Apples to Apples (with a spin)

So picture this for me, if you will. I was sitting in my room a few days or so ago, hanging with a group of my good friends. We were all getting pretty bored, so we decided to play a few ravishing games of Bananagrams and, the instant classic, Apples to Apples. Clearly we enjoy our fruit-inspired games.

But back to the story. Bananagrams came first, and not everyone knows how beastly I am at that game. It's basically like Scrabble, but you play against your own words and everyone has their own "board". You have to form legitimate words before someone else gets rid of all of their letters before you do. You do so by "peeling" when you run out of tiles to make the center draw pile count lower. After there's less tiles left in the center draw pile than there are players in the game, you shout "bananas" and everyone checks your words for accuracy.

I am the God of Bananagrams.

After they played and I won the few rounds they did play, we moved on to Apples to Apples.
Now, I have one particular friend that shall remain nameless during the duration of this post (we'll refer to him as Friend #1); but he figured it'd be a good idea to turn the innocent game of Apples to Apples into some sick, demented version of "Strip" Apples to Apples, where he was the only one that removed his clothing when someone else reached the winning four card minimum.

Now, before you get the wrong idea here, let me go on.

My other friend is honestly pro at Apples to Apples. He plays the best cards at all of the right times, let it be known. (We'll call this one Friend #2.)

So basically, everyone agrees to Friend #1's wager, because there is clearly something wrong with this kid and we also know that Friend #2 will just own him so very badly. We all begin to play, and almost as quickly as we started, Friend #2 wiped the board and stole the first four rounds, leaving him with four cards; the winner of the round.

Off comes the flannel over-shirt. Well, this kept going on until Friend #2 won for the 3rd time, leaving our Friend #1 sockless and shirtless. He's freezing and getting pretty upset that he's being slaughtered at the simple game of Apples to Apples, so he quits and keeps whatever inch of dignity he has left of himself.

The whole point I'm trying to make about this story is that Apples to Apples was never meant to be played any other way than what the directions instruct. Never ever go against the instructions. I wish that the makers of Apples to Apples would write in fine print on their instruction booklet: 'Do not remove clothing while playing this game.' Honestly, it's just wrong to even get that idea in your head.

Clearly some people find this sort of recreational activity okay and even enjoyable, but I only went along with it because I love watching my friends become overly embarrassed. Never let your friends do stupid things, but when they refuse to listen to your better judgment, laugh as hard as you can when they make complete idiots out of themselves.

It's just another philosophy you can look at your life with if you feel necessary.