Breaking Icebreaker Questions
Icebreakers can be a good way to get to know people better, depending on the question and peoples’ answers. They can also often pose an opportunity for some creative or unusual answers. In this post, I am going to explore a variety of icebreaker questions and answers that abuse loopholes or open up the potential for more possibilities.
I will also quickly address that I understand that the intended purpose of icebreaker questions is not to find the most optimal or “game-breaking” answers but it is nonetheless an interesting thought exercise.
To keep the post relatively short, I only picked one site which listed a little under 200 icebreaker questions, and tried to find as many as I could with loopholes of some sort.
This will make sense later
If you could visit one setting/world, what would you choose?
Before I get into some of the answers, just as a fun fact, this question was the one that inspired this post in the first place. While considering my genuine answers, I came up with a few answers which would essentially break the restrictions of the question, i.e. only being able to choose one world to visit, and could lead to some interesting adventures. The answers are in the order I came up with them, preparing follow up answers in the event I got push back on the previous one, in a similar vein to the supposed rule that you cannot wish for more wishes.
In my opinion the quickest and easiest way to game the system is to visit Agrabah, setting of the 1992 Disney animated movie Aladdin. While there I would follow Aladdin to the Cave of Wonders or just do my homework beforehand so I know the exact location of the Cave of Wonders.
For those of you wondering, “Wouldn’t the Cave of Wonders not let you in if you intend to use the lamp for selfish gains as the cave only allows entry to the ‘diamond in the rough’?” With that in mind, it would probably be less risky to just wait until he escapes the Cave of Wonders and then “borrow” the lamp from him, I’d only need the one wish and then he could have the lamp back for two wishes and to free Genie. The one wish would be to have the ability to grant wishes which, in my opinion, is the best wish option for genie lamps in general as it sidesteps the potential denial that would come with wishing for infinite wishes, which would also doom the genie to infinite servitude which is obviously terrible. Once I have the ability to grant wishes then traversing the multiverse is simple and if nothing else, I could then visit all the settings I would actually want to visit like: Diagon Alley, Avengers Tower, the X-Mansion, the Hall of Justice, Café Leblanc, etc.
Alright, I’m going to pick up a pace with this because if I go super in-depth on each sub-answer this will take forever to read and to write. Another option would be to travel to the world of the movie “Wonder Woman 1984”, find the Dreamstone, and make the same aforementioned wish. Also, just as an aside, Pedro Pascal’s character in the movie, Maxwell Lord, makes a similar but in my opinion poorly worded version of this type of wish. He says “I wish to be you, the Dreamstone, itself” which especially given the theme of ill-thought out wishes and unintended consequences that persists throughout myths about genies and Monkey’s Paw situations, this seems like a wish that could have easily backfired and it is surprising that the wish is not granted completely literally as worded instead of as intended. In the movie, Maxwell simply gains the ability to grant others’ wishes by gaining the powers of the Dreamstone. Once again, the ability to grant wishes would be gained and thus the ability to travel anywhere by extension would have also been obtained.
Aside from abusing gaining the ability to grant wishes to then visit all worlds, there is also the “Army of Darkness” approach (spoiler alert) — instead of using one setting visit to gain the ability to visit other settings, one could use it to take over the world or the entire Tri-State area when one returned after visiting the chosen world or setting. I will quickly run through a few options. Again, I am going to keep things general and won’t go super deep on the details or the precise backstory of everything.
Marvel:
Break into Oscorp and take the spider (Specimen 42 on Earth 1610) that gave Miles Morales his powers
Obtaining the reality stone
Stealing Pym particles
Stealing super soldier serum
Stealing an Iron Man suit
Working near the particle accelerator that gave Molecule Man his powers right before it explodes
DC:
Make a makeshift lightning rod and chemicals set to gain super speed as done by the Flash in the animated DC movie “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox”
Stealing Mr. Mxyzptlk’s bowler hat from the “My Adventures with Superman” show universe, assuming that would actually work and the hat doesn’t just strengthen his, and only his, powers.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Wishes
If you could have one super power, what would it be?
As I will talk about in another article I am working on, “The Trouble with Speedsters”, the optimal answer is super-speed. In the spirit of breaking the question though, again, the power to grant wishes opens the door to gaining all other super powers and I would argue is the best answer.
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
Originally, I thought that Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper was going to be the optimal answer, assuming it has any nutritional value.
A game-breaking answer for this one is actually Wonka’s Magic Chewing Gum, from the 1971 classic “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.” This gum, Wonka claims, contains a full three-course meal. After ignoring Wonka’s warning, Violet tries the gum which quickly backfires, resulting in her swelling up like a balloon.
