Cost:$20.00 [Now out of print. --Peter] From: Pressman Players: 3-6 (the more, the better) Playing Time: 40-60 minutes Type of game: Party Complexity: 3 Skill level: 7 Summary: Hilarious sleeper hit. Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 1.2, October 1992
I detest the tabloids. But I have to admit, every now and then I leaf through one while waiting in line at a supermarket, just for laughs. It's often hard to resist the bizarre headlines peeking out from the magazine rack. Taboid Teasers transforms these headlines into a hilarious game of absurdity.
The game comes with 360 actual headlines from real tabloids like National Enquirer and (my personal favorite) the Weekly World News. But a key part of each headline is left blank. One each turn, someone reads one of these edited headlines and players fill in the blank with their own wacky ideas. These are passed to the reader who shuffles them together and reads them aloud, along with the real, completed headline as it actually appeared in a tabloid. Players then vote for the headline they believe was the real one. Players advance along the board for guessing the correct headline, and also for every vote their own headline receives. The first player to reach the end of the board wins.
The voting mechanism is nothing new, having appeared in similar bluffing games like Balderdash. But games like Balderdash suffer from requiring a lot of creativity and quick thinking in order to win-- skills many players aren't comfortable with. Tabloid Teasers, on the other hand, is remarkably simple. We've all marveled at ridiculous tabloid headlines. They've permeated our culture to such an extent that you'll be surprised at how easy it is to make up your own. Headlines like "Robert Redford's Friends Fear He's _____" and "Michael Jackson's Weird Plan To _____" immediately bring to mind a host of possibilities, most of which are not only funny, but plausible in the context of a tabloid. In fact, it's not uncommon for players to fill in the blank with the same words as the actual headline.
Tabloid Teasers takes material we already laugh at and allows us to make it even funnier. And because the material is so accessible, annybody can play and win. I have to admit, I was skeptical about this game and only bought it because of its bargain price. But we've laughed from start to finish every time we've played, and I heartily recommend it-- even at full price.