***
It started with Nessa and I getting bored. As per usual with us. Everyone else was off doing their own things, and we really didn't find any of it interesting enough to join them. It was late in the evening, the dead spot of the day, and She and the other humans weren't anywhere to be found. Nessa and I heard some strange noises coming from the living room downstairs, so we decided to have a little looksie and investigate.
We came upon Loki and Magneto, both standing in the living room with the TV turned on. Now that was weird. She's family almost never had the TV on in the house. Either that, or we were never around to see what was on. Besides, I don't think I'm much of a TV person at all. But what was playing today seemed big. Like, really big. Like, there might be some people out there that worshiped it big.
"What's this?" Nessa was the first to ask, when Magneto and Loki saw us walking towards them.
"The Super Bowl," said Magneto, like it should be obvious to us, but it wasn't. "Haven't you ever heard of it?"
"No, I'm afraid not." I was puzzled at the images I saw on screen. So far it just looked like a bunch of aerial shots of a stadium and a bunch of formal sporty men in suits, sitting and talking with scripts in their hands.
"It's just a really big football game. A lot of people like it, because it's really the last game of the season, and therefore the biggest. Two of the best teams of that year play against each other, and the team that wins gets a trophy." Loki explained.
"Simple enough," said Nessa. "But why all the fuss?"
"Beats me. But it's still sometimes fun to watch."
"You've seen this before?" I asked.
"You've seen this before?" I asked.
Loki shrugged. "Last year."
"Oh."
"What's this?" Nessa asked, pointing at the ground by their feet. Magneto and Loki both had a stack of pennies, some shiny, some blackened and gummy, and a sheet of computer paper with a grid on it. In all caps at the top was one word, bingo.
"Super Bowl Bingo. It's a great game. This is my second time playing it, but it's really fun. You guys can play if you want. We just have to print off two more bingo sheets and get more pennies." Loki offered.
"Why bother? They're gonna lose anyways. Because I'm the long-reigning Super Bowl Bingo champ." Magneto bragged.
"He's lying," Loki whispered to us. "Last year was my first time playing, but I beat his score into the ground."
"Got the idea from She," Magneto added, oblivious to what Loki had just said. "She plays this with her family, too. So last year Loki and I thought we would give it a go. They had a fun time with it. It makes sports a lot more interesting."
"By the way, where is She?" Nessa said.
"Out."
"Wow, thanks, Magneto. So descriptive."
"She went to have dinner and watch the game with the other humans over at a friends house. They won't be back until the wee hours when the food is all gone."
"You seem to know a lot about how this works."
"Trust me, I've been doing this a lot longer than you've been alive." said Magneto. Loki rolled his eyes. I took a glance up at the TV screen, where they were interviewing a man with an orange jersey and the title card, "Peyton Manning."
"You seem to know a lot about how this works."
"Trust me, I've been doing this a lot longer than you've been alive." said Magneto. Loki rolled his eyes. I took a glance up at the TV screen, where they were interviewing a man with an orange jersey and the title card, "Peyton Manning."
"Okay, how do you play?" I asked. Sitting and watching a football game was not exactly my idea of fun, but it was better than joining on what anyone else was going.
"It's just like any regular game of bingo." Loki began, using his paper as an example.
"Okay." Not that it helped much for him to say that. As a doll, I'd never played nor heard of bingo before.
"You get a game board in a grid fashion with the letters b, i, n, g, and o at the top in columns. On the side, in rows, you have the numbers one through five on a normal board. Got it?"
"So far." said Nessa.
"Okay, so say that the bingo announcer-"
"The bingo announcer?!"
"Yes. Say that they call out I-37. Each bingo board is different, but if my board has the number 37 in my "I" column, maybe the fourth row down, I can mark that with a penny," he placed a penny on his board in the I-4 square. "If I get five in a row, up, down, across one way or the other way, like this..." Loki brought in four more pennies to demonstrate. "So I yell "Bingo!" and the bingo announcer will come by the check my answers of where I have put my pennies. If all of them are correct, I win."
"Oh, I get it," Nessa said, but it was hard to tell of that was a lie or not. "So what's different about Super Bowl Bingo, then?"
And that, my friend, is where I step in with the tutorial.
