Pet Peeves: Redemption vs. Rebuttal
Chronicling the shared grievances of my friend Zack and myself.
There are many reasons why my friend, Zack, is a great friend. In fact, it would take an article longer than this one to describe why. That being said, I’m confident that the strongest thread that holds our friendship together is our mutual disdain for certain things. Basically, we almost always have the same pet peeves. So, I thought it would be fun to detail these in a super-opinionated fashion.
If you’re playing beer pong and you lose, what is it called when you get an extra opportunity to shoot the balls again and go into overtime?
If you answered ‘Redemption’ shot instead of ‘Rebuttal’ shot, just know that we hate you.
Okay, maybe hate is a strong word to use, but you need to be set straight. See, I’m a born and raised Wisconsinite that just happens to live in Colorado. I grew up with beer, cheese and drinking games. Hell, the lone MLB team in Wisconsin is literally named after people who make beer. I’ve even been barred from participating in drinking games in other states because they knew I was from Wisconsin.
In college, the squad and I used to play a made up game where we passed a pitcher of beer from one person to another and chugging the beer all while chanting “beer drinking game.” We called the game Beer Drinking Game. There were no rules, no points, no winners. Because that’s just what we did!
So needless to say, I know a thing or two about drinking, both recreational and competitively. And in the city my college was located in, Madison, Wisconsin, we called it the Rebuttal. Calling it a Redemption shot is for people who still play with beer in their pong cups (you animals.)
Let me break this down a little bit more thoroughly and start it out like every bad Maid of Honor speech ever given:
Webster’s Dictionary defines redemption as the act, process, or an instance of redeeming. Following that trail, you’ll learn that redeeming is defined as serving to offset or compensate for a defect. I’m sorry, but I’m not offsetting or compensating for any sort of defect in my beer pong game and neither should you. Sometimes the other team just has it and that’s why rebuttal fits more perfectly.
Webster’s defines rebuttal as the act of rebutting which is to drive back or beat back. That’s right, if I’m down in a game of beer pong and on the verge of being eliminated; I want my partner and I to drive back the other team and just win, baby!
Even if you’re at the table throwing junk, you need the mindset of beating back the surging opposition to regain momentum and make overtime an entirely different ball game. Redeeming or compensating makes it sound like beer pong is a dick swinging contest and it’s not. It’s a mental game where you can buckle and troll or you can turn a cold streak into heating up to fire.
When it comes to drinking games, I know we can all get a little pretentious as to how things are done, but there are universal truths that should be followed. Watch your elbows on the beer pong table, respect the house rules, and it’s called Flip Cup not ‘Flippy Cup,’ you toddler. Calling it a Rebuttal should be considered a universal truth.
So, whether you’re playing a simple 10-cup game or Giant Beer Pong with garbage cans, if you call it a ‘Redemption’ shot, don’t even call next.
