Fun penalties for the penalty wheel: 35 ideas

By Roy de Bie · Published on June 15, 2026 · 5 min read

Innocent and funny

• Sing the chorus of a song the group picks for you.
• Impersonate a celebrity until the next round.
• Talk in an accent of your choice for one full round.
• Give everyone at the table a sincere compliment.
• Make up a "winner's dance" on the spot and perform it.
• Tell a joke; if nobody laughs, you get exactly one more try.
• Narrate the next round as a sports commentator: everything that happens at the table gets commentary.
• Re-enact your own reaction to the wrong answer, but in slow motion.
• Play waiter for one round: you keep the glasses and snack bowls topped up.
• Tell the story of the dumbest purchase you ever made.

A bit more daring

• A shot or a sip, entirely voluntary, because alcohol-free is fine too.
• Ten push-ups or ten squats next to the table.
• Sit out the next round and watch from the sidelines.
• Your phone goes in the middle of the table until the break.
• Let the group pick your next drink or snack.
• Eat a cracker, then whistle a recognizable tune as fast as you can.
• Draw a blindfolded portrait of someone at the table; they get to keep it.
• Sing everything you say until your next correct answer.
• Keep a straight face for one minute while the group tries to crack you up.
• Talk about yourself in the third person until your next correct answer.

For the bold

• Call a friend and spontaneously sing them a birthday song.
• The group picks one emoji you have to add after every sentence for the rest of the night.
• Give a twenty-second acceptance speech as if you just won an award.
• Impersonate someone in the group; the others guess who it is.
• Play the next round with a soft object on your head.
• Walk a catwalk lap around the room while someone else does the voice-over.
• Scroll to a photo on your own phone (you keep veto rights) and tell the story behind it.
• Act out a scene from a movie the group picks, no words allowed, until someone guesses it.
• Deliver tomorrow's weather forecast with full conviction, without looking anything up.
• Audition as if you are on a talent show; the table is the jury.

Safe enough for the office party

With colleagues you want penalties that are funny without anyone feeling awkward on Monday. These five work at the office. Planning a quiz with your team? Read our page on hosting a pub quiz for a company outing.

• Give the person on your left a recommendation, out loud, that could go straight on LinkedIn.
• Announce the next round as if you are presenting the quarterly results.
• Act out Monday-morning-you and Friday-afternoon-you; the others guess which is which.
• Pitch a nonsense product the group picks for thirty seconds, like the stapler as a lifestyle gadget.
• Come up with a new team name for your table; everyone uses it for the rest of the night.

Tips to keep it fun

• Keep it voluntary and lighthearted: a penalty should get a laugh, not make anyone uncomfortable.
• Match the penalties to your crowd. Among friends you can go further than at a company outing.
• Let the group help come up with the penalties, so everyone is comfortable with them.
• Not in the mood? You can simply turn the penalty wheel off.

The penalty wheel in Kwishetwel

Kwishetwel comes with a configurable penalty wheel: you add your own penalties or stick with the classics, and the animation spins on the big screen so everyone watches along. At the end of a round, the loser gives it a spin.

Playing with someone who is not drinking? Our post on drinking games without alcohol has thirty dares that replace a sip. Want drink on the wheel with a big group instead? The rules and fifteen drinking penalties are in a drinking game for big groups.

Further reading: how to make your own pub quiz, pub quiz questions with answers and pub quiz questions for a company outing.