Five year update: Wow, how things have advanced since the 2010 SOTU show. Now we don’t just make a list and keep count; go to presidentbingo.com for your own customized bingo card!
The tiles are randomized every time the page is opened, so nobody should have the same card. Send the link around to friends before the show, and stay in touch while President Obama is speaking to keep score. You can even print up multiple cards so the whole family can play; print one, click the Create a new card button, and print again, as many times as you need. It’ll shake up the tiles so no two are alike.
I still think it’d be great if someone in the chamber jumped up at a serious moment in the speech and yelled, “Bingo!” I can totally see Joe Biden doing that!
Here’s a fun way to make President Obama’s State Of The Union address, coming up on January 27, fun for the whole family, and perk things up a bit;
… it would be fun and also a good exercise for those of us who are going to listen to Mr. Obama’s State of The Union Address on January 27th to print off this list and keep count of how many times he says the following phrases, which I lifted from Mark Alexander’s essay, State of Disunion:
- “let me be clear”
- “make no mistake”
- “back from the brink”
- “signs of recovery”
- “restored our reputation”
- “fiscal restraint”
- “greed on Wall Street”
- “affordable health care”
- “relief for working families”
- “job creation”
- “inherited” as in “I inherited this mess”
And some I’d be interested hearing him say:
- “Constitution”
- “Founding Fathers”
- “Individual liberty”
I might have to come up with a set of Bingo cards that would follow the same theme, kinda like the Buzzword Bingo made famous by Wally & Dilbert. Would it not be hilarious if in the middle of his speech someone in the gallery (a Senator?) shouted out, “BINGO!”?
Actually, I won’t need to have the speech ‘perked up’; my challenge, if I listen to it, will be keeping my blood pressure down, as Obama will surely say plenty that will get under my skin.
Edit: Just a quick search reveals that I’m definitely not the first one to come up with State Of The Union Bingo. Lots of options are already out there, like this multipage pdf that you can print out and share with your friends, an online version that will allow you to generate a different version with the click of a button, or this interactive online version that you can play in your web browser (no printing required!) And in case anyone sees this as an unfair slam on our illustrious President, let me point out that the Democrats did it first.