Cheers to virtual bonding! Hosting a virtual happy hour is an excellent way to catch up with old friends, bond with your team at work, or connect with family that may live far away.
However, once you exchange the pleasantries and cruise through your small talk, it becomes readily apparent that having a few planned activities or ideas can help people settle into the video call.
Once you have selected a video conferencing solution and sent out the correct time and access information, you can make your upcoming virtual happy hour a themed event where participants can take a break from the stiffness of the day and let loose a bit.
Enjoy our curated list of happy hour theme ideas that are sure to excite the crowd and lead to more laughs than one happy hour can handle.
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Comedy Club Virtual Happy Hour Theme
They say laughter is the best medicine. They also say vodka is the best medicine. We say, why not both? Get your friends together for a comedy club theme that is perfect for people looking to laugh and forget about the real world for an hour or so.
Comedy Club Happy Hour Ideas
1) Watch A Stand Up Special
You can do some research of your own or poll the group to find 20-30 minutes to watch during your virtual happy hour. There are a ton of hilarious stand up comedy specials on Netflix where you can laugh until you cry. It might be a good idea to stream from one computer over a shared screen or send everyone a link to Netflix Party to synchronize the stream and all watch at the same time.
2) Tell A Joke
The idea for this is simple. Get participants to bring the entertainment in-house by asking each person to bring one joke to tell during the happy hour. While this is sure to bring on some cringey jokes, at least you can laugh at their expense when their joke inevitably falls flat.
3) Book Live Talent
Bring a real-life comedian to your virtual happy hour by booking them for a gig using a service like GigSalad. There are bound to be some seriously talented comedians at your disposal and getting one in the virtual call with you and your friends will no doubt lead to some big laughs.
“My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg
Virtual Happy Hour Gift Idea: Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow
Taco Tuesday Virtual Happy Hour Theme
After a hard day of work on “Baby Hump day,” what could be better than a celebratory Taco Tuesday happy hour. Find your virtual beach with friends and colleagues where everyone can enjoy the tasty goodness of our favorite U-shaped food. Mmmmm…..Tacos!
Taco Tuesday Happy Hour Ideas
4) Cocktail Making
Is it time for margaritas?
Start off your virtual happy hour with a guided cocktail making demo where everyone can follow along. You can try a more traditional margarita recipe or if the happy hour participants are excited to try something new, gather the ingredients for a new drink:
5) Get Tacos Delivered
At some point during your Taco Tuesday, you’re going to have to bust out the tacos. At this point you must decide if you are prepared to make tacos together or you can call up a local taco joint to have delicious tacos delivered straight to your doorstep. Here at the Happy Hour Help, we understand that geography might make it a bit hard to order in tacos. If that is the case, then we recommend checking out this taco recipe here.
“When it’s done properly, taco should be a verb.” – Jonathan Gold
Virtual Happy Hour Gift Idea: Taco Holder
“Back To School” Virtual Happy Hour Theme
We all might be done with school, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go back for an hour and recall some of the craziest years of our lives. Bust out the number 2 pencils and gather some lunch money, because this virtual happy hour theme is sure to keep everyone entertained while learning a thing or two about a new subject
Back To School Happy Hour Ideas
6) New Topic Presentation
Before your upcoming virtual happy hour let everyone pick a topic to design a short slide presentation about a topic of their choice. These slide decks are supposed to let you show your passion about a specific topic that others may not know much about. Just remember the two main rules: 1) Each person get only X minutes to present. Depending on the number of people on your video conference call, you may want to limit it to 3,5, or 7 minutes per presentation. Secondly, let people pick whatever topic speaks to them. Here are some ideas but seriously, you should follow your heart:
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- Fantasy Football Gameplay (Helpful for your next virtual tailgate party!)
- Jon & Kate Plus Eight
- Narwhals
- Whiskey and how to drink it
- Avatar The Last Airbender
- How to make the perfect guacamole
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7) Yearbook Challenge
Search through Google images to compile old yearbook photos from famous celebrities and sports stars. Then you can have the gang guess which high school student grew up to be a famous person. Here is an example:
Can you guess who this is? (Answer at bottom of the article)
Pro-tip: You can make things a bit more interesting by asking a few participants to send in old yearbook photos of themselves to mix in with the celebrities. Let’s just hope they are okay showing off their braces!
