Hoot Hatch

Would You Rather · for teens

200 Would You Rather Questions for Teens

Ten blocks, twenty questions each, arranged in the order a room actually warms up: silly first, real later. Start at the top and work down, or jump straight to whichever block fits the group.

Before you start

The whole rulebook, in four lines

  • One person reads a question. Everyone answers out loud, at the same time, on a count of three — that stops the room copying whoever spoke first.
  • Anyone in the minority has fifteen seconds to defend their answer. That is where the game actually lives; the question is only the excuse.
  • No abstaining, no “both”, no “neither”. A forced choice is the entire mechanic.
  • If a question dies, skip it. There are a hundred and ninety-nine more.

Two optional rules that make it better with a big group. Scoring: a point for every person who guesses the majority answer before the count of three. Escalation: whoever wins the round reads the next question and may add one condition to it — “same question, but you are forty”.

Easy ones to start with

Nobody is warmed up yet, so these are the low-stakes ones. Read them fast and don't let anyone think for more than five seconds.

  1. always be ten minutes early or always be ten minutes late
  2. have a rewind button for your day or have a pause button
  3. be the funniest person in the room or be the smartest person in the room
  4. never feel cold again or never feel too hot again
  5. have a phone battery that never dies or have storage that never fills up
  6. always know exactly what time it is without checking or always know the weather for the next hour
  7. be able to fall asleep anywhere in ten seconds or never need more than four hours of sleep
  8. have someone who cooks every meal for you or have someone who drives you everywhere
  9. be good at every sport or speak every language
  10. lose every photo on your phone or lose every message on your phone
  11. get a week with no homework or get a week with no chores at home
  12. always get the front seat or always get the last slice
  13. be famous in one country or be vaguely recognised everywhere
  14. have a treehouse or have a room in the basement nobody else enters
  15. never have to tie your shoes again or never have to deal with your hair again
  16. be able to talk to animals or be able to read any room instantly
  17. have summer all year or have autumn all year
  18. always have a pen that works when you need one or always have a charger when you need one
  19. wake up at exactly the right time every morning without an alarm or fall asleep within two minutes every night
  20. know the lyrics to every song or be able to play any instrument you pick up

Funny and completely ridiculous

These exist to make people laugh, not to be answered well. If someone starts explaining their reasoning, move on.

  1. have hands where your feet are or have feet where your hands are
  2. sneeze glitter every time or hiccup bubbles every time
  3. have your inner thoughts broadcast out loud for one hour a day or have every message you send read aloud in a robot voice
  4. only be able to whisper or only be able to shout
  5. have a tail you cannot control or have ears that move depending on your mood
  6. wear enormous clown shoes every day or wear formal clothes every day
  7. speak only in rhyme or sing every sentence
  8. always smell faintly of onions or always be slightly sticky
  9. have a laugh track follow you everywhere or have dramatic music follow you everywhere
  10. be followed by a very slow pigeon that clearly judges you or be followed by a very fast squirrel that steals your snacks
  11. have eyebrows that grow an inch every day or have hair that changes colour with your mood
  12. only be able to walk backwards or have to run everywhere
  13. have your legal name changed to a sound effect or have to introduce yourself using your worst school photo
  14. sweat maple syrup or have breath that smells permanently of popcorn
  15. be physically unable to lie or be physically unable to keep a secret
  16. have every photo of you be one where you blinked or have every video of you be in slow motion
  17. wear your socks over your shoes or wear your backpack on your front
  18. have a narrator who exaggerates everything you do or have a hype man who is always slightly wrong about the details
  19. get a new embarrassing nickname every month or keep one embarrassing nickname for life
  20. burp bubbles or have a sneeze so tiny nobody ever hears it

Superpowers and impossible what-ifs

The oldest reliable category. The trick is to make both options genuinely tempting, so nobody can answer in under three seconds.

  1. be able to fly, but slowly or be able to run extremely fast
  2. be invisible for one hour a day or be able to teleport once a day
  3. read minds or see one minute into the future
  4. stop time for five minutes a day or rewind five minutes, once a day
  5. talk to animals or talk to plants
  6. heal any injury slowly or prevent one injury a year completely
  7. never need to sleep or never need to eat
  8. breathe underwater or survive any fall
  9. have enormous strength but move very slowly or have enormous speed but almost no strength
  10. control fire or control water
  11. shape-shift into any animal or shape-shift into any person
  12. always know when someone is lying or always know what someone needs to hear
  13. summon any object once a day or duplicate any object once a week
  14. live 200 years in good health or live 80 years and be remembered for centuries
  15. speak to your future self once or speak to your past self once
  16. be able to unsee anything or be able to unhear anything
  17. have a perfect memory or have perfect instincts
  18. be able to pause a conversation to think or be able to redo a conversation once
  19. control the weather over one square mile or control every traffic light in the world
  20. always land on your feet or always catch whatever you drop

School, teachers and the timetable

These land best with a group who share the same school. Half the fun is the arguing about which teacher this describes.

