This post hails the return of the Zoom quiz! What was once a regular feature in my life earlier in the year, slowly dropped off as restrictions were lifted. Now, seeing as we’re all trapped inside again, I decided to bring a little cheer to my nearest and dearest and invite them to play a British gameshow classic with me – Play Your Cards Right.
My family and I would love sitting around and watching Play Your Cards Right when I was growing up. The game, similar to the American Card Sharks, is a simple game of higher or lower. Each contestant has their own row of cards, and after turning one around to see the number, have to decide if the next card in the row will be higher or lower, with the winner being the one who makes it all the way to the end. There are some additional rules about freezing or changing a card, which make sense when you watch it, so here’s a handy little video, straight from my childhood.
The players get control of the cards by answering a “What percentage of 100 people said this…” question, and the other team guesses higher or lower. These became our undoing when trying to prepare, as the only ones we could reliably find were from a very dated list of 1987 Card Shark questions. So my glamorous assistant handpicked the least offensive questions he could find, but couldn’t access the answers – so close! – so a little guesswork happened behind the scenes.
When we “went live” I went straight into this fast and frantic game with gusto, trying to finish with enough time for my dad to watch his favourite programme. There were ups, downs, and extremely close calls, but it’s something we all had a good time playing – we’ve already agreed to do it again next week!
New Day, New Thing 