What are you doing?

An improv game played by ComedySportz in lieu of a coin flip. Kind of dumb to watch, but it's harder than it looks.

Two players take the stage. One of them starts making a repetitive motion. The other player asks "What are you doing?" The first player makes something up, such as "Walking my dog." The other player starts to mime walking a dog. The first player now asks "What are you doing?" The second player responds with some other action, which the first player must now act out. Repeat until someone loses. That's about it.

There are a few ways to lose this game:

1. Hesitation, when you are asked "What are you doing?" Answers must be fast.
2. Repetition of a previous action, or a similar action. For instance, once "walking my dog" has been said, "walking my cat" becomes repetitive.
3. Failure to perform the action that you are given. A common tactic is for a player to reply "Jumping jacks" when asked "What are you doing?", then wait about 15 seconds before asking the question back, forcing the other player to exert themselves.
4. Failure to ask the question. The referee may instruct the players to go faster as the game progresses, and if you wait too long to ask, you'll be disqualified.

The best way to win this game is to think ahead, and to always have about three different responses ready to pick from when it comes time to answer the question.

In their relentless quest to sell beer using commercials that are funny as hell but have little-to-nothing to do with beer, Budweiser decided that they'd milk the whole Wassup thing a little further. They actually spoofed their own ad, making its counterpart using the bi-polar opposites of the wassup guys. The format of the commercial was exactly the same, only the dialogue, actors, and mannerisms were changed. The result was actually quite hilarious.

White guy sitting on a nice-looking couch, holding a beer bottle which is clearly not Budweiser. Dressed in the usual preppy way.
Phone rings, he picks up
Guy 1: This is Brett.
Cut to the other end of the phone conversation, another guy sitting in a nice living room with a non-Bud can.
Guy 2: What are you doing?
Guy 1 (somewhat excited): What are YOU doing?
Guy 2: Just watching the market recap, drinking an import.
Guy 1 (enthusiastically): That is correct. That is CORRECT!
A third guy, dressed in a tennis outfit, walks in.
Tennis Guy (quite enthusiastically): What are you DOING?
Guy 1 (looking up from phone conversation) What are yoooou doing?
Guy 2: Hey Brett, who's that?!
Guy 1 (to Tennis Guy): Hey Chad, pick up the cordless!
He grabs a phone from the wall
Tennis Guy (into phone): Chad here!
Guy 2: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?
Tennis Guy: What are YOU doing?!?
Guy 1: What are you DOING?!?
A chorus of voices, wassup-style
"WAHHHHHHH!"
"AHHHH!"
"AHHHHHHH!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhh!"
Cut to two of the original wassup guys, watching this commercial on TV. They look at each other, bewildered
Budweiser logo appears on the screen

This 30-second spot debuted during the Super Bowl, and it was at the top spot on AdCritic for a few weeks. The three guys who did the acting did such a great job of acting totally euphoric for no reason at all, and replacing "wassup" with "what are you doing" was pretty damn funny too.
I don't rememeber who won the football game, but I do remember who won the ad game.

What are you doing?
Right now?
Besides reading this write up of course?
Looking for a job?
Growing a life inside you?
Raising a beautiful child?
Working on your marriage?
Going through a divorce?
Dating an exciting, sexy new person?
Screwing off in college?
Preparing for your future?
Worrying about the volatile state of the world?
Perhaps all of the above? Some of the above?

What are you doing?
Do you ever wonder that when you see people?
Do you want to ask the people you see
walking down the street?
driving next to you on the highway?
near you in the produce section?
What are those people doing? What am I doing here, besides trying to make you think?
Depending upon what you know about me already, do you wonder what my life is like?
What my occupation is?
I wonder that about you.

What are you doing?
the boy wonders about the girl he watches undressing in her window.
the security guard ponders about the suspicious person in the monitor.
wonders the little girl as she watches her brother stick a needle in his arm.
the diner wonders about the person across the room hammering away at their laptop.
yells the boss after he catches his employee dancing in a red ress with fruit on his head in the break room.
asks the five-year-old boy of his mother after he's watched her through the crack of the door thrashing around in her bed, moaning, alone.
wonders the nation sometimes about their President.

What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?

The question has a much different meaning
depending on which word you emphasize and italicize.

What's he doing? What's she doing? What are they doing?
These questions are signs of our need to know
Our sometimes unjustified curiosity
Our thirst for voyeurism
The hidden camera, the hidden camera shows
the instinctual inability to look away from the car accidents as you slowly crawl by them
Why's that car turned over?
What are those ambulance workers doing? Was there a fatality?
No matter how much you say you don't, you do
You want to know.

So... what are you doing anyway?