Retro: Does the Rodney Dangerfield Board Game Deserve Respect?
Despite his insistence to the contrary, Rodney Dangerfield is and was a well respected comedian for years. His reputation as a board game is a little more questionable.
It’s not anything new for a celebrity to endorse a board game and have their face plastered on it.
I told you we’d be going over these other games.
There are dozens of examples of celebrity board games. Most are pretty loosely connected to their source persona and some match only thematically. The Cheers board game is a trivia game about Cheers and the Welcome Back, Kotter board game takes place in a class room. Both of those at least make some sense.
If you had to guess, what sort of game do you think No Respect would be? Go on. Guess.
Roll to move type of game? A trivia game? Some sort of acting party game? All reasonable guesses. But all wrong.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
No Respect is a strategic tile placement game.
Players take turns drawing a numbered tile and placing it on the board. Tiles placed within the player’s own tile track must be placed numerically from highest to lowest. If a player can fill all 3 of their tile tracks first, they win the game.
Players can also place tiles on top of other player’s tiles, if they are the same number. If such a stack reaches 3 tiles tall, it is ‘capped’ and no other tiles can be placed on that track. This essentially prevents the player from winning.
However, if a player draws a tile and can’t place it anywhere on the board, they are eliminated from the game. If all but one player is eliminated, the remaining player wins.
What It Means To Me
No Respect isn’t a bad game. It’s simple and has decent mechanics and a fair amount of strategy, all things considered. It’s just so…. strange. Why did Rodney Dangerfield attach himself to this? Did he think this would finally get him some respect?
Honestly, I could see this being a fun drinking game or even a half-decent educational game for teaching kids about numbers or self-depreciation.
It’s important to start teaching kids early.
Overall, No Respect is a fine game. Nothing amazing, but certainly not as awful as some of the other games we’ve covered here.
Just A Little Bit
And just in case you start respecting Rodney a little too much, remember this exists…
Take care of TCB
