Designers: Sooyoung Youn, Stuart Wineman
Publisher: Playte
Artist: Wanjin Gill
2-6 players | 15 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $15 | BGG Entry
Time to teach and learn: 2 minutes | Buy the game

Game Synopsis

Can you say several slippery phrases consecutively without getting your tongue tangled? Slide through without a mistake and the silly sentence will grow for the next victim! Stumble a bit and you’ll take the card that tripped you up (and any cards stacked beneath) as a penalty. An arrow on the card back will tell you which way to read the line of words, adding even more potential for pronunciation pandemonium. The first player to collect six penalty cards will end the game. The player with the least penalties wins.

Why We Love Betty Botter Bought Some Butter

This game celebrates the silliness of language by asking us to play with it. We don’t often think of the physical demands or challenges words can make on our mouths when stacked together in just the right order. Betty Botter Bought Some Butter sets delicious traps for your tongue, one card at a time. The genius and joy of the game is best experienced and not explained to death, though. So let’s play along right here!

The first card drawn is 

Bad Money, Mad Bunny

If you read it without any goofs, then draw a card and add it to the line before or after

The second card is

Fred Fed Ted Bread

So now you’re on the hook to say 

 Bad Money, Mad Bunny - Fred Fed Ted Bread

The third card is

Pretty Preppy Peppy Pink Pigs

So now we have a line of cards creating word soup that looks like this

Pretty Preppy Peppy Pink Pigs - Bad Money, Mad Bunny - Fred Fed Ted Bread

Go ahead and give it a go. No slow talking, though! Now try reading the cards starting right to left instead. Did you flub it up or make it to the end?  Either way, even playing solo, I bet you’re cracking a smile. 

One more card to finish us off. The fourth card drawn is

Irish Wristwatch, Swiss Wristwatch

Let’s say all those P words are tripping you up. You could choose to play the new card over those pesky pigs, so now the lineup is 

Irish Wristwatch, Swiss Wristwatch - Bad Money, Mad Bunny - Fred Fed Ted Bread

And on we go… The next card is The Real Rural Juror… which sends the whole group into hysterics because no one can even come close to saying it right.

Some may be reticent to play at first because they are overly worried they’ll get their tongue twisted. One: the game is very forgiving, so the cost of failure (especially early on) is very low. Two: everyone will mess up! The heart of the game is designed to create traps for players. The fun is in the failure! 

But something will happen during almost every game. The line up of cards will grow and grow to a ludicrous level. No one will care about points at this point. Everyone will be tippy toeing on the tongue twisting tight rope hoping to keep the streak going and the line of cards growing. That tension between collective success and hilarious individual failure is exactly the kind of Venn diagram where you’ll find Major Fun!

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Congratulations to designers Sooyoung Youn and Stuart Wineman

More information on Betty Botter Bought Some Butter at Playte

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