This New PowerPoint Drinking Game Is Pure Genius

Pretty much anything can be turned into a drinking game. Jumanji, Air Hockey, Hallmark Christmas movies—you get the gist. But what about PowerPoint presentations, the cumbersome tool loved by professors who prefer passing knowledge slide by (usually painfully dull) slide? Turns out that can be a drinking game too.

A PowerPoint-based game called “Drink Talk Learn,” or DTL for short, is gaining in popularity with events being hosted in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto, according to BuzzFeed. To play, participants pick a topic they are interested in and prepare a three-minute PowerPoint lecture on it. If they go over three minutes, they have to chug their drink and continue.

Invented by a group of engineering students at Canada’s University of Waterloo, DTL is essentially the broke grad-school version of a night out with friends. The rest of the world gained insight into the game when an early adopter, who goes only by Michal, tweeted a photo of her game-winning presentation on Shadow the Hedgehog. It’s since been retweeted nearly 30,000 times and has more than 100,000 likes.

Michal was also gracious enough to bless curious drinking game fans with a deeper explanation of the rules. DTL has quickly gained in popularity among three types of people: those who like going deep on unexamined topics, those who have an obsession they need others to hear about, and those who like to turn everything—even learning experiences—into a drinking game.

How to Play DTL

Here’s how to play, according to the rules as Michal learned them that she then tweeted out. Also note that there’s a suggested business casual dress code.

1. Prepare a presentation with PowerPoint or PDF slides that is three minutes in length or less.

2. If you go over three minutes, you must finish your drink and then continue with your presentation. Every additional minute racks up more drinking penalties.

3. Heckling is encouraged so long as it’s “witty and brief.”

4. “Death by Screech is the punishment for non-witty banter.” Which, presumably, means you will be screamed at for stupid comments.

5. You absolutely cannot have your slides on an automatic timer to make it last less than three minutes.

6. Three awards are given out (but more can be added): Best Presentation, Best Dressed and Closest to Three Minutes Without Going Over.