The game is perfect for big groups (you need a minimum of 4 to play, but the more people, the better; aim for about ten), and great for Shabbat, because it takes no equipment at all.  Try it to defuse the next big dinner when talk turns to the election.

The Rules:

1. Assemble your players. Send two people up to the front of the room: One is first names, and the other is surnames.

2. Ask the first player to secretly pick a common Jewish first name, and the second to secretly pick a common Jewish last name.

3. When they’re ready, have the room count to three. On three, First and then last name both reveal their picks together, so that a full name is formed (E.g., “Deborah! Gordon!”)

(Don’t be afraid to stray from Ashkenazi names; let’s get a Sassoon or Cordova in there!)

4. Ask for a show of hands from the group for anyone who actually knows a person by that name. Whoever does (honors system, folks), gets one point (the namers are also eligible).

5. Rotate out the namers for two other people in the game, and repeat.

6. The first person in the room to get to five points is the winner!  They either know a whole lot of Jews, or need to break out of their bubble and start meeting other people!

If anyone knows the origin of this game, feel free to hit us up on Twitter.

Image Source: Wet Hot American Summer

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Ever wondered what happened to the campers of Wet Hot American Summer? Well, they grew up and moved to New York to meet-cute in independent bookshops and fall into fraught-but-ultimately-happy romcom relationships, duh.

So it goes in They Came Together, the new film from Wet Hot collaborators David Wain and Michael Showalter, starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. It’s basically a frame-by-frame satire of every romantic comedy trope ever, from the hero’s nebbish best friend to the heroine whose only flaw is being a adorkable klutz.

Anyway, interesting tidbit: EW just posted this little teaser vid in which Poehler’s character describes “the typical romantic-comedy leading man” as “vaguely but not overtly Jewish.” (To which Bill Hader’s character responds, “You’re right! Just Jewish enough.”)

So we put it to you, dear readers! Is the ideal leading man vaguely Jewish? So far we’re thinking yes: we’re counting Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) from When Harry Met Sally, Josh (Paul Rudd) from Clueless, Peter (Jason Segel) from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera)  from Juno, Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) from Knocked Up, and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) from 500 Days of Summer. Who have we missed?

The post Is the Ideal Rom-Com Leading Man “Vaguely” Jewish? appeared first on Jewcy.