Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Richie Game

Both Lisa and Brianna have recently mentioned "Richie" on their blogs of late (OK, Lisa's last mention was in August, but whatever), so let me give you a little overview of the Richie Game.

The Richie Game can be played with any number of players who are approximately equally fiscally-enabled. The goal of the game is to notice when one of your friends mentions something that cost money, then call him or her "Richie." There are straightforward examples, like:
"I bought a new car yesterday."
"Richie."
The game really gets going, though, when you notice those things for which your friends are casually spending money, and working the Richie into the conversation without explicit justification.

Allow me to illustrate with a few examples.

Example 1
Greg*: The baby's crying.
Gillian: Oh, you could afford to have a baby? Richie.

Analysis: This example is somewhat crass, as the second player calls out the first player's wealth ("you could afford...").

Example 2
Greg: When I was in university...
Gillian: You went to university? Richie.

Analysis: Here we have a slightly subtler example. The wealth of those with higher educations is implied.

Example 3
Gillian: I'll pick up Swiss Chalet for dinner.
Greg: Ooh, takeout. Richie.

Analysis: This one's funny because Swiss Chalet? Cheap.

OK, got the gist of it now? Great, let's move on to defensive moves. In the Richie Game, a defense is successful if you can show that you're not really rich. In our examples, good defensive moves might look like this.

Example 1
Greg: The baby's crying.
Gillian: Oh, you could afford to a baby? Richie.
Greg: Yeah, but now I'm broke because all my money goes to the baby.

Example 2
Greg: When I was in university...
Gillian: You went to university? Richie.
Greg: It was community college. And I got a scholarship.

Example 3
Gillian: I'll pick up Swiss Chalet for dinner.
Greg: Ooh, takeout. Richie.
Gillian: Only once a month, and I have a coupon.

Now that we've established game play, you too can enjoy endless hours of entertainment playing the Richie Game. When you're finished with that, you can play Do You Know What Your Problem Is?, which can be just as fun.

I leave you with the most stellar example of Richie game play I've ever seen.

Gillian: Maury Povich was making a speech in the next room, and John, Dave and Greg offered me $60 to go kiss him.
Kate: Did you take it?
Gillian: No!
Kate: Richie.

*Not his real name.**
**OK, yes it is.

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

This is hysterical. Love the defensive moves.

Brianna said...

I do love this game -- Amy likes to call me "bourge-y" (short for bourgeois) which is a nice way to french it up and is extra funny because it sounds so close to "booze-y"

Lisa said...

Gillian this is my favourite post you have EVER WRITTEN. I'm forwarding this to everybody so that they can play with me... because currently I can only play with you!

Also I might be in love with Greg. Don't tell Sarah. You totally just did, didn't you?

montague said...

hilarious. i love this game.

S said...

I've never heard of this game before but it sounds hilarious.

Although I feel if I just start playing it randomly people will think I'm nuts.

(p.s. Hi came here via Lisa's blog)