This Week in Pinoy Parlor Games

This Week in Pinoy Parlor Games

Last year (2024) saw a sudden spurt in the number of creative party games or parlor games. In our home last Christmas, my siblings, nephews, and nieces tried almost all of those games, to cacophonous results.

Among my favorites is the one where several singers line up in front of the videoke to take turns singing lines of a usually high-register song. The game is a great opportunity for those gifted with the voice but a laughable disaster for those who are not as gifted, and that's where the fun of the game partly lies. A group of gay comics made this into a comedic sketch, to lots of laughter.

Another favorite is the very physical yet cerebral game "Eh Ikaw?" currently made popular by the comedy group SPIT. Look it up, in case you don't know what I'm talking about.

These novel games have ushered in a, er, golden era in Philippine party games.

This year, new party games trended. One of them is the Whitney Houston drum challenge, in which the player bangs an improvised drum at the exact time the bass drum is banged in the hit song, "I Will Always Love You." I was able to try it at one Christmas party, and it was harder than I thought. It was either you hit the drum a second too soon or hit it a second too late. Annoying but hilarious.

Another game that became popular is blowing candles using paper plates. I don't know why, but my inner killjoy hates it, haha. The sight of a queue of players furiously fanning the little flame using their mouth -- to no avail -- is not exactly a pretty sight to behold.

Yet another new game trended at this year's Christmas parties, but it is more of an 'exchange gifts' mechanics, so it is called Exchange Gift Colors game. (I am reminded of an earlier one called White Elephant gift exchange, a hilarious game in which participants keep on stealing gifts from each other.)

Mechanics: Players each bring a brown bag of assorted gift items based on a pre-chosen theme (e.g., something green). The number of items should be exactly the same as the number of members. One by one, each member throws out the contents, and members scramble to get the items they prefer, each one fearing to be left with the most unwanted items (the ones that end up as useless items, except as all-year-round dust gatherer and 100% sure toe injurer). The group erupts in tumultuous shouts and laughter, and the building sustains cracks as a result.

Fun, funny times.