A new livestreaming series called Celebrity Jackbox: Games & Giving will pit some mildly famous people against one another as they play Jackbox party games to raise money for those affected by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.
“Every episode, a new crew of famous personalities will play a variety of games from Jackbox’s collection of 30 titles while highlighting a new organization responding to the intense and sudden needs of those impacted by COVID-19,” the studio said in its press release announcing the show. “Jackbox Games will make a $100,000 donation to each featured organization, for a combined $1 million in donations over the series’ run.”
The first episode airs May 1 at 9:00 p.m. on Twitch and other streaming platforms, and there will be 10 episodes total. Guests will include Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch, Workaholics’ Jillian Bell, Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson, and Sonic himself, Ben Schwartz. As a fun bonus, anyone watching can log into the match over on Jackbox.tv with their phones to vote for their favorite answers and award bonus points.
The Jackbox games encompass things like Fibbage, where players submit anonymous entries to multiple choice trivia questions and try to get one another to select theirs as the correct answer. More recent Party Pack compilations have included madlibs-style rap battles as well as updated versions of the studio’s original trivia hit You Don’t Know Jack. They’re a great way of showing your closest friends how depraved or bizarre your mental processes are; sort of like Words Against Humanity but without the cruelty and racism.
This isn’t the first time Jackbox has launched a game show. Back in 2001, Paul Reubens hosted You don’t Know Jack on ABC. Contestants had to answer trivia questions for cash while Reubens demeaned them and generally acted like a huge creep. It only lasted six episodes.