Joking Hazard is an enjoyable party game in which you play to complete terrible/great jokes with friends! The rules are fairly simple: First, each player receives a pack of joke cards (the same type you would find in a joke book). The initial panel of each card is randomly chosen from the pack. Players may then attempt to make funny/wacky comments or make remarks about the drawn panels.
To qualify for a Joking Hazard game, players must be able to identify at least four different comics per panel. For bonus rounds, players must add a fourth panel to the already present panels. Bonus rounds can contain one regular round, two separate regular rounds, or one grand round. Once all players have used their four panels, the judges choose a winner and that player becomes the new “winner” and gains 1 point. The last remaining player is the loser, loses one point, and must replace all of their cards with a new pack.
Judges are individuals who regularly appear on a game show, called a “pared pick” or “performance,” where they act out a series of skits and jokes to help the audience understand the show. Each judge begins by selecting a random joke from their own deck. Then, after that group of jokes has been selected, each player chooses a card from the remaining deck, which is marked off with an “X.”
The player whose joke has been selected as the winner gets to choose a new joke from the remaining available panel cards. They then place all of those selected cards in the center of the table, face down. After that, each participant receives a mark on one or more of their cards, depending on how many other players there are. These marks are known as “chalk” and are used to help create a joke that’s based on the theme of the skit, rather than on the actual words that are found in the skit.
If a participant chooses to omit any of their card, the judge will replace it with another card. There are different ways to count these cards. Some simply count the number of people who’ve marked the cards – in this case, the person with the most chalk at the end wins. Some have a special type of tape or glue that allows people to easily remove their marks and put them in the new deck without having to worry about counting them. Some simply use a card of different color markers.
After all of the cards have been counted, the person with the most chalk at the end wins the game. A person who wins doesn’t necessarily have to be the player with the most cards at the end of the second panel. They simply win if the other players all chose a joke that was funny enough to make the judge laugh – and if everyone else in the panel did the same. This allows the judges to award points for the amount of in-your-face comedy provided by the players.
A joke that’s just too far off the wall can actually add points to a game. Sometimes a judge will request that a player take a gesture or body motion from one of the participants in the skit. This can add points to the game because of the added energy the presence of the unexpected motion brings. The same is true for the addition of new cards to a joke. Judges sometimes require a certain amount of setup time before each round of betting begins. When the time comes, adding in new cards can actually give you an advantage.
Another way to incorporate a joke into your joke game is to draw a picture from a happy webcomic. Each panel in the happy comic has a different happy face. If you draw a face for every person in the group who understands the joke, then every player will have a chance to draw a card with a joke twist. When you’ve drawn all of these faces, add in a new happy face and see how many people are happy about the situation. Adding in a joke element to your deck enhancement can really make things fun for everyone!
More resource: Short Jokes For Relationships: Advice On How To Make People Laugh