Scattergories

I'm not sure what made me think of it, but yesterday I was remembering a couple of different games of Scattergories I've played in the past, and how the game often ends up involving heated debates, mild racism, swearing and of course, much hilarity.

 

There are two such occasions I was pondering, one game with a group of friends, one with family.

 

The first memorable game was played with old friends and some new acquaintances. Now, in this situation, it can be hard to gage what these said-acquaintances will find humorous and what might touch a nerve.  It's fair to say my good friends understand my sense of humour, but I often receive looks of astonishment at some of the things I say, even when they are merely matter-of-fact statements, not meant to offend.

 

So the category was 'Things that are black', and the letter? O. The first thing to come to my mind? Oprah.

 

So I wrote it down, and when it came time to read out our answers and I said it out loud to the group, everyone was a little bit shocked but ended up doing that uncomfortable laughter thing that often happens at a funeral when someone says something inappropriate during a eulogy. So I was feeling slightly on guard, but technically, Oprah is a valid answer to said question. Imagine my delight, then, when another player mentioned they had also written Oprah for that category! No points there.

 

The other game involved my brother, nanna, auntie and cousin. The thing about playing a board game or cards with my nanna is, she is inevitably going to win. The phrase, as cunning as a shit-house rat comes to mind.

Some things are as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning, and nanna jumping and screaming every time the Scattergories buzzer goes off is one of them. So we are about halfway through a game, and the category is body parts, letter G.

 

We all start saying how it was challenging coming up with a body part starting with G, I had written gallbladder, my cousin had written genitals, and then my brother read what he had written. Gunt. (If you don't know what a gunt is, I'm not going to tell you here. Be resourceful, but careful when googling.)

 

Myself, my auntie and my cousin all immediately roared with laughter, mainly because of how inappropriate it was to be talking about gunts in front of my nanna. Nanna, by the way, hadn't heard what my brother had said, so she was sitting there saying, "What's so funny?", which of course, made it even more hilarious.

 

I have a hunch no one in my family will ever win an award for political correctness.