The flooding in Queensland, Australia is quite serious and the death count has reached 18. Despite the gravity of the natural disaster, Queensland Aussies have come up with an effective coping strategy in these troubled times: The Queensland Flood Channel 9 News Drinking Game.
Those watching Channel 9’s coverage of the flood and participating in the Queensland Flood Channel 9 News Drinking Game are asked by the Facebook site to have “copious amounts of alcohol” on hand and to take a drink when a reporter or newscaster says any one of a number of words including: inundated, unprecedented, evacuation, capacity. More drinks are required when Channel 9’s news coverage includes footage of people sitting on roofs or footage of a rescue helicopter. The phrase “the darkest hour” also gets drinks.
As this article reports, not everyone is happy with the game due to the seriousness of the situation. People have died and others have lost their homes due to the flooding, so many think that it’s not the time for a drinking game even though some who have been the most-affected by the flooding are among the drinking game’s supporters. One Facebook fan who lost her home said that the group’s “cheeky little game” had cheered her and her family up.
Now that the Queensland flood is receding quite a bit, some of the Facebook group’s 16,000+ members are suggesting new terminology such as receding and massive clean up. One Facebook fan of the group asked that participants take a drink whenever they saw a blonde newscaster, “colouring ok.” Others are looking forward to other possibilities for Channel 9 drinking games in the future, just to keep the spirit of the Queensland Flood Channel 9 News Drinking Game alive, while having fun in the process—no further natural disasters necessary.
I can’t imagine that this would have gone over quite this well in the United States. Everyone (except for maybe George Bush) has a tendency to take little things like natural disasters quite seriously in this country and little things like drinking “copious amounts of alcohol” are heavily frowned on, maybe as result of our first Americans, the uptight Puritans who originally settled this country. The Greek community would be our only chance to make drinking games during a natural disaster acceptable, which is probably the only reason that I’m not entirely against sororities and fraternities. Think of the collective fun the nation could have with the CNN Drinking Game.