Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers

Looking for a new party game that will involves plenty of funny punning? Or funny puns?  Father-Daughter duo Fred & Jo Firestone have created a game based on a live game show "The Punderdome."  This clever little game comes all complete in a cute and sturdy little box.  Given the compact nature of the game, it's a great grab-n-go game to take in the car, on a picnic, to family reunions--wherever you want to add a spark of fun to a gathering.

Game contents include:

• Instructions (on very durable cardstock!)
• Card with examples of puns 
• 2 Mystery Envelopes
• Pad of paper to write out mystery prize
• 2 smaller pads of paper to write out puns
• 100 White cards
• 100 Green cards

Players provide:

• writing utensils
• timer
• Mystery prizes

To play the game, one person needs to be the "Prompter."  A minimum of two other players are needed to play the game.  The prompter draws one white card and one green card and then reads aloud the Quick Pun question (from the back of either green or white card). First person to respond with any pun that answers the question (either the one on the card or some other clever answer) wins 30 bonus seconds for the next round in the game.  

Players are given 90 seconds (winner of Quick Pun, would have 2 minutes) to write out a pun that relates the word on the white card (topics) with the word on the green card (situations).  Players turn in their puns to the prompter who shuffles them and reads them all aloud (players should have no identifying info on their paper).  Prompter selects a winner based on their preference. Writer of winning pun is awarded the pair of white & green cards and then becomes the next prompter.  Game winner is first person (or team) to collect ten pairs of cards.

A fun twist to the game is the Mystery prize. The first prompter can write down what the prize will be for the winners.  Doesn't have to be anything big but it should definitely be creative!. The game could certainly be played without a Mystery prize at all.  

The game can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone who can understand puns (makers recommend 12 and up). The game doesn't have to be played as described, it can just be a good mental exercise or boredom buster.  My 13 year old and I just pulled out card pairs and tried our hand at some puns. Reading through some of the Quick Pun questions is a great language activity.  Could be fun to put out a pair of cards each day and let family members write out their puns during  the day and then read them aloud around the dinner table. Or try creating puns during a long car ride. Just grab cards and brainstorm together.  Once you shuffle each deck, you'll have an infinite number of word combinations for puns.  If used with younger players, I would preview the cards; there were words that could lead to some inappropriate responses (depending on the players involved), or some words that may not be understood. Just take those cards out of circulation.

Make sure to include Punderdome in the activities at your next reunion, vacation, summer barbecue or Christmas gathering!  It's a great way to exercise your brain and your abdominal muscles (from laughing!). 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Punderdome from Blogging for Books for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.