In 1991, My Girl, starring Anna Chlumsky, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Macaulay Culkin, brought audiences precociousness, adorable coming of age tropes, some bizarre funeral home stuff, and so much crying. By the mid-90s it was playing every summer on TBS or TNT or whatever, just waiting for me to learn about becoming a woman from Vada and cry my eyes out. No story had made me cry so much since the death of Beth March. My Girl is now streaming on Netflix, waiting to be introduced to a new generation or for nostalgic viewings by adults. If you’re in that latter camp, I present to you The My Girl Drinking Game, a means of properly pacing your drinking for the more devastating and angst-ridden moments of the film. I treated myself to some Chardonnay and puppy snuggles to test the game out for you.

The My Girl Drinking Game

You’ll Need:

My Girl on DVD or a Netflix Account

A beverage of your choice. Can be adapted to a pint of ice cream if you prefer.

A box of tissues

Optional: girlfriends or sisters

A mood ring

The Rules:

The Cute and Strange. You must take a drink whenever:

• Vada expresses hypochondriac symptoms. (Bonus: “I think it’s my prostate.”)
•  Boys are dumb or gullible.
• Motown or Vintage TV
• Embalming, corpses, and such.
• Grandmoo’s senility is ignored.
• “I only surround myself with people I find intellectually stimulating.”
• Hippies and Women’s Lib.
• Mood ring
• Seafood

The Angsty. Take two drinks whenever:

• Child-sized coffin. Foreshadowing. It hurts.
• Vada is hot for teacher.
• Vada’s poetry reminds you of your own adolescent writings.
• Mean girls.
• “Do-wah-diddy…”
• Grandmoo’s senility is discussed.
• Vada’s mother is mentioned.
• Bees. Run for your life.
• Shelly acts as a maternal figure.
• Vada has attitude about Dad dating.
• Vada is hemorrhaging.

The Tears. Chug:

• Thomas Jay dies.
• Vada has a public meltdown.
• Mr. Bixler is off the market.
• Vada’s last poem

If at the end of the film, you are in tears, finish the glass.

Do you love My Girl? What’s your favorite or most moving part?

See Also:

Temporary Tomboys: Coming of Age in My Girl and Now and Then