  1. have no homework but a much longer school day or have homework but finish at lunchtime
  2. sit an exam you did not study for or give a presentation you did not prepare
  3. have every teacher know your name or have no teacher know your name
  4. be the best in the year at one subject or be slightly above average at all of them
  5. sit at the very front or sit at the very back
  6. have a locker that always jams or have a chair that always wobbles
  7. repeat one year of school or skip one year of school
  8. do every group project with strangers or do every project entirely alone
  9. be graded only on effort or be graded only on results
  10. start at six in the morning and finish at noon or start at eleven and finish at six
  11. never be called on again or be called on in every single lesson
  12. go to a school with no phones or go to a school with no homework
  13. eat lunch alone every day or eat lunch with a teacher every day
  14. write a ten-page essay or do a hundred maths problems
  15. have to teach one lesson a term or have to be filmed in one lesson a term
  16. find out your grades a month early or not find out until the very end
  17. have every classroom smell like a swimming pool or have every classroom sound like a building site
  18. wear a uniform or have a strict dress code and no uniform
  19. have PE every single day or have a test every single Friday
  20. go on a boring school trip every month or go on one incredible trip a year

Food

Reliable, harmless, and everyone has an opinion. Good for restarting a game that has gone quiet.

  1. only eat sweet things for a year or only eat salty things for a year
  2. eat pizza every day or eat tacos every day
  3. never eat chocolate again or never drink anything except water again
  4. have everything you eat be slightly too hot or have everything be slightly too cold
  5. eat food with no smell or eat food with no texture
  6. eat the same breakfast for the rest of your life or never eat breakfast again
  7. get huge portions of food you quite like or get tiny portions of your favourite food
  8. cook every meal yourself or only ever eat what someone else chose
  9. never eat bread again or never eat cheese again
  10. eat a whole lemon or eat a spoonful of mustard
  11. only eat crunchy food or only eat soft food
  12. have every drink be fizzy or never have a cold drink again
  13. eat dessert first for the rest of your life or never eat dessert again
  14. try one new food every day or eat only your five favourites forever
  15. have a fridge always full of random things or have a fridge always stocked with exactly three things you like
  16. eat something delicious that looks disgusting or eat something bland that looks incredible
  17. never taste spice again or taste everything twice as strongly
  18. get free food forever but never choose it or choose anything you want but pay double
  19. eat breakfast food for dinner forever or eat dinner food for breakfast forever
  20. get hiccups every time you eat or sneeze every time you drink

Friends and everything around them

Where the game starts being about something. Not too early — put these after the room has laughed at least twice.

  1. have three close friends or have thirty good acquaintances
  2. always be the one who makes the plans or never have to plan anything
  3. know exactly what your friends think of you or never know
  4. have a friend who is always honest and quite blunt or have one who is always kind and slightly vague
  5. lose contact with everyone for a year or see everyone every single day for a year
  6. be the funny friend or be the one people rely on
  7. always be invited and rarely want to go or rarely be invited and always want to
  8. have one friend move far away or have five friends slowly drift off
  9. be able to say one thing to anyone with no consequences or be able to take back one thing you already said
  10. be in the group chat that never stops or not be in it at all
  11. have your friends meet your family or have your family meet your friends' families
  12. be the person people call at three in the morning or be the person nobody ever worries about
  13. tell one person every secret or keep every secret to yourself
  14. have a closest friend who is nothing like you or have one who is almost identical to you
  15. always be the host or always be the guest
  16. be forgiven instantly for anything or never need forgiving
  17. find out a friend lied to protect you or find out they told the truth and it hurt
  18. spend a year with people you love somewhere boring or spend a year alone somewhere incredible
  19. have your closest friend be much older than you or have them be much younger
  20. be remembered as kind or be remembered as interesting

Money, work and the version of you at thirty

The category that quietly turns into a real conversation. Useful when the group is older or the evening is winding down.

