1. Spelling game
You say: “Spell MOP.”
Person: “M-O-P”
You: “Spell HOP.”
Person: “H-O-P”
You: “Spell TOP.”
Person: “T-O-P!”
You: “What do you do at a green light?”
Person: “Stop!”
You: Smile and wait for the facepalm.
2. Folk
Question: “How do you pronounce F-O-L-K?”
Answer: “Folk.”
Question: “What is the white of an egg?”
The answer given by people, almost inevitably, is “Yolk.” Then you have to remind them that the yolk is the yellow part of the egg.
3. Trick the brain
- Ask how old the other person is. (let’s say he/she is 22)
- Bet a beer (or whatever just to add to the suspense) that you can make him/her say the number 22
- The target person of course take the bet, because it sounds too easy. Free beer, what’s not to like!
- Ask the person a random calculation, e.g. “what is 2 + 2?”.
- The person responds “4”. Then, add on to the calculation until you reach 23.
- When the person says 23, you say: “I won! You were not supposed to say 23!”
- The person then responds: “What are you talking about? I was not supposed to say 22!”
And now, you truly won. Enjoy your beer.
4. Repetition
Ask someone to say SILK 5 times. They will go:
- SILK
- SILK
- SILK
- SILK
- SILK
Now ask them: “What does the cow drink?”
‘MILK’ will be the swift answer they provide!
Enjoy their reaction after you tell them that the cow drinks water and not milk.
5. The Stroop Effect
You’ll need a large sheet of white paper and some colored markers for this trick.
- Make a list of colors, some that are the same colors as your markers and some that are different.
- Write the names of the colors using your markers. Vary the colors and don’t make the words match the marker colors. For example, write “red” in blue ink, “brown” in purple ink, etc.
- Have a friend try to name the colors the words are written in, and NOT read the words.
- Keep score between friends if you like. This trick is called, “The Stroop Effect,” and it’s much more difficult to do than you would think.