Virtual Happy Hour Gift Idea: Ultimate To-Go Container
Game of Thrones Virtual Happy Hour Theme
The beloved HBO program based on the legendary series from George R R Martin may be over, but our love for one of the greatest pieces of television of all time will never die. What is dead may never die! Everyone has a bit of fantasy love in them and this happy hour theme will let them geek out for a little bit in a world where dragons and knights are more commonplace than copier machines and pumpkin-spice flavored drinks.
Game Of Thrones Happy Hour Ideas
8) Game Of Thrones Character Quiz
Find out which character you are most like by filling out a simple and straight-forward quiz brought to you courtesy of Buzzfeed. Once everyone has filled out the quiz and received their answer, go around the virtual call and let everyone share who they would most likely be if they were to live in the Seven Kingdoms. Let’s just hope no one is secretly a Joffrey. Yikes!
9) Send A Gift Basket
Before hosting your virtual happy hour, send out a gift basket to each person with some materials to have the best happy hour that Westeros has ever seen. Apart from sending some snacks and maybe a Game of Thrones gift for each person, you can include the ingredients to make a Thrones-inspired cocktail to enjoy with everyone! Elle Talk’s Wildfire Cocktail is a delicious watermelon martini that you will not soon forget. Before enjoying this beautifully green beverage, make a point to walkthrough the steps to preparing it with flaming Bacardi 151!
“It’s not easy being drunk all the time. If it were easy, everyone would do it.” —Tyrion Lannister
Virtual Happy Hour Gift Idea: Game of Thrones-inspired Scotch Whisky
Speakeasy Virtual Happy Hour Theme
Now that the world is back in the 20s, I think everyone wishes we could return to a 20s that was filled with a little less stress and gloom and filled with a lot more roaring fun! For your next virtual happy hour celebration, take it old school with a classic speakeasy theme to enjoy with a nice illegal tonic!
Speakeasy Happy Hour Ideas
11) Decades Trivia
Time to dust off your history knowledge with a decades-themed trivia game for your happy hour participants to try their hand at. With topics such as The Roaring 20s, The Big Hair 80s, and Y2K-2000s, your DIY trivia game will start off your speakeasy in style. Divide friends into 2 or 3 teams, ask for a history-themed team name from each, and kick things off with a fun trivia game. Kahoot and Crowdpurr both make it relatively easy to set up a trivia game in a few minutes and help to moderate the game as you play through each round.
12) Prohibition-Era Cocktails
There are a number of cocktails that you can find that honor this one-of-a-kind era for the Unites States. Your guests may prefer one type of liquor over another so starting things off with a few options will help guest be excited to craft their own prohibition cocktail. Hopefully minus the bathtub!
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- Gin Rickey
- Old Fashioned
- Mary Pickford
- Sidecar
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“Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it.” – Mark Twain
Virtual Happy Hour Theme Gift: Personalized Speakeasy Whiskey Glass
Here is to closed doors and dark places!
Rick & Morty Virtual Happy Hour Theme
Time to get shwifty! While not everyone may be a fan of this acclaimed adult cartoon, Rick & Morty will help lift your virtual happy hour to new heights (or new dimensions if you are not careful). With just a bit of wackiness and some fun happy hour games, this theme can spice up your next happy hour and may turn some of your friends or colleagues into new fans of this beloved television show.
Rick & Morty Happy Hour Ideas
13) Watch A Favorite Episode
Adult Swim makes it super easy to watch via a free stream on their website here. Or you can select a crowd favorite by streaming through a streaming platform like Netflix or Hulu. With each episode rounding out at a comfortable twenty-two minutes, you should have plenty of time to chat about the episode after your viewing party.
14) Invention Convention
We all have a little bit of Mad Scientist/Rick Sanchez in us just dying to get out and impress our peers. Since HappyHourHelp knows you are secretly addicted to binging Shark Tank and envisioning a rollercoaster career as a serial entrepreneur, this idea is perfect for you.
With this happy hour activity, each person will get to debut their newest revolutionary invention that is their million dollar idea. Give each person 3 minutes to pitch their idea/product/gadget/service/app/etc. To the rest of the hungry sharks. All of the ideas could be stinkers, but participants will love getting creative and showing off their next big idea.