Based on my vague memory of this scene, I was under the impression the gum simply tasted like a three-course meal, not that it actually contained one, and that the blowing up like a blueberry was simply a side-effect of the gum not working properly. After re-watching the scene in the original and in the remake, the gum appears to actually contain a three-course meal.
The fact that Violet fills up with juice, which Wonka states in the original movie, indicates that there are some food-like substances (i.e., juice from a blueberry as part of the blueberry pie) contained within the gum. She also says she can feel the tomato soup going down her throat. Assuming the gum is made in different flavors this provides the ability to still consume all types of meals while technically only consuming one food, depending on if you even consider candy a type of food, especially gum which you chew instead of swallow. The biggest concern with this answer is the actual level of nutrition within the gum and the meals therein and whether that would be enough to sustain a human’s existence.
Also, if you are wondering, in the remake “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, the magic chewing gum works much the same. Wonka says, “Just a little strip of Wonka’s Magic Chewing Gum and that is all you will ever need at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
A state of constant happiness
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
I would choose a band of clerics or, in a pinch, necromancers who could/would bring me back to life
Part 2 — Optimal but not “game breaking” answers
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Wakanda. It’s the most technologically advanced country on the planet in the Marvel Comics and Cinematic Universe.
If you could be any supernatural creature, which would you pick?
If we are thinking on a smaller scale, any creature with the ability to turn intangible that can also interact with objects (essentially a creature with the powers of Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat) would be ideal. Casper the Friendly Ghost initially seemed like an optimal choice as he can “be intangible (along with making his sheet this way) since when he is unaware, things pass right through him. But he is also able to physically affect things, such as moving around things or people.” So one becomes Casper, turns intangible and waltzes into Fort Knox, takes a bunch of gold, then wins. If ghosts are consider creatures, then the DC character Deadman would be the better choice for the above plan and just in general as he can take over the bodies of people but also pass through solid objects. The difference between Deadman and Casper then gets into the technicalities and character backstories as Deadman was once a live human and the character Casper was initially implied to have once been a human child. Around the time people started realizing the implication that this cartoon ghost is the spirit of a dead child which is pretty dark for what is ostensibly a children’s cartoon character, the explanation provided by Harvey Comics was “that he was a ghost simply because his parents were already ghosts when they were married.” Long story short, let’s just choose Deadman as the small scale answer for this question as he is quite strong, especially in a world without superheroes. For those playing the long-con, Deadman could pose the potential for world domination as the ability to take over bodies is invaluable when attempting to take over the world.
The biggest problem with this question and looking into powerful creatures is 1) they tend to be evil, in terms of alignment, although presumably were one to become such a creature the decisions would still be within one’s own control and 2) the logistical issue of fitting in with normal society, i.e., if a giant five-headed dragon showed up on Earth it would immediately get blasted by a bunch of missiles or nukes. As such, many powerful creatures are simply not conducive for living on Earth in any meaningful non-recluse way.
Honorable mentions (Marvel, DC, and miscellaneous):
- The Impossible Man (he is an alien from the planet Poppup so maybe not technically a creature, also he’s called the Impossible Man but he is also called Impy so it’s a bit unclear what one would classify him as outside of ‘alien’)
- Fin Fang Foom
- Groot
- Devil Dinosaur
- Cosmo
- Lockjaw
- Lockheed
- Bat-Mite (I know it’s not ideal to be what appears to be the Scrappy-Doo of Batman characters, but you still get to hang around Batman so that’s something)
- Swamp Thing
- King KongGenuine answer — Mr. Mxyzptlk. He’s got magic powers, is married to Gsptlsnz, gets to mess with Superman for his own entertainment, and he was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in “Superman: The Animated Series”, what more could you ask for in a character? Also, the DCAU fandom Wiki classifies him as an imp which I think is enough to classify him as a creature even though that seems a bit reductive of what/who otherwise seems to be a trickster entity that is difficult to classify. He seems too powerful for an imp is my point although the definition and powers of imps presumably varies across different fictional universes.
Mr. Mxyzptlk is classified as an Imp in the DC Animated Universe fandom page
Part 3 — Honorable Mentions (aka snarky answers)
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
Nice try
What season would you be?
Summer in Texas because I’d be extremely hot.
Which class is both difficult and fun? (--“As seen in the ‘School’ questions icebreakers section, just for context” - CBW)
The middle class
Which class do you wish the school offered?
The upper class
If you had to write a textbook, what would it be on?
Paper probably, maybe a digital edition only.