We Tested Out The Shark Week Drinking Game For You… It Works

Discovery Channel's Shark Week is in its 31st season. As someone who grew up without cable, I never got swept up in the allure around Shark Week. People are obsessed! They countdown until the day it starts, they get t-shirts, they hashtag it on social media platforms... they can't get enough! I've never understood it.

...Until I found this Shark Week drinking game.

I've been enlightened. I get it. I still don't have cable, and I'm not sure I'll remember to make a countdown next summer, but Discovery's shark-focused programming is unmatched in drinking game gold, especially when you follow these rules.

Lori and I put this game to the test in Arcadia National Bar, the downtown Portland arcade bar, with beers (and waters) in hand. They were kind enough to put on the Discovery channel We got through three beers by the end of the first show, and that was drinking strictly when we were told to by the game, so a word to the wise: don't pregame, and don't play this with anything stronger than what you can handle in an hour of programming.

What you'll need: 

- Your drink of choice (and access to a couple more)

- Access to Shark Week programming, either on your TV, streaming online with a cable account, or through select non-cable streaming services. The schedule and list of carriers are available here.

-The list of Shark Week Drinking Game rules! We drew ours from the appropriately named website, whenissharkweek.com, but modified it slightly to better fit watching in a bar with subtitles.

The rules we followed (shown above) were:

- Drink every time you see a diver in a cage

- Drink every time a Great White jumps out of the water (and continue drinking until it goes back in)

- Drink every time you see blood

- Drink whenever you see a surfer and shark in the same shot

- Drink every time an expert is interviewed

- Drink the whole time a shark attacks any animal until it dies

- Drink every time a shark attack survivor talks about being lucky to be alive

- Drink whenever a shark is being poked, prodded, or tracked.

- Drink every time they say the word "feisty" or a curse word is bleeped

- Drink every time statistics are shown (maps, radar, measurements, etc.)

Have fun, be safe, and happy shark week!