If you’re peanut butter, where is your jelly? Which fictional police detective is the partner of David Starsky? Which royal is married to Kate Middleton? In this introductions game, the guests at your get-together take on the role of famous figures. Through the power of conversation they will figure out each other’s hidden identities, and try and find their match!
This game will play everyone at the party. Ten to twenty people or so will make for a good game — but it certainly works fine for larger groups.
Set-Up
- As the host of the party, prepare a name-tag for each guest at your party by writing the names of famous figures from famous partnership on each name-tag. Both halves of the partnership should be represented on a name-tag. For example, you might have these eight name-tags: “Pinky,” (and his match) “The Brain,” “Beyonce,” (and her match) “Jay Z,” “Peanut butter,” (and its match) “Jelly,” “Romeo,” (and his match) “Juliet.”
- As guests arrive at the party, give them a random name tag. This is their hidden identity. You can try and give female identities to the women at the party and males names to men, but the game will be even funnier if you don’t worry about it!
- Tell the guests to read the name tag, then to put it in their pocket and not to tell other guests what is written on it!
Play Who’s My Match?
- As a player, the aim of the game is to find the guest who owns the name tag that matches yours. If you are Tom, you are looking for Jerry. You do this by talking to the other guests.
- However — when answering questions about their hidden identity, players can only answer yes or no.
- When asking questions players cannot ask directly ask about a character’s name. For example, questions like “Does you name start with a B?” or “Are you Beyonce?” are not allowed.
If you think you have found your match, both players should go to an organizer to find out if they were correct or not. If you were correct, both players can now wear their name tags to show that they are “taken.” This helps other players who are struggling to find their match. If you didn’t get it right this time, keep searching!
Tips
- When making the tags, throw some curveballs. A clever guest who gets the name Starsky might immediately know they are looking for Hutch, but you will make things harder for them if you also put in a similar pair, such as Cagney and Lacey. Now a question like “Are you a police detective?” isn’t so helpful.
- Also, know your audience. You might want to focus on celebrity partners, or partners in literature, or partners in film, depending on the group you are organizing for.
- When playing the game, ask other players about: their profession, their age, etc.
The lovely advantage to this game is that it gets everyone at the party interested in each other. They know their partner is out there looking for them, and they just have to mingle to meet them. For this reason, it’s a real jewel at events where people haven’t yet met each other.
When two players have found their match, ask them to pose as the people on their name-tags for a funny photo that you can put online.