Meme-tastic Mayhem: A Comprehensive Guide to Playing What Do You Meme?

Ready to unleash your inner meme lord? What Do You Meme? is the hilarious party game that lets you and your friends caption iconic images, creating laugh-out-loud moments and fierce meme battles. If you’re new to the game or just want a refresher, this comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know to become a What Do You Meme? master.

What is What Do You Meme?

At its core, What Do You Meme? is a simple yet brilliant card game. The game combines image cards featuring popular meme templates with caption cards that players use to provide the punchline. The goal is to create the funniest, most relatable, or most absurd meme, as judged by a rotating judge. It’s a game that taps into our shared internet culture and encourages creative thinking, all while guaranteeing plenty of laughs.

What Comes in the Box?

Before we dive into gameplay, let’s take a look at the components you’ll find in a standard What Do You Meme? box:

• Image Cards: These cards feature a variety of meme templates, from classic rage faces to modern viral moments. Each card has a distinct image and a unique number.
• Caption Cards: These are the cards that contain the punchlines! They are text-based cards with different phrases, relatable statements, and witty quips.
• Easel (Sometimes Included): Some versions of the game come with a small easel to display the image card being used in the round.
• Instructions: While you’re reading this, you’ll probably still want to give the included instructions a quick glance.

It’s worth noting that there are various expansion packs available for What Do You Meme? These packs introduce new image cards and caption cards, keeping the game fresh and hilarious. Consider exploring these if you find yourselves playing the base game often!

Setting Up the Game

Getting started with What Do You Meme? is quick and easy. Follow these steps:

1. Gather Your Players: What Do You Meme? is designed for 3+ players, so round up your friends, family, or fellow meme enthusiasts. The more, the merrier!
2. Assign a Judge (Rotating): To start the first round, one player is assigned as the judge. The role of the judge will rotate after each round so each player gets an opportunity to judge.
3. Deal the Caption Cards: Shuffle the deck of caption cards thoroughly and deal 7 caption cards to each player face down. Players should keep their caption cards secret from each other.
4. Place the Image Card: The judge for the current round selects a single image card from the image card deck and places it face up in the center of the table. If you have an easel, place the image card on it for everyone to see easily.

That’s it for the initial setup! You’re now ready to begin the first round of meme-making madness.

How to Play What Do You Meme? – Step-by-Step Instructions

Now for the fun part: creating hilarious memes! Here’s a detailed breakdown of each round:

1. Choose a Caption: After the judge reveals the image card, each player (except the judge) carefully reviews their hand of 7 caption cards. They need to choose the caption card that they think best pairs with the image card, creating a funny and relatable meme. Consider things like context, subtext, and absurdity when making your choice.
2. Submit Your Caption (Face Down): Once you’ve decided on your perfect caption, place the chosen card face down in a pile. Make sure the judge doesn’t see which card belongs to who.
3. Judge Reads Aloud: Once everyone has submitted their caption card, the judge picks up the pile of submitted cards and shuffles them, keeping the captions hidden. One by one, the judge reads each caption card aloud in combination with the image card. It’s important that the judge reads them clearly and with some theatrical flair to truly make the experience shine.
4. Judge Chooses the Winner: After reading all the caption submissions, the judge now chooses which meme they think is the funniest, most relatable, or best overall. The judge should choose without knowing who submitted which caption. The judge is the sole determiner of the winner in the current round.
5. Award the Winning Player: The player who submitted the winning caption is declared the victor of that round and gets to keep the image card. The image card acts as a point. The round’s winner then gets to remove one caption card from the stack, then draws one new caption card.
6. Discard Caption Cards: All players, including the judge, should discard the caption cards that they played in the current round. Place these cards face down in a discard pile. Then, each player draws back up to 7 cards.
7. Rotate the Judge: The role of judge is passed to the next player in clockwise order. This ensures that everyone has a chance to be the decider.
8. Start a New Round: The new judge chooses the next image card and another round begins! The process repeats itself until an agreed-upon end condition is met (e.g., reaching a certain number of points or number of rounds).

