What Is Shuffle Tennis?
Shuffle Tennis is a high-stakes and competitive game featured in the 6th episode of "Real Life With Married People," entitled "Music!" It is a variant on the "Random Rules" game seen in the Onion AV Club, or in the kinds of Facebook posts you never bother to read in full. In those, someone sets their iPod to the "shuffle" or "random" mode, and writes down or talks about each song that randomly comes up. This is like that, but pits two shufflers against each other in a bloody struggle to determine global musical domination.
What You Need
Scoring
Shuffle Tennis is scored just like tennis. Like most episodes of this web series, it starts with both people in love, and ends with at least one of them losing.
For each "serve," both players hit "next" on their random playlist, and announce which song appears. The judge considers both songs, decides which is more awesome, and awards a point accordingly. Judging disputes may be resolved by consulting an impartial third party, such as a local hipster or a recent post on Stereogum or Pitchfork. Actual points are based on tennis' inscrutable love-15-30-40 system, with the first player to reach whatever comes past 40 declared the winner.
Faults
A serve may occasionally be determined as a "fault," as in the following situations:
Winning
The winner at the end of a game, either by reaching the required number of points or by embarrassed forfeit on the part of the other player, should then be considered to have more developed musical taste than the loser. He/she shall apply this status by being allowed to choose the music played on car rides or at parties. If finances are shared, the winning player shall be alotted a greater portion of the monthly budget for the purchase of concert tickets and rare/out of print EPs (vinyl preferred). Additionally, he/she is now qualified to judge future Shuffle Tennis matches. These privileges are all fully transferable in the case of a loss in a future match.
Winners are encouraged to gloat.
GAME ON!
Shuffle Tennis is a high-stakes and competitive game featured in the 6th episode of "Real Life With Married People," entitled "Music!" It is a variant on the "Random Rules" game seen in the Onion AV Club, or in the kinds of Facebook posts you never bother to read in full. In those, someone sets their iPod to the "shuffle" or "random" mode, and writes down or talks about each song that randomly comes up. This is like that, but pits two shufflers against each other in a bloody struggle to determine global musical domination.
What You Need
- Two Players (either in person, or over a live IM/chat session)
- One judge with an inflated opinion of his/her musical taste (may be one of the players)
- Two iPods, Zunes, or other shuffle-able music libraries (cassette tapes not recommended)
Scoring
Shuffle Tennis is scored just like tennis. Like most episodes of this web series, it starts with both people in love, and ends with at least one of them losing.
For each "serve," both players hit "next" on their random playlist, and announce which song appears. The judge considers both songs, decides which is more awesome, and awards a point accordingly. Judging disputes may be resolved by consulting an impartial third party, such as a local hipster or a recent post on Stereogum or Pitchfork. Actual points are based on tennis' inscrutable love-15-30-40 system, with the first player to reach whatever comes past 40 declared the winner.
Faults
A serve may occasionally be determined as a "fault," as in the following situations:
- A different version of a previously played song appears (remix, live version, demo, etc.)
- Player accidentally hits "back" or "menu" instead of "next"
- Player is caught intentionally skipping a song to avoid embarrassment
- Track is non-musical, such as a book on tape, comedy album, or voice memo
Winning
The winner at the end of a game, either by reaching the required number of points or by embarrassed forfeit on the part of the other player, should then be considered to have more developed musical taste than the loser. He/she shall apply this status by being allowed to choose the music played on car rides or at parties. If finances are shared, the winning player shall be alotted a greater portion of the monthly budget for the purchase of concert tickets and rare/out of print EPs (vinyl preferred). Additionally, he/she is now qualified to judge future Shuffle Tennis matches. These privileges are all fully transferable in the case of a loss in a future match.
Winners are encouraged to gloat.
GAME ON!