  1. have $1,000 today or have $5,000 in a year
  2. have a job you love that pays badly or have a job you tolerate that pays very well
  3. work four long days a week or work five short ones
  4. start something of your own and risk it failing or join something that already works
  5. be known for one enormous achievement or be known for many small ones
  6. never worry about money but never travel or travel constantly on almost nothing
  7. know exactly what you want to do at fifteen or work it out at thirty
  8. own a place of your own early or be able to rent anywhere you like
  9. get paid for your hobby or keep the hobby out of it entirely
  10. have one brilliant mentor or have an enormous network
  11. be paid a little every day or be paid everything once a year
  12. retire at forty and be bored or work until seventy and love it
  13. have a famous parent or have a very rich one
  14. win a fortune and tell nobody or win half as much and tell everyone
  15. have a guaranteed job for life that you did not choose or have complete freedom and no guarantees
  16. live in a huge city or live in a small town with everyone you like in it
  17. have unlimited money and no free time or have unlimited free time and just enough money
  18. know exactly how your life turns out or know none of it
  19. be respected at work or be liked at work
  20. get everything you asked for at fifteen or get everything you actually needed at thirty

Gross ones

Nothing dangerous here, nothing anyone has to actually do. Skip this block entirely if you are playing over dinner.

  1. drink a glass of milk that has been in a warm car or eat a cold chip found under a sofa cushion
  2. never wash your hair again or never cut your nails again
  3. share a toothbrush for a week or share a towel for a month
  4. step barefoot on a slug or step in a cold puddle wearing socks
  5. have a fly land on your food at every meal or find a hair in every third meal
  6. sneeze into your hands with no tissue anywhere or be sneezed on by someone else
  7. have permanently sweaty palms or have permanently chapped lips
  8. eat a spoonful of cold beans in the dark or drink flat, warm lemonade
  9. smell everything twice as strongly or taste everything you smell
  10. find a hair in your soup or find a plaster in your salad
  11. clean a stranger's fridge or clean a stadium after a match
  12. have wet socks all day or have one wet sleeve all day
  13. share a straw with a stranger or share a fork with your least favourite classmate
  14. brush your teeth with orange juice or wash your hair with mayonnaise
  15. sleep on unwashed sheets for a month or wear the same socks for a week
  16. have an insect fly into your mouth or have one fly into your ear
  17. eat something that fell on your kitchen floor or eat something that fell on a bus floor
  18. have permanent morning breath or have permanently greasy hair
  19. drink a glass of pickle juice or eat a raw onion like an apple
  20. be covered in glitter for a month or be covered in dog hair for a month

Phones, feeds and everything on them

These get the loudest disagreements, because everyone in the room already has a private opinion about their own screen time.

  1. lose your phone for a month or lose every photo on it
  2. have your search history made public or have your messages made public
  3. go a year with no social media or go a year with no music
  4. let everyone see your screen time or let everyone see your unsent drafts
  5. only ever text or only ever call
  6. have a million followers who do not care or have a hundred who genuinely do
  7. read every comment or never read a single one
  8. have autocorrect that is aggressively wrong or have a keyboard with a two-second delay
  9. get no notifications at all or get every notification twice
  10. have wifi that drops once an hour or have wifi at half speed permanently
  11. be tagged in every photo taken of you or never be tagged in anything
  12. have to video call for every conversation or never see anyone's face online again
  13. lose your account and start from zero or keep it but never post again
  14. have your camera roll shuffled into random order or have every playlist deleted
  15. know exactly who unfollowed you or never know
  16. have a phone that only works outdoors or have one that only works indoors
  17. have every message you send arrive an hour late or have every message you receive arrive an hour late
  18. keep one app forever or have every app but only one hour a day
  19. have your screen stuck at ten per cent brightness or have your volume stuck at maximum
  20. reply to everything instantly or never reply to anything

The hard ones

Save these. They only work once people have stopped performing, and they are the reason anyone remembers the evening.

  1. be told a hard truth or be told a kind lie
  2. always be believed and rarely be right or often be right and rarely be believed
  3. know when you will die or know how
  4. have your happiest memory removed or have your worst one removed
  5. be admired by strangers or be understood by three people
  6. fix one mistake you have already made or prevent one you have not made yet
  7. be the reason someone succeeded or be the reason someone recovered
  8. have a life with no risk and no failure or have one with plenty of both
  9. lose the ability to read or lose the ability to hear music
  10. never be lonely but never be alone or be alone often but never lonely
  11. forgive someone who never apologised or be forgiven by someone you never apologised to
  12. always say exactly what you think or always know when to say nothing
  13. be enormously talented and never work hard or be ordinary and completely relentless
  14. be right in an argument and lose the friend or be wrong and keep them
  15. know your parents' biggest regret or never know it
  16. do the right thing and be blamed for it or do the wrong thing and be praised
  17. live somewhere beautiful and far from everyone or live somewhere plain and near everyone
  18. have a life you chose or have a life that chose you and turned out well
  19. be remembered by thousands for a year or be remembered by four people forever
  20. start again at eighteen knowing nothing or carry on from here knowing everything

Where the game came from

Nobody owns the questions

The short version: forced-choice dilemmas are far older than any list of them, but the phrase became a product in October 1997, when Justin Heimberg and David Gomberg published Would You Rather…? Over 200 Absolutely Absurd Dilemmas to Ponder. The trademark on the name took another eight years to register, and in the meantime a rival board game and a federal lawsuit both appeared.1

What matters for anyone reading a list like this one is the outcome rather than the argument: what was fought over was the label on a box. The questions have never belonged to anybody, which is why no two lists on the internet are the same and why every question on this page was written for it.

