"Minute to Win It" Noodling Around Game

Get ready to play with your food! In Noodling Around contestants must collect penne pasta noodles along a strand of spaghetti using only their mouths. The pasta should be uncooked, obviously.

The Goal

By the end of this Minute to Win It game you'll end up with six tube-shaped noodles held up by a strand of uncooked spaghetti. You'll be traveling around a table to collect the noodles and you can't use your hands. Good thing there's no tomato sauce involved here or things would really get messy.

Equipment Needed

In order to set up and play Noodling Around you only need a few supplies on hand. They are:

• Six uncooked penne noodles per player
• One uncooked strand of spaghetti per player
• One round table, any size
• A one-minute timer or stopwatch

Note: Make sure that you can fit six penne noodles onto one of the strands of spaghetti and if you can't, find smaller tube-shaped noodles. Though there are actually standard sizes for penne, different manufacturers tend to make different sizes regardless. At the end of this game all six of the penne noodles will have to be on the strand of spaghetti at the same time and if they can't fit, that'll be impossible.

How to Set Up Noodling Around

Set-up is pretty easy. All you need to do is to place the penne noodles evenly around the edge of the table so that the open ends of the tubes face outwards. Place the strand of spaghetti near one of the penne noodles and you're ready to go.

How to Play

The player begins the game standing at the table with his or her hands behind their back. When the one-minute timer starts, the player can then pick up the spaghetti with his or her hands and place it in his or her mouth. Then he or she goes around the table skewering the penne noodles, one at a time with the spaghetti, working his or her way around until all of the noodles are threaded on the strand. Get them all on the spaghetti for three consecutive seconds within the minute-long time limit in order to win.

The Rules

There are a few rules to abide by when playing Noodling Around, and you'll need to have a spotter on hand to make sure they're followed. The rules for play are:

• The only time that hands may touch any of the pasta is at the start of the game when the player puts the spaghetti noodle in his or her mouth. After that, hands should remain behind the back.
• If the spaghetti breaks the game can continue, but only if there's enough room on the remaining piece of pasta for all six noodles. Otherwise, the game is over.
• If a penne noodle falls off the spaghetti strand, it can remain in play but only if it lands on the table.
• The penne noodles may touch your lips, but not the inside of your mouth.
• To win, all six noodles must be on the spaghetti concurrently for three consecutive seconds.

Tips and Tricks

In order to keep the spaghetti from breaking, try to keep your head slightly below the level of the table and the spaghetti tilted slightly upwards. Then you can spear the penne and have it slide down towards your face, resting against your lips. Carry on throughout the game in this manner and you'll reduce the risk of spaghetti breakage as well as dropping the penne noodles.