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Players: 1-4 couples
Playing Time: About 30 minutes
When I was a kid, I loved watching reruns of the old Newlywed Game on TV. All the silly answers and the hitting each other with pillows—it was so much fun to watch. I was thought it was funny that the newlyweds could never seem to match their answers—but now that I’ve actually played The Newlywed Game, I understand why.
If you’ve seen the TV game show, you’ll know how to play the game. Before the game can begin, though, you need to go through a few minutes of setup. Using your DVD’s remote, you’ll need to enter the number of couples who will be playing at home—and choose whether or not you’ll be playing with a TV couple. If you decide to play with a TV couple, you also get to choose which couple you’ll play against (there are 30 to choose from). Finally, you take a guess at your final score and write down your guess (you’ll need that in case of a tie). Then you’re ready to play.
The game is divided into two rounds, each with three questions. In the first round, the husbands try to guess how the wives will answer. The question appears on the screen, and the husband writes his guess on the Answer Board that’s provided. If he correctly matches his wife’s answer, they get five points. If not, he gets a pillow to the face.
After three questions, the teams switch places. In round two, the wives try to guess how their husbands will answer—and each correct guess is worth 10 points.
At the end of two rounds, the couple with the most points wins. If there’s a tie, the couple that came the closest to guessing their final score wins.
The Newlywed Game isn’t as easy as it looks. The questions (which come straight from the old TV show) are often difficult to answer—and, contrary to what you might think, the longer you’ve been married, the more difficult they can be to answer. And they’re almost always ambiguous. Just about every question is open to interpretation. For instance, one of the questions is “Who of your wife’s friends and acquaintances will she say has the most masculine voice?” Hmmm…is that supposed to be a female acquaintance with a masculine voice or a male acquaintance with a masculine voice? Or how about “Where will your husband say he’s the most lethargic?” Is that a physical location (she says: “in bed in the morning”) or a body part (he says: “my hands”)? Other questions are just plain strange (“Who would your husband say is his favorite cowgirl?”).
And that, my friends, is what makes the game so frustrating for those playing—and so entertaining for those watching at home.
So if you’re seriously competitive (or easily embarrassed), you’ll find this game absolutely maddening. But if you can maintain a solid sense of humor about the whole thing, you’ll have fun playing The Newlywed Game: DVD Edition. It makes for a fun (though embarrassing) party game—and, along the way, you’re sure to discover a few things about your friends that you’ll be able to use against them later.
