Misery loves company. But so does happiness, and a new game seeks to bring that happiness to groups large and small.
"Laughing until everyone has tears in their eyes," is how Scott Porter described the game Reverse Charades.
He and his brother, Bryce Porter, developed it after a vacation several years ago in which Scott was introduced to charades and the group ended up playing a "homemade version" of the original.
"I immediately called my brother, Bryce," Scott said. He told his brother, "We have to take this to the masses."
A simple idea was born and the brothers — who both graduated from Brigham Young University in public relations — marketed Reverse Charades across the country.
"What we realized, there are just not that many games that you can pull out of the box and play with a large group of people," Scott said.
That group of people is important to the game.
"The biggest part that we like about it is that Reverse Charades takes away the anxiety from people that don't want to act out by themselves," Bryce said.
"Sometimes people feel self-conscious acting alone, but if they are with the group they are much more comfortable."
Reverse Charades simply switches the well-known charades game so the group acts instead of just one person.
"It doesn't put any one person on the spot, and every single person on both teams gets to participate," Scott said. "It's like an ice-breaker. There is a team-building component that you just don't get with normal charades."
Because it can be played with large numbers of people, it has been effective with LDS Young Men and Young Women groups, according to the Porters.
"They have to put down their cell phones and stop texting," Scott said.
Bryce defined the game as "an intergenerational opportunity."
"It brings all the generations together in a unique way," Bryce said. "It basically levels the playing field."
The game is not exactly sweeping the country by storm, but it has found a niche, especially in the LDS community, in which clean family entertainment is encouraged.
"It took about a year to get through design, and we test-marketed it all over the country," Bryce said. "We started to get good feedback that was not from our family and friends.
"Last year was our first quality season. We sold all of our inventory."
Sales doubled this year, and the game is available in some 80 stores nationwide and about 30 in Utah, as well as on the game's website.
Scott said some memories of playing the game will never be forgotten.
"Four people acted out Mount Rushmore, and everyone split a gut laughing, but then one person acted out exploding her head until she realized she was portraying Mount St. Helens," Scott said.
"She accidentally blurted out, 'wrong mountain,' and that was when everyone was brought to tears laughing."
Wade Jewkes lives in Sandy and is a freelance writer for the Deseret News