“That’s planning for failure Morty. Even dumber than regular planning.” – Rick
Virtual Happy Hour Theme Gift: Minimalist Rick Sanchez Art Board Print
Wine & Cheese Virtual Happy Hour Theme
Let’s get a bit fancy with this virtual happy hour theme designed to enjoy the finer things in life. Pair the exceptional due of wine and cheese shared via a video conference call with friends. While no one is forced to dress up, it might be nice to have a reason to put pants on for a change.
Wine & Cheese Happy Hour Ideas
15) Bottom Shelf Club
For this idea, we recommend a quick trip to the supermarket to peruse the wine section looking for an ideal bottle to bring to your upcoming virtual event. The only stipulation is rather than fussing over the top shelf or even middle shelf varieties of wine, we are only going to be selecting bottles from the bottom shelf. What we “wine drinkers” call the creme de la creme of cheap wine. Allow each person to introduce their selection and maybe see if they can mention any of the subtleties in the wine. “Hmmm….I’m detecting notes of vanilla, stone fruit, and pepper.”
“Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books.” – Stephen Fry
Virtual Happy Hour Theme Gift: Wine Decanter
Music Mashup Virtual Happy Hour Theme
Everyone will want to stand up and dance during the virtual happy hour with this theme centered around the music that we all want to share. Sometimes when you hear an amazing song or piece of music, all you want to do is share it with the world. Now is your chance!
Music Mashup Happy Hour Ideas
16) Group Playlist
For this activity, ask everyone in the happy hour invitation to think of a song that they would like to share with the group. Once you get enough songs, add them to a playlist in Spotify or Youtube where you can then share it with the group. During the happy hour, pop open a screen share and show everyone the playlist that they helped to create.
For an added bonus, you can select shuffle and let the happy hour group listen to one of the songs together. Once the song has finished, open up discussion about what people liked and disliked about the music. You can repeat with a couple more songs if people are engaged and the music listening is going well.
17) Name That Tune – Cover Song Edition
During your Music Mashup Happy Hour, you can play a music inspired game with everyone to test their music identification skills with this cover song edition of the classic game show. In this version, you will play a cover of a famous song that is being played by any instrument with the participants wiring down their answers on a piece of paper or whiteboard. After 30 seconds, ask everyone to reveal their answers to their webcam and give out points to the correct answers.
HappyHourHelp did a bit of research and found a few to get you inspired:
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- String Quartet – “Aint No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
- Recorder – “Sandstorm” by Darude
- Piano – “Say So” by Doja Cat
- Violin – “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers
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Virtual Happy Hour Theme Gift: Brick Touch Speaker
Survivor Virtual Happy Hour Theme
Looking to outlast the competition? This Happy Hour theme is centered around the legendary reality television program with now nearly forty seasons under its belt. At the beginning of your virtual happy hour call, send all the castaways to “Happy Hour” island and enjoy the ultimate survival challenge.
Survivor Happy Hour Ideas
18) Survivor 2 Minute Challenge
Play Survivor rapid fire style with this tribal council game where a vote is conducted every 2 minutes. At the end of each 2 minute discussion, ask each person to send their vote in via text to the “Jeff”. Whoever receives the most votes is out. If there is a tie, ask everyone to revote with only the tied players eligible for the re-vote. Watch the mayhem ensue and the laughs will follow as you see the tribe shrink in size and the paranoia grow. Once you get down to 3, the rest of the participants will vote as the Jury for the lone survivor.
19) Desert Island Scenario Debate
Propose to the group a This-Or-That question to what you would want to have with you on a “deserted island” scenario. Possible example questions are:
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- Would you rather have a library of books to read or an iPod filled with music?
- If you had a solar-paneled run television, would you choose to watch only television or only movies?
- Would you rather have a pair of shoes or a machete?
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After giving the group a few minutes to weigh the sides and make their decision, have a person from each side give their reasons why they chose their option. This can spark a short debate between the two sides as they make the case for why their side is better. Repeat this debate format for each virtual happy hour question.
“The Tribe has spoken.” – Jeff Probst
Virtual Happy Hour Theme Gift: Survivor Headband
Well…There you have it. The HappyHourHelp team is dedicated to helping you and your friends enjoy your next virtual happy hour with a fun and creative theme that participants can embrace.
Are there any virtual happy hour themes we missed? Feel free to let us know and your suggestion can be featured in an upcoming piece.
P.S.: The “Yearbook Challenge” answer is Jerry Seinfeld.