The full story, including what the court actually decided

Why two

Two options work. Twenty do not.

Ask a room “what do you want to do tonight?” and you get silence. Ask “pizza or tacos?” and you get an answer in a second and an argument in three. The constraint is doing the work, not the topic.

The most-cited experiment on this is Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper’s, run in a grocery store in 2000. They set up a tasting booth with jam — sometimes six varieties, sometimes twenty-four — and counted who stopped and who then bought. The big display drew more people. But of the 104 shoppers who stopped at the six-jam table, 31 bought a jar: roughly 30 per cent. Of the 145 who stopped at the twenty-four-jam table, four bought: roughly 3 per cent.2

That study has been repeated a great many times since, and the honest summary is more complicated than the famous version. A 2010 meta-analysis pooled 63 conditions from 50 experiments covering 5,036 participants and found a mean effect size of essentially zero — with, in the authors’ words, considerable variance between studies.3 In other words: too much choice paralyses people in some situations and not in others, and nobody has fully pinned down which is which.

So take it as a design note rather than a law of nature. In this specific setting — a room, no preparation, someone has to speak in the next five seconds — two options beat an open question every time, and that is the whole reason the format has survived thirty years of party books.

Running it well

Four things that go wrong

Reading them in order, all two hundred. Don’t. Pick a block, do ten, stop while people still want more. A game that ends early gets asked for again.

Starting with the hard ones. The last block on this page is genuinely heavy, and it lands badly in the first five minutes. It works after the room has laughed twice and nobody is performing any more.

Letting one person explain for two minutes. Fifteen seconds is the limit and somebody has to enforce it. The rhythm is what makes the game feel like a game rather than a discussion.

Mixing ages without adjusting. The school and phone blocks assume everyone shares a timetable and a feed. With a mixed-age group they fall flat — use food, superpowers, and the funny block instead.

Free printable

Ten more rounds, on paper

The Bonus Round Pack is a printable PDF with ten rounds that aren’t in Party Battle Book and aren’t on this page, plus a score sheet built to survive a kitchen table. Prints fine in black and white.

Questions about the questions

Common ones

How many players do you need?

Three is the practical minimum — with two people there is no majority to be in the minority of, and the defend-your-answer rule stops working. It scales up well: with twelve or more, split into two teams and score guesses instead of answers.

What age are these written for?

Roughly thirteen to eighteen. Nothing here involves alcohol, sex, or anything anyone has to physically do — the gross block is words only. The school, phone and friendship blocks assume a teenager’s week; the food and superpower blocks work for any age at all.

Can you use these in a classroom?

Yes, and the first two blocks are built for it — short, harmless, and finishable in five minutes. Skip the gross block and read the friendship block before using it, since a few of those questions are personal enough to need a group that already trusts each other.

What if someone answers “both” or refuses to pick?

That is the one rule worth defending. The forced choice is the entire mechanic; without it you have a conversation, not a game. The usual fix is a friendly penalty — anyone who refuses reads the next three questions.

Do you need to print anything?

No. This page is the game — read it off a phone and start. The printable pack exists for the situation where phones are the problem rather than the solution.

Where do the harder questions come from?

They were written for this page, in the same shape as the rounds in Party Battle Book: two options that are each defensible, so the interesting part is the reason rather than the answer. A question with an obvious right answer is a dead question.

Sources

Where the facts on this page come from

  1. Publication date, trademark filing and registration dates, and the procedural history are taken from the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Zobmondo Entertainment, LLC v. Falls Media, LLC, No. 08-56831 (9th Cir., decided 26 April 2010). Full opinion.
  2. Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006. Study 1, the jam tasting booth. PDF.
  3. Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409–425. 63 conditions, 50 experiments, N = 5,036; mean effect size d = 0.02 (95% CI −0.09 to 0.12). PDF.

Keep going

More from this side of the house

The same game, cut for different rooms: questions for work and team meetings, or the whole would-you-rather collection with the rules in full.

If a room wants more than one game, Party Battle Book has 117 rounds across seven kinds — charades, bluffs, debates, letter storms — one page each, no phones, no setup. It is where these questions come from and where they lead.

Everything on the party and games shelf