What’s Wrong with this Picture?

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This game is a surreal variation on the classic children’s visual puzzles which present a detailed drawing of a particular scene (e.g., a barnyard) with a number of impossible or paradoxical things happening (a horse with wings, a tractor with square wheels, etc.). The game is simply to spot the “wrong” thing or things. The surrealist version is to flip open any magazine or newspaper (or gallery of photos from unsplash.com, as above) at random, to a not-intentionally “wrong” image, and challenge one’s companion, “What’s wrong with this picture?” Within a few seconds, the player so challenged is to come up with an answer, the funnier or more creative the better. The best answers range from truly off-the-wall surreality, to simple comedy brainstorming, to actually identifying something that is wrong with the picture, but that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

If you like strange games like this, you may enjoy A Book of Surrealist Games, which collects games and provocations invented by artists of the Surrealist school.