Are We There Yet?

The other day, I was playing a great game of Malarky with some members of my family. If you've never played Malarky, it's like Balderdash except instead of making up definitions of little known words, you make up explanations to life's imponderable questions. An example question would be, "What's the cottage in cottage cheese?"

Anyway, my Mom is having a hard time with certain aspects of the game. Since only one person will receive the correct answer to the question to be presented to the group, the whole idea of the game is to bluff as convincingly as you can. Players vote on what they think is the correct answer with points being awarded for getting votes for your answer as well as for voting correctly. Thus, the best way to get lots of points is to present the most convincing answer (correct or incorrect) so as to get the most votes/points.

In case you missed it: confidence is key.

After a round of the game while we're deciding how to vote, I was holding on to the chip to vote for my Mom's answer. I looked at my Mom and noticed that she was having trouble deciding on who to vote for. As if my thoughts had a psychic effect on her, she verbalized her difficulty in deciding who to vote for to the rest of us. Seizing the opportunity to get a few laughs as I changed my vote, I dumped her chip on the table and promptly informed everyone that I was thankful she confided her uncertainty to everyone else as I was going to (incorrectly) vote for her up to that point. We all had a few good laughs at this and my adjusted vote ended up garnering me a point for a correct vote.

Little did I know that the joke was on me. After scoring was done for the round, my wife promptly informed me that my vocal decision to change my vote from my Mom to someone else had a side effect. As I was going to vote for someone else's answer, it became obvious to her that I did not present the correct answer either. She then changed her vote to someone other than me - effectively negating the point I earned in changing my answer. Had I quietly changed my vote instead, I would have ended up with an additional point.

While it was all in good fun in this case, there's a moral to the story. While a situation may seem funny to you, pointing it out to others can make you the butt of the joke instead.