***
As you already heard Loki say and then explain, Super Bowl Bingo is much like regular Bingo. It has the same instructions and how to play. It's just about how you set up the board that is different. You see, each year during America's biggest event, (at least some may argue that) companies from all over are set to advertise their product, but during this day more than ever, because this is the day that they know that almost 90% of America's televisions will be on for most of the day. So they spend millions upon millions of dollars to make their commercial outrageous so that we, the average consumer, will remember it, and therefore, the next time we're at Target looking for milk, we'll recall the funny commercial where the dogs dressed up as a human to buy Doritos and suddenly find ourselves in the chip aisle. Luckily, since I am a doll, I do not have to worry about that sort of thing happening to me. But regardless, these commercials are still entertaining and fun to watch especially so. And, believe it or not, these commercials both play a big part in the Super Bowl game and in the bingo game.
Step 1: First, you'll want to start out with a blank bingo sheet. You can find one online easy for free, just scroll through Google Images until you find one that you like. Magneto and Loki used this one.
(The picture won't center, so sorry about that.)
Step 2: Copy and paste your chosen image into a word document and enlarge it to the desired size. It could be doll-sized, say, two three, or four inches depending on the size of said doll, or regular human-sized, taking up the whole page. Oddly enough, we chose to go big on this one, probably so that we could fit the pennies in the squares as our bingo markers. But if you use the smaller versions, I'm sure you could use other things. Like mini M&Ms! Plus, when you're done playing, you get to eat/smell them if you win!
(Just in case you didn't know how to copy-paste an image into a word document, there you go.)
Step 3: Print your bingo sheet once it is the desired size. This should go without saying if you know computers. If not, file, print, select number of copies, which printer, blah blah blah, various settings, print. And if all works out well, it should, maybe turn up at your printer. Unless something's wrong with your printer. I can't help you there.
This is a stock photo image of the printer in She's house, because I couldn't decide what else to put here.)
Step 4: Start customizing your bingo board. It's yours, so do whatever you want with it. (Well, I got She's old bingo board from last year, since Magneto didn't want to go to the trouble to printing out two more blank copies for us. Nessa got She's sister's board from last year.) However, I was able to cut out a small rectangle of paper and make a spot for myself at the top of She's old board. We used regular computer paper, tape, and colored pens, but you can go as wild as you want. Just be sure to clean up your mess, okay? Especially if it is glitter or glue, or glitter-glue.
(Es bootiful, no?)
Step 5: Filling in those squares! This is the most important part, and essential to any bingo game. First, you'll need to take that center square, column N, row 3 on most boards, and write "Free Space" or "Free." Next comes the tricky part. If you've got a five-by-five board like we used, you need to come up with twenty five (well, twenty-four, if we're not counting the free space in the middle) things that you think might show up in the Super Bowl commercials. For example, (and you can use/steal these if you want, because I didn't come up with them myself since She already had her board filled out. Thanks, She!) your B-4 square could have "car commercial" written in it. Or in your O-5 square, you could write, "a funny talking baby." Just brainstorm in fill in your chart completely.
(As you can see, She already played through this once, due to the Xs with the pink marker, but She actually got a row won. Other ideas would be a prescription drug commercial, a new movie trailer, or a setting in a supermarket.)
Step 6: Play the game! This is the final step, but it also takes the longest. Unfortunately, in order to play, you kind of have to watch the entire football game, unless you spend your non-commercial break refilling on popcorn or taking a nap. But this game actually makes people like me eagerly anticipate any sports game now. Just remember that whenever you see something on your board that you filled out earlier, say, a turkey sandwich, place a penny as a mark on that square. If you get five in a row in any direction, yell bingo, and if you win, congratulations! Even though it's a bit late to play Super Bowl Bingo for its 50th anniversary this year, you don't have to just play it for the Super Bowl. Think the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or any other sports game for that matter. Get creative and have fun with this game!
(BINGO!!!)
***
Hope y'all enjoyed this post, whether you're a sports fanatic or not so much of a fan. And to those that are the latter, maybe you'll actually enjoy watching grown men risk their lives over a football now that you know about this game. Happy 50th anniversary to the Super Bowl!!!
Now the Super Bowl Bingo champion,
Queen Elsa
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