Winning the Game

The overall goal of What Do You Meme? is to collect the most image cards. There are several ways to determine the winner:

• First to Reach a Certain Number of Points: You can decide beforehand that the first player to collect a certain number of image cards wins. For example, the first to collect 10 image cards.
• Most Points after a Set Number of Rounds: Another common approach is to play a fixed number of rounds, say 10, and the player with the most image cards at the end wins.
• Winner Takes All: Just keep playing until your group decides that they are done with the game. The person with the most cards at the end wins.

The winning criteria is flexible and can be adapted to suit your group’s preferences. The most important thing is that everyone is having fun and enjoying the hilarious meme creations!

Tips and Strategies for Meme Mastery

Want to level up your What Do You Meme? game? Here are a few tips and strategies to keep in mind:

• Understand the Meme: It’s essential to be familiar with the memes featured on the image cards. Knowing the context and origin of a meme can help you choose the most appropriate and hilarious caption. If you are not familiar with a particular meme, do a quick search online to get a sense of its usage and meaning.
• Think Outside the Box: Don’t be afraid to go for the unexpected! Sometimes the most outrageous and absurd captions are the funniest. Try to look for connections between the image and the caption that others might not think of.
• Consider the Audience (Judge): Remember that the judge for each round has different sensibilities and tastes. Try to get a read on their sense of humor. Are they fans of dark humor? Do they prefer puns? Are they more likely to enjoy literal humor? Adjust your caption choices based on your understanding of the judge’s style.
• Know Your Caption Cards: Familiarize yourself with the range of phrases and statements on your caption cards. Knowing what you have available in your hand can help you quickly identify the perfect match when the image card is revealed.
• Strategic Discards: When you discard caption cards, think about what types of captions are often not successful. You also want to discard the caption cards that are likely to not be suitable to the current group of players.
• Don’t Be Afraid to Be Silly: The most crucial part of the game is to embrace silliness and not overthink it! What Do You Meme? is about having fun, laughing, and enjoying the absurdity of internet culture. Don’t worry about being overly serious or strategic – sometimes, the simplest and most obvious answers will still get a laugh.
• Read the Room: While outlandish humor is often a hit, be aware of the general mood of the room. If people are looking for more literal connections, don’t go for extreme abstract choices.
• Adaptability is Key: As you play more rounds, you’ll notice that there are many different kinds of connections to be made. It’s good to try a variety of different interpretations. Try to be flexible in how you approach your caption choices.

What Do You Meme? Variations and House Rules

One of the great things about What Do You Meme? is that it’s highly adaptable. Feel free to experiment with variations and house rules to personalize the gameplay. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• All-Judge Round: Instead of a single judge, every player gets to vote for their favorite caption, and the one with the most votes wins.
• Double Caption Round: Players get to submit two caption cards instead of one, creating even more complex and hilarious meme combinations.
• Theme Rounds: Decide on a theme for a round, and have players choose caption cards that fit the theme (e.g., “food”, “animals”, “work”).
• Caption Card Swap: Players can swap a card or two from their hand at the beginning of each round, adding an element of strategy.
• Collaborative Meme: Players can work in teams to come up with the best meme.
• Draw Your Own Caption: For an extra challenge, have players create their own caption for a round by writing it down.
• Points for Runner-Ups: In addition to the winner of each round, the judge could also award points to a second-place choice.
• Blind Judging: Have the judge look away when the captions are being read aloud and only look when they are ready to select a winner.

Don’t be afraid to brainstorm your own house rules! The goal is to make the game as fun and engaging as possible for your group.

Where to Buy What Do You Meme?

What Do You Meme? is widely available at most major retailers that sell board games. You can find it at physical stores, such as Target, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble, as well as online marketplaces like Amazon. The base game can also be found at most dedicated game stores as well. Remember to check for expansion packs, which offer new image and caption cards and keep the game fresh.

Final Thoughts

What Do You Meme? is more than just a game; it’s a social experience that brings people together through laughter and shared internet culture. It’s easy to learn, highly replayable, and guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment. Whether you’re a seasoned meme expert or a complete newbie, you’ll find yourself addicted to the hilarious chaos of this party game. So gather your friends, embrace the absurdity, and get ready to create some truly epic memes. Happy meme-ing!

Don’t forget to check out expansion packs for even more fun and meme-making possibilities. And remember, there are many other social and party games out there, so if you enjoy What Do You Meme?, be sure to explore similar options to see what else might tickle your funny bone!