Roxanne Drinking Game

Two teams, one word - drink every time the song says it.

Also known as: Roxanne Drinking Game

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Players 4-15

You needThe song, a speaker, drinks

DrinkBeer

Intensity

Time4 min per round

Roxanne is a drinking game with a cruel little twist, built on The Police's most famous song. Split the room into two teams and assign each one a trigger: one team drinks every time the title name is sung, the other drinks on the song's recurring red-light line. Hit play, and the whole game rides on which trigger you picked - because in this song, the two are not remotely equal.

Here is the joke the song plays on you: as it climbs toward its finale, the title name gets repeated over and over in a relentless, escalating run, while the red-light line stays comparatively rare. The name team starts smug and ends drowning; the red-light team coasts. It is short, loud and gleefully lopsided - a four-minute test of how much you trust the coin toss that put you on your side.

What you need & setup

Queue up The Police's Roxanne on a speaker loud enough that everyone can clearly hear the vocals.
Split the group into two even teams and have them sit or stand on opposite sides.
Assign the triggers: one team takes the title name, the other takes the recurring red-light line.
Decide fairly who gets which trigger - a coin toss is traditional, since one side has it much harder.
Give everyone their own drink and agree whether teammates drink together or take turns down the line.

How to play Roxanne

Pick teams and assign triggers

Divide the room into two equal teams and sit them across from each other. One team is on the title name; the other is on the recurring red-light line. Because the name gets sung far more often, most groups decide sides with a coin toss or hand the harder trigger to whoever lost the last game - keep it fair and keep it light.

Start the song and listen

Press play and let the track run from the top. There is nothing to do during the intro but listen for your trigger. The name team should be ready early, because their word arrives quickly, while the red-light team can relax until their rarer line comes around. From here on, the song runs the game - your only job is to catch every cue.

Drink on your trigger

Every time your team's cue lands in the song, your team drinks - a sip each. The name team sips whenever the title is sung; the red-light team sips whenever that line appears. Decide beforehand whether the whole team drinks together on each hit or passes it one player at a time down the line. Together is simpler; the relay is more forgiving.

Brace for the finale

As the song builds to its close, the title name comes faster and faster in a repeated run that piles sips onto the name team relentlessly. This is the whole point of the game and where it is won or lost. The name team should switch to their smallest possible sips here, while the red-light team enjoys the show they were lucky enough to draw.

Call the round at the end

When the song fades out, the round is over. There is no scoring beyond who is still standing and who overcommitted early - the finale usually settles that. Because it is only one song, most groups play it as a fast, brutal palate cleanser and then swap the teams' triggers for a rematch, so both sides taste the finale.

The rules

Play The Police's Roxanne from the beginning with the group split into two teams.
One team drinks every time the title name is sung.
The other team drinks every time the recurring red-light line is sung.
Each trigger is a sip, taken the moment the cue lands in the song.
Agree upfront whether the whole team drinks together or passes down the line one player at a time.
The name team must keep drinking through the repeated run at the finale.
Nobody drinks on the other team's trigger - only your own cue counts.
Decide sides fairly, ideally by coin toss, since the name trigger is far harder.
The round ends when the song ends.
For a rematch, swap the two teams' triggers so both sides face the finale.

Variations & house rules

Winner takes red-light

Play it as a best-of series and make the trigger a prize: the team that survives one round with fewer casualties earns the easy red-light side for the next song, forcing the losers back onto the punishing name. It turns a single lopsided round into a proper tournament where the coin toss only matters once.

Everyone on the name

Drop the teams and have the whole room drink together every time the title name is sung, ignoring the red-light line entirely. It is the simplest and heaviest version, since the finale's repeated run hits everyone at once. Keep the sips tiny and treat it as a one-song dare rather than something you run back to back.

Three-trigger split

For a bigger group, add a third team assigned to another repeated word or the backing 'oohs', so three teams each track a different cue. It keeps more people involved and spreads the drinking, though the name team still carries the heaviest load. Assign that hardest trigger by lottery and rotate it each round to keep things fair.

Soft-sip mode

Run the exact same two-team setup but with a low-strength drink, water or a mixer instead of beer. Because the name team gets buried in the finale's repeated run, this is the version we recommend for mixed groups: you keep the lopsided drama and the coin-toss stakes while capping how much the unlucky team actually has to drink.

Pro tips

If you draw the name team, switch to your tiniest sips the moment the song starts climbing - the finale is where it buries you.

Give the harder name trigger to your strongest drinkers, and stack lighter players on the easy red-light side.

Use the relay option - one player drinking per hit - so no single person on the name team gets flattened.

Always swap triggers for the rematch - the fun of this game is watching the smug team eat the finale next.

Keep the volume up and the vocals clear - if half the team mishears a cue, the drinking gets messy fast.

Where Roxanne fits on the shelf

Roxanne lands mid-table for intensity (5th of 11 screen games), rated 3 out of 5.
It needs at least 4 players to spark, but it scales all the way to 15+ - a true big-group game.
Rounds are fast (4 min per round), so it slots between bigger games without hijacking the night.
Browse the full tv, movie & music games shelf to compare all 11 games side by side.

A little history

This one is internet-era party lore, widely credited to a running television gag before it spread through student houses as a drinking game in its own right. Nobody owns a definitive rulebook, and groups disagree on the finer points - whether both triggers drink or only one, and how to survive the finale. What everyone keeps is the core gag: the wildly uneven split between the name and the red-light line.

Drink responsibly: The name team can face a rapid-fire cluster of sips at the finale, so keep the pours small and switch to a lighter drink if it gets heavy. Sip, never chug, and use the relay so no one player absorbs the whole run. Draw sides fairly, swap triggers between rounds, and let anyone sit a song out. See our safety guide for pacing tips and alcohol-free versions.

Roxanne FAQ

Which team has it harder, the name or the red-light line?

The name team, by a wide margin. The title is sung frequently throughout, and the song's climb to the finish repeats it in a fast, escalating run that stacks sips relentlessly. The red-light line appears far less often and never in that punishing cluster. That imbalance is the entire joke of the game, which is exactly why sides should be drawn fairly by coin toss.

Do both teams drink or just one?

Both, but on different cues - that is what makes it a contest rather than a solo challenge. Each team only drinks on its own assigned trigger and stays dry on the other's. The fun comes from watching the two triggers play out at wildly different rates across the same song, so keep each team honest about drinking only on their cue.

How do we make it fair if one side is so much worse?

A few ways. Draw sides by coin toss so nobody chooses the punishment, then swap triggers every round so both teams take turns on the name. Use the relay option so one player drinks per hit instead of the whole team, and switch to small sips or a lighter drink. Fair is not equal here - it is taking turns being unlucky.

How long does a round last?

About the length of the song - roughly three and a half to four minutes - which is what makes it such a good quick game. There is no setup beyond splitting teams and picking triggers, so you can run it in the gap between bigger games. Most groups play two or three back-to-back rounds, swapping sides each time.

Can we play with just a few people?

Yes - you need at least two so each trigger has a team, and it works fine with one person per side. With small numbers the name player really feels the finale, so lean on small sips or the soft-sip version. For larger crowds, split into bigger teams or add the three-trigger variation so everyone has a cue to watch.

Roxanne Drinking Game

What you need & setup