silly adventure time
January 30, 2021 5:53 PM   Subscribe

Help me think up silly scenarios for my kid?

In our family we have an imaginary cat named Purranda.

New Purranda adventures = motivation/rewards/bribes for schoolwork, for my kid who's a solid ten long (long [long]) months into virtual school so far.

I love this as a rewards system, but it's hard with all the other mental overload to come up with an endless supply of these scenarios. Halp please!

Her adventures take the form of "What if I snuck into __ and hid in a __ such that I could do [surprising thing, usually jumping out and thrilling people]?"

Some recent hits have been:
– What if I snuck into a bakery, hid in a birthday cake, and jumped out to surprise all the kids at a party?
– What if I snuck into the Air & Space Museum, hid in one of the big planes, and suddenly flew it out of the museum to amaze all the visitors?
– What if I snuck into an orchestra concert, hid in the percussion section, and jumped up right at the end so a cat was doing the last big timpani hits?
– What if I snuck into a grocery delivery, pretended to be some insulation, and then jumped out and thrilled the family?

Obviously it doesn't need to make much sense or relate to a cat's actual abilities. The core premise is that a cat jumping out of something by surprise and/or disrupting something is always exciting & awesome.

I just need the "what if" idea, not any detail (my kid likes to improv with me what will actually happen in each case). Thanks so much for any ideas!
posted by kalapierson to Writing & Language (18 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
What if I snuck into a chimney...
What if I snuck into a theme park...
What if I snuck into a TV studio...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 6:13 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck into a toy store, hid among the stuffed animals by freezing and pretending to be one, and surprised a kid by suddenly coming to life and jumping onto his shoulder?

What if I snuck into a hospital, hid under a bed and came out to give comfort to some patients at night when no nurses were around?

What if I snuck into a dentist's office, hid on a high shelf in one of the exam rooms, then came out and pranced around entertainingly to distract a scared kid (slipping back out of sight whenever the dentist or hygienist happened to look that way?)

What if I snuck onto the set of a movie or TV show and inserted myself into the background during filming without anyone noticing? Or hid under some random object until an appropriate moment and then jumped out to do something so cool the director decided to leave it in?
posted by Redstart at 6:18 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


Do the places need to be real, or can you start drawing on the deep catalog of comic book standards? Examples: castle, underwater city, wizard tower, robot factory, enchanted forest grove (with unicorns, natch), treehouse village, witch hut, alien ship, etc.

If they should be real, maybe explore different countries for ideas. In the Netherlands Purranda could sneak into a windmill and surprise all the tulip tourists. In Tanzania Purranda could sneak into the national parks and surprise the giraffes. In Japan Purranda could sneak onto the Shinkansen and surprise all the long distance commuters.
posted by Mizu at 6:21 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck into a post office...
What if I snuck aboard a pirate ship...
What if I snuck onto a building site...
What if I snuck into an advertising agency...
What if I snuck into a baseball game...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 6:22 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck into a castle...
What if I snuck into a stationery shop...
What if I snuck into a fairground's haunted house...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 6:25 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck into the White House/City Hall?
What if I snuck into church?
What if I snuck into the dentist's office?
posted by christinetheslp at 6:38 PM on January 30, 2021


To build off a long string of stories my son and I made up when he was little (he's almost 18 now): What if I snuck into the zoo one night, and discovered that all the zoo animals sneak out each night too? (Watch out for the zookeeper -- everyone has to be back in the proper enclosure before he wakes up!)
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:53 PM on January 30, 2021


Response by poster: Thank you all (Redstart, you got two of the ones we've already done, lol)!

And yes, good question, the places do need to be real / part of our existing universe, because Purranda puts all her adventures up on YouTube and is a celebrity :)
posted by kalapierson at 6:59 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck onto the upcoming mars lander?

What if I snuck onto a train traveling through the mountains or along the coast, hid in the dining car, and ate all the tuna sandwiches

What if I snuck onto a ski lift, went into the ski chalet, and licked all the whipped cream off of the hot chocolate?

What if I snuck into Carlsbad cavern, hid in the caverns, and make scary shadows in the lights that looked like cave bats?

What if I snuck into the Tokyo fish market, jumped out and surprised the fishermen so they would drop tasty tuna?
posted by nickggully at 7:20 PM on January 30, 2021


The Random Plot Generator might turn up some fun ones.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:06 PM on January 30, 2021


What if I snuck into a greenhouse and hid among a bunch of pots that all turned out to have catnip in them and it made me start acting even crazier than usual?

What if I snuck into a school that was empty because everyone was remote learning and I set up a bunch of surprises for the kids to find when they finally came back?

What if I snuck into the backpack of someone who was headed off to climb a mountain and I jumped out at the top and used the mountain climber's phone to take a few selfies and send them to my family?
posted by Redstart at 8:19 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


What if I snuck into Four Seasons Total Landscaping...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 10:58 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


What if I snuck into a factory, hid inside the thing they’re making, and surprised the person who buys it (or is about to box it up, or shipping it to the store, etc)?
posted by MadamM at 1:00 AM on January 31, 2021


What if I snuck into a furniture/homewares store and allowed myself to be purchased as a pillow?
posted by inexorably_forward at 1:34 AM on January 31, 2021


What if I put on a dog costume, snuck into the neighbors' doghouse, and pretended to be their dog?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:20 AM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]


Dolls house (and decided I prefer to live in a bigger house after getting stuck)
Day care (and comforted a crying child) (and got to play with the play kitchen)
Grocery store (and found out where the mice were coming in)
Photography studio (and was visible in the back of a portrait)
Railway boxcar (got to travel to (exciting location))
Manhole (and had to have a bath when I came home)
Hairdresser (and got a full beauty make-over)
Recording studio (and sang along with the artist recording)
Florist (and hid in a bunch of flowers, delivered a rose in my teeth)
Taxi (and dug the missing seat belt end from between the seats)
Post office (and found the missing package that fell behind the sorting machine)
Graveyard (and comforted someone in mourning)
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:44 AM on January 31, 2021


What if I snuck into a library and discovered Seven-Day Magic? Reading, the library is the greatest magic of all.
posted by SPrintF at 12:02 PM on January 31, 2021


What if I snuck into a beach bag and got taken to the beach, where I grabbed a snorkel and hid out underwater until I got the chance to jump onto someone's surfboard and impress everyone with my amazing surfing skills?

What if I snuck into the laundromat, hid in someone's laundry bag and got taken to their house, then popped out of the bag with a white t-shirt draped over me and pretended to be a cat ghost?
posted by Redstart at 1:45 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]


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