"And we did this! And we saw that! And I ate this thing...and then..."

April 17, 2008 1:37 AM

I want to give my friends the time of their lives. Give me some ideas for spur of the moment things to do.

You know the times where you and a bunch of friends (or just one friend) are lounging about someone's flat or at a coffee shop with nothing to do? I want to break the lull and I'm looking for general spontaneous things that I could get my friends to do.

I'm not looking for location specific things as this tends to happen in small towns and large metropolitan areas. They can be games, activities, adventures (I love adventures), or really anything. Give me anecdotes of times gone by, thrills of the planned future, or whatever.

One small caveat, preferably things that won't take too much time to plan on a whim.

posted by 913 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (19 comments total)

Find an abandoned building (ideally a church), sneak in a white linen tablecloth, a bunch of candles, wine, and food. Get each of your friends to bring an ominous reading of the Edgar Allen Poe variety. Eat, drink, and be merry. Propose toasts. Dance on the tables. When the cops come run like hell.
posted by arcadia at 2:48 AM on April 17

Spotlight in a park at night, or car hide and seek (set boundaries on a map and go crazy!) =)
posted by cholly at 2:56 AM on April 17

Find an old 8 mm movie projector on e-Bay.
Buy a coupla old movies to go with it (Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein are ideal).
Use garage door, or empty building, or storefront as screen.
Pop corn.
Invite neighbors.
Enjoy!
posted by Dizzy at 6:21 AM on April 17 [2 favorites]

Papier mache.
Chicken wire.
Tarps.
Overalls.
Nude models.
Egg timer.
posted by Dizzy at 6:23 AM on April 17

Refridgerator boxes.
Duct tape.
X-acto Knife.
Stroble lights.
Throw pillows.
posted by Dizzy at 6:24 AM on April 17

Play-Dough.
Wire armature.
Digital camera.

Instant monster movie!
posted by Dizzy at 6:25 AM on April 17

Tequila

That's it.
posted by piedmont at 6:55 AM on April 17

Pick a place that's a good distance away (5 miles or so) and walk there. My friends and I walked to a 24 hour diner at 3am once and it was a lot of fun. We took our time, wandered through the woods and a few construction sites and it really felt like we accomplished something when we arrived.
posted by Diskeater at 7:23 AM on April 17

Airplane/helicopter tour of the area. Me and a couple friends did this; the cost was $75 which we split three ways and the only planning required was a phone call the day before. Lots of fun.

Also, nerf gunfights.
posted by hjo3 at 7:26 AM on April 17

Following from Diskeater: find a cool place that's open late into the night, about one-two hours' drive away. Bonus if it's on the coast. Next time the conversation lulls, say, "Let's go to [Benny's]." Apathy, ha-has. "No, seriously, let's go. It's a gorgeous night and I've never been there." Dissent, real-world justifications for not going. "Look, there's a car outside with [food] and [drink] in the back seat and it's leaving for [Benny's] in four minutes. Who's with me?"
posted by Hogshead at 7:30 AM on April 17

2nding Nerf Gunfights.
posted by scabrous at 7:42 AM on April 17

You should take massage classes and give each other rubs when you're bored. Learn fun/nerdy skills, like how to read tarot cards and other county fair-type stuff. It beats lighting your farts on fire to kill time.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:02 AM on April 17

Make water weenies and have a water fight.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:03 AM on April 17

Nerf Gunfights are fun, but can be expensive. Cheap Alternative? Water guns.
posted by toekneebullard at 8:13 AM on April 17

Buy outfits for each other at goodwill. Each person has a $10 limit, and you pick out an outfit for someone else in the group. Wear your new clothes on a stroll around town.

Play kick the can, capture the flag, sardines, or other night-games you might remember from childhood. Tag is also fun, especially if you can come up with funny variations on what happens to people who are tagged (think freeze tag, but make people do something especially weird to unfreeze their friends).

