Random Question Generator
“Would you rather use a rubber chicken as your only phone or a banana as your only TV remote?”
Why ask it
Picturing an important call taken on a rubber chicken carries this one. Request a demonstration of the ringtone.
Some of what is in the deck
Prefer to read than to shuffle? These are the cards the generator opens with, each with its note and the set it came from.
Would you rather use a rubber chicken as your only phone or a banana as your only TV remote?
Why ask it
Picturing an important call taken on a rubber chicken carries this one. Request a demonstration of the ringtone.
What would the troubleshooting section of your instruction manual say?
Why ask it
A fresher take on the old 'what would your warning label say' icebreaker. 'If unresponsive, offer snacks' is the typical register: self-mocking, and quietly useful to anyone who spends time with them.
Do you think there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe?
Why ask it
Nobody at the table can settle it, which is why it works: people reason out loud from numbers, from faith or from films they saw at twelve. The second half is better. Would they want to know for certain, and would they want to be the one who made contact? If it goes well, ghosts and fate are the same kind of question.
When do you feel most like yourself?
Why ask it
People answer with a place, a person or an activity: on a bike, with a sister, cooking for ten. Ask how much of an ordinary week they get to spend there. The gap between the two is what they would change if they could.
What basic skill did you have to secretly look up far later than you would like to admit?
Why ask it
Answers range from boiling an egg to reading an analog clock. It is embarrassing in a relatable way, and once one person admits theirs, the rest of the room gets honest quickly.
Should grades measure how much you know or how hard you tried?
Why ask it
Students who find school easy and students who work for every point will disagree, and each has a case. What would a coach or a future employer want the grade to say?
Which emoji do you use the most, and does it mean what it's supposed to mean?
Why ask it
Plenty of people have one emoji carrying a private meaning, like a skull for laughing or a thumbs up that is slightly annoyed. They can answer by sending it. Compare with yours, and you will misread each other a little less afterwards.
If pressing a button gave you a fortune and cost a random stranger the same amount, would you press it?
Why ask it
Then adjust the dial: what if the stranger was very rich? What if it was a small amount from many people? The point where their answer flips is the conversation.
If a pill could keep two people in love for life, would that love be worth less?
Why ask it
It would last, and lasting is what people say they want. The objection is that it would no longer be an answer to the other person, only to the pill. Then point out that ordinary love also runs on body chemistry nobody chose, and see where the difference lies.
How is the new job turning out, compared with what you pictured?
Why ask it
Swap in the new city, the baby, the marriage or the retirement. The comparison is what makes it open, because 'Do you like it?' pulls a yes out of almost anyone who chose the change. Listen for the gap between the picture and the reality, and ask about that.
Would you rather live in a house where gravity switches off every day at noon or one where every room is a different season?
Why ask it
Kids go straight for the floating. Adults start thinking about soup at noon and heating bills in the winter room, which is its own kind of funny.
If the first results are poor, what would make you keep going, and what would make you stop?
Why ask it
Agreeing a stop rule before the money is spent is the only time it can be agreed cleanly. If there is no answer to the second half, expect this to run until the budget ends rather than until the evidence does.
What did you study or train in, and would you choose it again?
Why ask it
That choice was mostly made young and on very little information. 'Would you choose it again' is a soft way of asking how they feel about the road since. If they did neither, ask what they taught themselves instead.
What is a word that sounds like an insult but is completely innocent?
Why ask it
Works best in a group, because one answer triggers five more. Let people try their word on each other in a stern voice. Skip it if anyone present is likely to push past innocent.
What makes someone a real friend and not just a person you hang out with?
Why ask it
A nine-year-old and a sixteen-year-old answer this differently, and both are worth hearing. Ask for something a real friend does, not something a real friend is, to get past 'nice'.
Pick a job for one day only: zookeeper, astronaut or ice cream taster?
Why ask it
Three ridiculous options are easier than an open question, and the reason they give is the fun part. Good for a younger cousin or a thread that has been too serious lately. Let them propose a fourth job if none fits.
What did you nearly quit that you're glad you stuck with?
