as possible. Lots of fun, that party.

Anyway, today I thought about putting together a Terrible Party. I got this idea from several places, but mainly the anti-child-abuse commercial I saw the other day, in which a woman shares an elevator with a happy-looking man and his happy-looking daughter. When the elevator reaches their floor and the man and daughter leave, the woman sees that the back of his jacket says in all caps, "CHILD ABUSER" and yet she does nothing. The voiceover comes in and says something like "It's never this easy to tell whether someone abuses their child. If you suspect something, do something."

So the rules for The Terrible Party might be as such:
1. When you arrive, you choose a sealed envelope and hand it to the host.
2. While standing behind you, the host opens the envelope and pins the Secret to the back of your clothing.
3. The host then has you pin the Character to your front, and explains that this is how you should act.
4. The Secret and Character sheets are specifically related to each other, no trading or peeking!
THE FOLLOWING RULES ARE OPTIONAL
5. Halfway through the predetermined duration of The Terrible Party social experiment, the host announces that a terrible catastrophe has occurred, and only 25% of the participants will "survive"-- and that they must choose who "dies."
6. At the end of the duration, the participants will go through rounds of voting, wherein each round dismisses two players.
7. Once voting is complete, everyone will be allowed to read their own secret.

I haven't completely nailed down the rules yet, or decided whether to leave out the "elimination" part of it. Also, though this would probably be much easier at a private residence, having The Terrible Party in public would certainly add a new element.

Here are some ideas I had for the player sets. Some are based on real events, some I just made up. Some may seem backwards, but that's on purpose!

Front/Back

• I love my wife! / I love my wife's best friend
• I teach kindergarten because I love kids / I can't have children of my own
• I want to run for public office / I won't because my opponents will discover my infidelity
• I am a convicted murderer / I am innocent, but I am protecting my son
• I am everyone's best friend / The medications have buried my real personality
• I am a compassionate minister / I have given STDs to 13 people at my church
• Proud veteran / My squad burned an entire village of women and children
• My family was killed in an accident / My family left me because of my drinking
• I am homeless and I smell bad / I wrote dozens of beautiful symphonies and they were stolen
• I help people solve their problems / I will die alone
• I am a recovering gambling addict / I am a cocaine addict
• I make an honest living as a handyman / I have stolen over $50,000 from elderly clients
• I make pornographic movies / I volunteer over 60 hours a week at homeless shelters
• I am in college to become a marine biologist / I plan to drown myself in the ocean

What do you guys think? What would make this idea more interesting? Would YOU go to a Terrible Party?

[Evermore]

add


I am a thief and a liar/I am a recovering politician

[vonkaar]

I think I need new friends... I would have fun doing something like this but I think all of my friends are too shallow to enjoy it. Three beer bongs later everyone would 'suddenly' choose the, "closet alcoholic who never learned how to drink socially" card and flaunt it.

[Gypsiyee]

I would totally go, that's such a nice contrasting difference from beer pong o.O

[leah]

some of the combos you came up with made me saaaad

[brinstar]

that's the point

that's where "terrible" comes from

[Harrison]

I'm totally going to steal that for my birthday. I'll give you credit, though they won't know you anyways.


17th

[brinstar]

go right ahead man

i realize the plan needs some fine tuning, i bounced it off some friends and they raised many concerns i hadn't thought of

but i still think it'll make for a hell of an interesting event

[Dylan]

I'll give you credit, though they won't know you anyways.

What if they did though?

And were all like "Hay when you see Brinstar tell him I said psshsshhshshhhhhhsssssshhh"

[araby]

I think it's a neat idea, I just feel like I don't quite understand the rules, though I know it's being thought out still. I've never been to a theme party and would definitely go along with it.

[kinghooter00]

i've been wanting to start a theme party, but just can't seem to get enough people together.

[Evermore]

thats because no one likes you.










j/k

[kinghooter00]

that can be the theme....

[Kramer]

hmmmmm.... wonder where this thread will go.