Play spoons (the card game), or some kind of dice game.

Check out a free zoo, museum, sculpture garden, etc. in your area.

Go across state (or country!) lines - some of my fondest memories of high school boredom, solved, were when we drove from Minneapolis to Hudson, WI (just across the border) for ice cream cones at McDonalds. Something about being in another state makes it feel like an adventure.

Pick a terrible top-40 song and develop a dance routine. This can be done while you drive to another state, if you've got a radio. Don't let the driver crash, please.

If you've got a lot of time, have a movie marathon. I spent last weekend with friends watching all 3 Indiana Jones movies, with half hour breaks between. Pick an actor, or pick a theme, or pick a series.

Have an eating contest. Pick something cheap - hotdogs, twinkies, etc.

Talking to strangers and trying to get them to play along with your antics usually leads to memorable hilarity. See who can collect the most different autographs from (or photos with!) strangers in half an hour. Go in teams, so you're safe but still have some competition to motivate you. Or get strangers to take photos of your group doing human pyramids on every corner of your neighborhood.

Go on a long walk, and pick up trash along the way. I know, sounds boring, but you're basically just walking around with your friends and goofing off, which is way better than sitting around being bored, and then by the time you're done you get to feel good about it too. Plus, somebody usually comes up with a more fun idea along the way. This is easier to talk people into if you keep trash bags and gloves in the trunk of your car.

Go to a grocery store. Each friend independently chooses one ingredient. No consulting each other. Meet up by the checkout, and figure out what you're going to cook with the ingredients you've got. Pooling your choices before you leave the grocery store lets you run back for any supplementary ingredients you might need.

In the winter, build an awesome snow fort, or the biggest snowman you can manage. Or have a snowball fight.
posted by vytae at 9:59 AM on April 17 [3 favorites]

Viking Dinner: You eat with your hands. You can't bend your elbows when you drink. Yes, it turns into a food fight. When was the last time you did that?

Movie-making Contest: Give a few groups of friends video cameras. Give them a list of requirements for the movie (There must be someone on roller skates, a fire and brimstone teacher must supply an essential plot point, there must be a "trick shot" using a mirror, etc.) Watch the movies later with all your friends and enjoy the results. You can make it more fun by giving each group a genre: noir, teen angst, horror, rom-com, etc.

Paperclip Game: Give some friends paperclips. They need to come back with something better. Whoever comes back with either the biggest or the best thing wins.
posted by shesbookish at 11:29 AM on April 17

Split into 2 teams and have a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood.
posted by cheerwine at 2:48 PM on April 17

I once had a friend who liked to do stuff like this. The things I distinctly remember were:

A photo scavenger hunt. It involved both unusual landmarks and getting strangers (and ourselves) to do stupid things for the camera -- like see/hear/speak no evil (2 of us and a stranger) and getting someone to drink out of a frisbee (we were ultimate players).

Another time, he gave us each a specific task to do, and we went around as a group and did them. I had to pretend to have one arm and ask for a discount on a pair of rubber gloves.

I think the best one he came up with though was when he split us into two teams, gave each team $15, and took us to two different drug stores. He told us to buy as much as we could for the money, no other limitations. When we got back home, he made the two teams switch items and create a game. Then, the two teams competed in the games. The trophy was a Jesus candle someone had bought. One game ended up being a minature golf course that ranged over a bedroom. I'm only sorry I don't remember it better...

A couple of roommates and I decided to do a complete tour of the Stuart Art Collection at UCSD. It's basically a series of unrelated sculptures spread over the campus. Some of them we saw every day, but others were tucked away in the med school or a forest, so it was a lot of fun finding them all and taking pictures. You might want to see if you your area has something similar. Part of the fun was the "I never knew that was there!," so it would be better if it was somewhere you're all familiar with.
posted by natabat at 3:50 PM on April 17 [1 favorite]

If time is short, try some theatre games!
posted by storybored at 8:42 PM on April 19