“I need two volunteers!” I shout and two eager sophomores break out into a UFC match trying to get to the front of the room. When they eventually make their way to the front after crushing several rows of freshmen, I explain the challenge:
Eat a caramel apple as fast as you can.
And I produce two fresh, shiny caramel apples like some creepy witch that lives in a house made of candy. “You have 30 seconds. Go!”
I smile as teen number one bites into his caramel “apple,” immediately realizing that something is not at all right. His eyes well up in tears and he yells at me with his mouthful, “It’s an onion!” Pieces of stinky vegetable fly out, covering the freshmen bruised in the prior UFC fight. I laugh maniacally.
There is nothing better than a disgusting icebreaker. Whether it’s seeing who can eat the most pickled chicken livers or challenging a teen to eat a banana through a piece of nylon, there is something special about subjecting teens to games that were rejected by the television show “Fear Factor.”
Maybe it’s because these games immediately evoke a reaction – be it laughter or gagging – from a sometimes apathetic and lethargic group of teenagers. Maybe it’s because we are able to relate the caramel onion to the reality of sin; it may look good but it’s actually disgusting. Or maybe it’s just because after a week of parent phone calls, late permission slips, and teens texting through an entire teaching . . . a disgusting icebreaker is our way of saying, “I win.”
In all honesty, it’s out of love that we torment our teens with the occasional gross icebreaker, knowing full well that by the end of the night it will be a great story and a badge of honor for that teen to have survived the “onion switch-a-roo.”
It sure beats fifteen rounds of “Simon Says,” and besides, if a teen is going to run over a herd of helpless freshmen to volunteer for a game that they don’t even know the rules for – I would say an onion is fair game.
Question:
What is your favorite, crazy, youth group icebreaker?
Wow! Joel Stepanek, I almost pooped my pants when I saw that you wrote this. My immediate excitement was soon replaced by an overwhelming feeling of not being at all surprised even a little. Because who would have though that little old Joel from shanty manty would be working for Lifeteen national….oh wait, ME. I would have thought that. I have thought that from the beginning.
So proud. You are hilarious and gross all at the same time, glad to see you haven’t changed in the desert.
i wish there was a ‘like’ button like on facebook…
LOL. That’s great. I have several gross icebreakers but my favorite has to be an ice cream eating contest. A scoop of chocolate, a scoop of strawberry and…if you freeze mayonnaise, it looks identical to French vanilla ice cream. LOL. And the teens wanted to win so bad that no one slowed down long enough to realize it. Ha ha. So funny
We are ALL ABOUT gross icebreakers. The nastier the better. We had 4 blindfolded teens feeding the person sitting in front of them a baby food/applesauce/pudding mixture. Some of them could barely force it down while another teen was practically drinking it.
We also did a game that was in the movie To Save a Life. Get 4 volunteers and tell them it’s a race to see who can drink a coke first. Before they can open their can, stop them and tell them to take their sock off and put it over the can (so they are drinking it through the sock). Before they go once again have them pass it to the person to their right and then have the game start.
i thing my fav icebreaker to watch was when carly had a bucket of water dumped on her, and then flour… lol
and where are are ‘stuff youth ministers like” #s 1 and 3?
Camme, Here are the links to the other Stuff Youth Ministers Like:
Stuff Youth Ministers Like #1: http://catholicyouthministry.com/stuff-youth-ministers-like-1-shaving-your-head-to-get-teens-to-youth-group/
Stuff Youth Minsters Like #3: http://catholicyouthministry.com/stuff-youth-ministers-like-saying-awesome/
ROFL!!!!! That is great. I am headed to the store to buy some onions and caramel right now! What a great way to get through to them on the reality of sin. Thanks!
Going to do the Onion one this year, can’t wait.
We play Cricket Spit every few years with the Edge kids before Lent. Yup, just as it sounds, students trying to spit live crickets into a 5 gallon bucket to win a candy bar. Later in the meeting we bring up the example that if you were willing to stick crickets in your mouth for a candy bar, what should you be willing to do to grow in your faith during Lent. Fun to watch as some crickets will hold on to a tongue for dear life.
Oh my gosh that’s so nasty. I’m putting together a little fear factor game for our kids tonight, actually. I’m putting half an onion at the bottom of a bowl, then filling it with mayonnaise and my brother is going to shave his beard and put the shavings in there and mix it. Then they have to sit down across from a partner and the partner has to pick up anchovies (with their mouths) and drop them into the other partner’s mouth and they have to eat them. The winner gets nothing. The kids will be blind-folded, so they won’t know how disgusting it is until we show them the “how we did it” video afterwards.