Drinking games have been with us for as long as drinking itself has. It only takes a little alcohol to relieve a person of their normal inhibitions and open them up for silliness and competition -and more drinking. Still, there have been some notorious drinking games that led to significant consequences, some of them deadly. There was that time that Alexander the Great staged a drinking competition at a funeral and offered a gold crown to whoever drank the most. The winner drank a stupendous amount, and captured the crown, but then died. And so did most of the finalists. There was also a customary drinking game at Stalin's notorious parties, and another that resulted from a government overthrow- and led to another. An ancient Korean drinking game was like truth or dare, and one option was "Drink from a cup without removing the dirty thing floating in it." Read the stories of five terrifying drinking games from the historical records at Cracked.
(Image credit: Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne)