Why ask it
An instrument, a degree, a job, sometimes a friendship. Listen for what kept them going: stubbornness, one person who believed in them, or simply not wanting to explain quitting. Each is a different kind of fuel, and they tend to still run on it.
Paper map or follow the blue dot?
Why ask it
Hardly anyone navigates by paper now, so the interest is in who wishes they could. Ask about the last time they were properly lost and how it ended.
What's the best question anyone has ever asked you?
Why ask it
Hard to answer on the spot, so offer it and move on, then come back later. Whatever people remember tells you what they wish they were asked more often.
Would you rather say a big goodbye and then walk the same way as the person for ten minutes or hold a door for someone who is much too far away?
Why ask it
Two tiny social traps with no graceful exit. Get them to admit what they actually do in the door situation: the awkward jog is a common confession.
What assumption, if it turned out to be wrong, would change your recommendation entirely?
Why ask it
Forces a single point of failure into the open. If they name something trivial, press once more: the reluctance usually points at the assumption they are least sure of.
Do you have any pets, or did you grow up with one?
Why ask it
People with animals will talk about them for as long as you let them, and there are usually photographs. The second half is for everyone else: a childhood dog or a run of short-lived goldfish is still a story. If they have lost one lately, 'I am sorry' is enough, and you can move on.
If your sneeze had a catchphrase, what would it be?
Why ask it
Everyone knows what their own sneeze sounds like and nobody has ever been asked about it. Best with people who know each other, since half the fun is friends correcting the answer.
Do you think your pet has a name for you?
Why ask it
Probably a smell or a sound, which leads to wondering what a name is for. Lovely with children, and with adults who talk to their cats. Next, what does the pet call the vacuum cleaner?
Is it a fruit or a vegetable?
Why ask it
Ask for a single yes or no here, not a choice between the two. A yes takes you to the produce aisle, where color and 'Is it sweet?' finish the job. After a no, 'Does it have flowers?' is the next split.
Would you rather never fold laundry again or never unload a dishwasher again?
Why ask it
People defend their least hated chore with surprising passion. Couples and roommates should be warned that this one can turn into a negotiation.
Crispy fries or soft fries?
Why ask it
Nobody is neutral on this, which makes it a safe opener. Ask which fry they reach for first when the basket lands and watch how precise the answer gets.
Who is most likely to have a laugh you could pick out across a crowded room?
Why ask it
Frame it as the compliment it is: a laugh people are glad to hear. Have the group describe it instead of imitating it, which keeps things on the kind side.
What have you rehearsed in the shower that you never actually said?
Why ask it
Reveals the argument they wish they had won. Ask who the speech was for, and let them deliver the best line of it now.
Who here has met someone well known completely by accident, and what happened?
Why ask it
Built for a show of hands: most of the room listens while two or three people tell a short story. Elevator and airport encounters are the usual genre, and they are reliably awkward.
A generator for each game
Know which game you are playing? Each of these deals that game alone, with a deck for whoever is in the room.
Question games
Sets made to be played out loud. Each one opens as a shuffled deck, and the whole list is underneath if you would rather pick.
Or start from a topic
How the generator works
Every card comes from a question set in the vault, which holds 142,134 questions across 3,278 sets. Nothing is written on the fly. Each question was chosen for a set, and the note under it says what the question is good for and what to listen for in the answer.
Left on Anything, the deck sticks to questions that make sense whoever you are with. Choose a topic and it narrows to that shelf: questions for a partner, a first date, your parents, a group of friends, a party, or yourself. Sets about a particular appointment or profession stay out of the shuffle, because a question for a surgeon is no use at a dinner table.
If a card lands, follow the link under it. The set it came from has more in the same vein, in an order that builds.
Ways to use it
- At dinner or on a driveOne person holds the phone and reads. Everyone answers, including the reader.
- On a dateTake turns drawing. Either of you may pass once, no reasons asked.
- To open a meeting or a classDraw a few beforehand and keep the one that anyone in the room could answer in a sentence.
- As a journal promptChoose Self-reflection, draw one card, and write until you have answered the note as well as the question.