OVER THE HILL GAMES/ACTIVITIES
A Thousand Words
It’s up to you how much of an actual “game” you want to make of this, but past photos of the guest of honor can be put to many uses in an Over the Hill party. Ask guests to bring old photos of the birthday boy/girl. Any photo more than a few years old will be very persuasive that he is now definitely Over the Hill.
Use the photos as decorations on the walls of the party facility, taking special care not to deface or damage them. Have guests (or the victim himself) try to guess the his age and weight in the photos, then make arch comparisons to his present condition. (“Guess you ain’t 25 years old, 155 lbs anymore!”).
Pay special attention to the clothes that the guest of honor is wearing in the photos. Chances are that he still owns and wears some of the obsolete items, ripe territory for bullseye smirks and comments.
Remember When You Said
Young people say a lot of foolish things. It’s not just their right, but also their responsibility. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held accountable for their foolishness at an Over the Hill party. Typical statements might be:
“You won’t catch me working in some veal-pen cubicle. I’ll get a fun job!”
“American cars are for losers. I’ll own a Mercedes by the time I’m 30.”
“Hootie & The Blowfish is one of the greatest bands of all time.”
“In five years, no one will even remember Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
Such inaccurate pronouncements will look great on large banners posted around the party venue. Choose the ones that make the best contrasts with present-day realities. And if you need to make up a quote or selectively edit it for comic effect, go for it!
This is …. Jeopardy!
The contestants at the party are a 20-year old college student home on break, a 30-year-old young professional, and a rapidly decaying 40-year old who barely remembers his own name. Let’s play the game!
The questions you write (or answers, really, because this is Jeopardy) should show just how out of touch the guest of honor has become in the areas of youth culture, new technology, recent scientific breakthroughs, and any other categories where she is sure to come up short against younger opponents.
Use every opportunity to destroy the self-delusion that she is still cool.
140 Characters or Less
Ask teenagers and other young people to text the guest of honor their thoughts and feelings about movies, cute guys, school, etc., using as few characters as possible. They should use lots of obscure abbreviations and acronyms. Have the 40 year old read and interpret the texts out loud.
Call of Duty
A 40-year-old is still young enough to still be playing some of the video games from his youth. And since he’s been at it for a few decades, he probably believes that he has improved to expert status. How sad. Put him to work, playing head to head against a real expert less than half his age. Get some trash-talking teens to help emphasize that the guest of honor’s video skillz are self-delusions.