Lifeguard Lineup

The Lifeguard Lineup: a New Video to Expect from Us

By: Zakyra Ashby | 4/25/22

If you’ve looked at the Youtube trending page over the past few years, it’s likely that you’ve scrolled past a video from the “Cut” channel. Cut, often directed by co-founder Blaine Ludy, produces diverse videos, most of which tackle societal complexities: money, relationships, love, and more. 

They hold monetary competitions, such as “Fishbowl,” which gives a team of people an objective to complete challenges and win cash prizes. Or there’s “1000 to 1,” where seven people have to decide which one of them goes home with $1,000. Videos with such high stakes are often deemed controversial. Some of Cut’s most popular and well-received videos, however, are the “lineup” videos. 

In these videos, about six or seven people stand in a line behind another person, who is centered. This centered individual is known as the guesser. Cut typically has three guessers per lineup video.

Each guesser enters an all-white room at separate time intervals, unaware of the task at hand, face-to-face with the lineup members and Cut producers. An example of a lineup topic from Cut is “Match Kid to Mom.” There is a line of seven mothers, and, one at a time, seven children come out to greet the guesser. From here, the guesser gets to ask the child questions and has to decide who their mother is. Each guesser does this with each child, and they see their results at the end. Correct pairs will raise their hands and the other groups match up correctly. The guesser speaks with each correct pair and asks them about their relationship. 

As a Cut fanatic, I’ve found inspiration in the lineup videos. As a senior, I’m curious to learn more about what my fellow classmates plan on doing after we leave high school. My curiosity, inspiration, and Lifeguard coworkers have allowed us to make a new video. 

Elsie, Jacob, and Mikayla, other Lifeguard producers, and I worked on a project that captures the essence of a Cut video. We give full credit to the creators over at Cut for this video structure. Essentially, we are doing a lineup with college majors. Below, you can find the description and rules of the game that I created and shared with our participants.

The Game…What is it?

Understandably, some of you don’t exactly know what you signed up for...that’s okay! The game is fairly simple. There will be a lineup of 7 college-bound seniors and three guessers. Each guesser will participate in the game at different times to ensure original questions, responses, and, of course, guesses. As a guesser, you will be given a list of 7 college majors, and your task is to match each major to a student. You will have 90 seconds (a minute and a half) with each student to ask them questions and guess their major. At the end, the students will reveal if you guessed correctly, and, if not, they will switch majors with the correct student.

Rules of the Game

To keep this fun and fair, we’ve come up with a list of rules. It is expected that you abide by these rules in order to be a part of our video. Violations of these rules, depending on which rule and to what degree, may result in expulsion from the project. 

Alright, below you’ll find the rules. Read carefully, please!

1. Be respectful

• We do not tolerate persecution of any kind; this includes, but is not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, gender discrimination.

  • Side note: we chose you because we feel that you would support an inclusive, safe environment - prove us right! 

2. Maintain integrity

• We understand that contestants are acquainted with one another. However, we expect that you will refrain from exposing the college majors of those in the lineup to other guessers.

3. in terms of the game itself...

• Stick to the topic! The questions shouldn’t be invasive or make the students feel uncomfortable in answering.

• Guessers: you are not allowed to explicitly ask the lineup members what their majors are - that’s the point of the game, of course. You can ask them what colleges they plan on attending, but you cannot ask what department, as this may give away their majors.

  • ***IMPORTANT: you will be given ONE opportunity to switch majors between two lineup members at the end of your guessing time. While you don’t have to do this, some people may find it advantageous after gathering more information. However, you are not permitted to ask anymore questions to the students whose majors you are switching

• Lineup Members: if there is a question you think may give away your major, just indicated this to us, the producers, and we’ll let you know if the question is acceptable. 

4. have fun!

• We don’t want this activity to be stressful on any of the participants. Don’t think too hard, just enjoy the process and have a good time.

Good Luck!

We are so excited to share this project with you! Be sure to stay alert for the video release.