Spicy Cards / Journal

The fill-in-the-blank party game you can play with a pen and napkins

23 August 2026 · 4 minute read

You do not need a box of cards to play the best party game of the last twenty years. You need a pen, a stack of napkins and friends with no shame.

The format is simple and almost impossible to get wrong. One person reads a sentence with a gap in it. Everyone else writes something to fill the gap. The judge picks the funniest. That is the whole game, and it will keep a kitchen full of adults crying with laughter until the taxis arrive.

How to play

1. Hand out napkins or scraps of paper and a pen each.
2. Pick a judge. They read out a prompt from the list below, blank and all.
3. Everyone else writes an answer, folds it and passes it to the judge.
4. The judge shuffles them, reads them out in their best voice, and picks two: the best and the worst.
5. Best answer: one point. Worst answer: a forfeit.
6. The judge role moves one seat to the left. First to five points wins.

Twenty prompts to get you going

Clean enough for most rooms:

1. The real reason I was late: ___.
2. My nan's new hobby: ___.
3. The worst thing to hear from your pilot: ___.
4. What I'd put in a time capsule: ___.
5. My autobiography is called ___.
6. The village fete was cancelled because of ___.
7. My most useless skill: ___.
8. Honestly, the best thing about Britain is ___.
9. What's in the sandwich? ___.
10. The new Bake Off technical challenge: ___.

A little cheekier, if the room is up for it:

11. My dating profile says I love long walks and ___.
12. I knew it was love when he let me ___.
13. The hotel asked us to leave after ___.
14. Things got weird when she whispered, "Let's try ___."
15. What did I find in my partner's bedside drawer? ___.
16. Tonight's dress code: ___.
17. Why are you walking funny? ___.
18. The book club has turned into ___.
19. The most British thing ever said in the bedroom: ___.
20. Guaranteed to get me to the dance floor: ___.

The art of a good answer

The funniest answers are usually specific. "A goat" is fine. "A goat called Graham who knows what he did" wins. Local references kill: a nearby supermarket, a mutual friend's catchphrase, the pub everyone pretends not to go to.

Sometimes the best answer is the most innocent one in the room. A sincere answer to a filthy prompt can bring the house down.

Forfeits that are funny, never cruel

The worst answer takes a forfeit. Good forfeits are silly, quick and never involve touching anybody. A few that work:

• Give the room a thirty-second solo dance. Commit.
• Say something outrageous in your poshest voice.
• Let the judge choose your nickname for the rest of the game.
• Tell the room your most embarrassing moment of the year.
• Do your best impression of someone famous until your next turn.
• Read your next answer in the style of a football commentator.

With drinks on the table, a sip is always an acceptable alternative.

Hosting it well

A little preparation makes the difference between a game that fizzles and one people talk about for weeks.

Write the prompts in advance. Ten minutes with a notebook before guests arrive and you will have twenty prompts that suit your crowd. Prompts about your town, your group's holidays or the office are always the funniest.

Pick a confident first judge. The judge sets the tone. Someone who reads out answers with full commitment, voices and all, gets everyone else playing properly.

Let people write their own. The best answers come from the room, not from a card. A blank napkin is the most powerful card in the deck.

Keep a "hall of fame". Pin the best answer of the night to the fridge. By the third party it becomes a tradition.

Know when to stop. Two rounds of the table is usually perfect. End on a laugh rather than waiting for the energy to drop.

Mix the room. Sit couples apart. Answers are funnier when nobody can see what their partner is writing.

Agree the level first

Fill-in-the-blank games live or die on matching the room. Before the first prompt, agree how cheeky it gets, and play to whoever wants it cleanest. A table of old friends at midnight is a different game from a table of new colleagues at eight.

For groups who want to go further, some play a version where the worst answer loses an item of clothing instead of taking a forfeit, down to whatever the whole room agreed before you started. Agree that rule at the start, with everyone, or not at all.

Want a proper deck?

Nothing to Hide on Spicy Cards has over a hundred prompts and three hundred answer cards across four levels, plus your own written answers. One phone, anonymous answers, a judge who rotates on their own, and a level set in private by everyone, so the room plays to the lowest. Clean is free.