Flunkyball

Hello again! I write this post not because I have fun stories to tell (although the last few days have been thrilling enough), but because I have discovered a wonderful new game. It is from Germany, introduced to me by Eike's overly competitive friend Philip, and it's called Flunkyball.

Now is the part where I wonder to myself why I've decided to write this post about Flunkyball, given that I have no pictures of us playing it and I can't easily demonstrate gameplay, but I'm going to try to explain it to the best of my ability:

To play Flunkyball, you need a tennis ball and a mostly empty plastic bottle, partially filled with water to prevent it from tipping over on its own. Each person playing also needs a freshly opened beer. You split the group into two teams, put the bottle in the middle, then measure off paces to each side, where you make a line and set each beer down along it, with the drinkers standing directly behind.

You then have to perform the Flunkyball "theme," which I cannot possibly describe in a text-only environment, so I'm not even going to try. I'll just have to teach you all when I return.

Then game play starts. The first team throws the tennis ball at the bottle, trying to knock it over. If they succeed, every member of that team begins chugging their beer while the members of the other team scramble to retrieve the tennis ball, straighten the bottle and get back behind their line. When the second team makes it back, they shout "STOP!" and the first team has to stop drinking, and it becomes the second team's turn to throw. This goes on, back and forth, until all of the people on one team have finished drinking.

Every member of the team has to take a turn throwing, so you just move down the line. If the tennis ball misses the bottle, it's the other team's turn. If you tip your bottle upside down after you've declared it "finished," and even the tiniest drop falls out, you have to start a new beer. If the tennis ball hits your beer and knocks it over, you have to start a new beer. You may or may not be allowed to protect your beer to prevent it from tipping over, depending on what all the players agreed on at the beginning of the game.

And that's how you play Flunkyball, a game that I am utterly terrible at, although we were playing it in the dark so that's my excuse. Yes, UW students, we will all be playing this game next year. You can count on that.

In other news, if you haven't already, go see Inception. It's not perfect, but it's more than worth your money for the experience. See it in IMAX if you can.

Much love,
Morgan