The Jackbox Party Packs are great options for party games when you have friends around and want to have a few laughs. There are many games on offer, even in just one of the packs, and the opportunities for side-splitting hilarity are many. Here are some of the top choices for an absurdity-filled night in.
Drawful
If you managed to imbue Pictionary with the chaotic energy of an AI image generator, you might create something like Drawful. Players get served ridiculous prompts, which they must illustrate on their device of choice. Once their work of art has been created, the rest of the players must suggest what the prompt might have been and then guess what the original prompt actually was. Whether you’re a stick-figure aficionado or a Michelangelo in the making, Drawful is sure to get some laughs. Drawful is available on Jackbox Party Packs 1 and 8, and in standalone form.
Fakin’ It
Fakin’ It was doing social stealth long before Among Us took to the stage. Each game features three rounds, in which players must perform actions like pulling a face, raising their hand, or putting up a number of fingers in answer to the prompts they’ve received. But one player is a faker, given different prompts from the other players. Through a careful combination of luck, reflexes, and quick wits, the faker aims to deflect the suspicions of their fellow players. If you’re faking, you might have to come up with some pretty outlandish explanations for why you’re acting the way you are, but there’s always the option of imposing suspicion onto someone else. Fakin’ It is available in Jackbox Party Pack 3.
Fibbage
If you fancy yourself a convincing liar, Fibbage is the game for you. Whether you’re claiming that a senator once tried to criminalize yawning or that you once saw Stevie Wonder at a dive bar, the game’s name is tricking your friends into believing wild things and harvesting those sweet, sweet points from their credulity. Originally available as a standalone title, versions of Fibbage are also on Party Packs 1, 2, and 4.
Job Job
Applying for a job might not sound like the most fun thing in the world, but Jackbox Party Pack 8’s Job Job aims to disabuse you of that notion. In the perfectly ordinary process of sitting through a job interview with a sentient water cooler, you’ll have to answer questions — ideally in a hilarious fashion — by piecing together responses from other people’s sentences. It’s challenging than it at first appears, but the results are usually ridiculous enough to make even office life seem that much more amusing.
Patently Stupid
For a crash course on creating pitch decks for ideas that probably create more problems than they solve, you can’t get much better than Patently Stupid. Fill out problem prompts for other players, and then invent the best — or worst — tool for the job, complete with a tagline and a hastily-scrawled illustration. You can’t get much more prepared for the world of venture capital than this. Find it on Party Pack 5.
Quiplash
Quiplash is the best known of all the Jackbox games. Debuting as a standalone title before taking off with Quiplash XL in Jackbox Party Pack 2, Quiplash has also featured on Party Packs 3 and 7. The premise is simple — the game’s questionably charismatic host will serve you up a couple of prompts, like “What’s the biggest waste of time?” or “Something a friendly heckler would yell at a comedy show,” and it’s up to players to come up with their wittiest answers. Whether it’s deadpan sarcasm or the innest of in-jokes, this one’s always a hit with any group.
Talking Points
Like that dream you keep having about giving an important presentation with no preparation, Jackbox Party Pack 7’s Talking Points requires you to give a presentation without preparation. Served with an absurd abstract mad-libbed by the other players, you must give a convincing and hilarious talk on the subject at hand, with illustrative slides and vocal prompts chosen in real-time by one of your competitors. Talking Points won’t necessarily be for everyone — it helps to be a quick improviser and comfortable with speaking in front of a group — but if you’re in the right crowd, this game can be downright hysterical.
