Hot takes worth arguing about

A hot take is a strong opinion about something small, said as if the world depends on it. Toast is just bread that has been through something. The aisle seat is the best seat on the plane. Die Hard is a Christmas film. Every room has people on both sides of each one, and nobody goes home hurt.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a hot take as a strong opinion that many people are likely to disagree with, and labels the phrase informal and usually disapproving. The disapproval is the fun. A hot take is meant to be a little bit wrong, and the room's job is to tell you so.

There are 213 hot takes below, sorted by topic and by who is in the room, and every list says whether it is office-safe. After the lists come the questions that get people writing their own, and two ways to play: agree or disagree, and whose hot take.

What makes a good hot take

Four tests separate a take that splits a room from one that empties it.

Somebody would argue back. "Chocolate is nice" is not a take. "White chocolate is not chocolate" is, because half the room is already drafting a reply.

It is about things, not people. Food, films, chores, airports and meetings are fair game. Anybody in the room, any group of people and anybody's beliefs are not. "Cats are better than dogs" is about pets. "Cat people are better than dog people" is about the room.

It is specific. A vague take lets everyone agree with their own version of it. Thomas Gilovich found that people's own views bias their sense of how widely those views are shared. He also found the bias larger on a general version of a question than on a specific one, because a general question leaves more room for each person's reading. "Summer is overrated" lets one person picture the heat and another the school holidays. "Beach holidays are boring" puts the whole room on the same beach.

It fits in one breath. One sentence, one claim, no essay. If a take needs a second sentence to defend it, save the defence for the argument.

Controversial hot takes that stay harmless

These are the takes that split a room closest to the middle. All of them are office-safe, because the controversy is about breakfast rather than anybody's life.

• Pineapple belongs on pizza.
• Toilet paper goes over the roll, never under.
• Die Hard is a Christmas film.
• There is one correct way to load a dishwasher, and it is mine.
• Milk goes in the mug before the tea.
• Ketchup belongs in the fridge.
• Crunchy peanut butter is the only peanut butter.
• Showers are better at night.
• The film is usually better than the book.
• Flip-flops are not shoes.
• Halloween is a better holiday than Christmas.
• Cats make better housemates than dogs.
• GIF is pronounced with a hard G.
• Pizza should be eaten with a knife and fork.
• The Oxford comma is optional.
• Making your bed is a waste of time.
• Cereal is better without milk.

Food hot takes

Food is the safest topic there is. Everyone eats, nobody's career depends on their view of raisins, and every take here is office-safe.

• Toast is just bread that has been through something.
• Raisins in a cookie are a betrayal.
• White chocolate is not chocolate.
• The crust is the best part of the pizza.
• Cold pizza beats reheated pizza.
• Brunch is breakfast with a bill attached.
• Salad is a side dish, never a meal.
• Mint chocolate chip tastes like toothpaste, and that is the point.
• Avocado toast is a sandwich with no lid.
• Popcorn counts as dinner if you eat enough of it.
• Well-done steak is a perfectly good steak.
• Candy corn is delicious, and everyone else is wrong.
• Pumpkin spice is the best flavour of the year.
• Fruit has no place in a salad.
• Olives are the best pizza topping.
• The bread basket should count as a course.
• Snapping spaghetti in half is fine.
• The corner piece of a brownie is the best piece.
• The middle of a cinnamon roll is the only part that matters.
• Sweets taste better slightly stale.
• Banana bread is the best thing a banana can become.
• Ice in a drink is a waste of a drink.
• A buffet is the best kind of restaurant.
• Nachos are a salad if you squint.
• Frozen grapes beat fresh grapes.
• Waffles beat pancakes because of the pockets.
• Mayonnaise beats ketchup on chips.
• Chocolate tastes better straight from the fridge.
• The last bite of a burrito is the best bite.
• Soup is better the next day.
• Hot sauce improves every food, dessert included.
• Cereal is a snack, not a breakfast.
• Pickles are the best part of a burger.
• Sparkling water tastes like static.
• Garlic bread is the greatest food ever invented.

Hot takes for work, all office-safe

Every take here is about the work and never about anybody doing it. None of them goes near pay, performance or promotions, which is what keeps a team meeting laughing.

• The best meeting is the one that gets cancelled.
• Every meeting should end five minutes early.
• A standing meeting is a normal meeting with sore feet.
• Emails should have a word limit.
• An out-of-office reply is the happiest email anyone writes.
• A "quick question" is never quick.
• The first coffee of the day counts as a meeting.
• A whiteboard beats a slide deck.
• Nobody reads the agenda.
• Half past eleven is the best time for lunch.
• The office printer can sense fear.
• Knowing keyboard shortcuts is a personality.
• A calendar invite with no title should be declined.
• Every slide deck needs a joke on slide two.
• Spreadsheets are relaxing.
• Dark mode is better for everything.
• Sticky notes are the greatest office invention.
• The team should vote on the office playlist.
• Fridays should start with breakfast.
• The best desk is the one nearest the snacks.
• Brainstorms work better in silence.
• Every video call should start a minute late, on purpose.
• The mute button is the most important button at work.
• Hold music deserves a chart of its own.
• Name badges should include a fun fact.
• Every team needs a snack budget.

Funny hot takes for friends and parties

Most of these are office-safe too. The last six are for friends only. Nothing in them is rude, but they belong to a night out rather than a stand-up.

Safe anywhere:

• Board game night beats a night out.
• Group photos should stop after three takes.
• The best room at any party is the kitchen.
• Surprise parties are for the planner, not the guest.
• Every friend group needs one person who plans everything.
• Texting "on my way" before you have left is lying.
• Birthday cake is the worst kind of cake.
• Party games beat dancing.
• Fancy dress makes every party better.
• A gift card is a great gift.
• Regifting is recycling.
• Sleepovers are better at thirty than at ten.
• Group chats are better than phone calls.
• Every party needs a playlist nobody is allowed to touch.
• The debrief on the way home is the best part of any party.

Friends only:

• The best part of a night out is the food on the way home.
• Going home before midnight is the best decision of any night out.
• Karaoke only gets good after midnight.
• First dates should happen in a supermarket.
• Double dates are better than regular dates.
• Replying to a text straight away is the most attractive thing a person can do.

Movie and TV hot takes

All office-safe, as long as nobody spoils the ending of something a colleague is halfway through.

• Every film is twenty minutes too long.
• Watching a show at double speed is fine.
• Subtitles should stay on, even in your own language.
• Rewatching a favourite beats starting something new.
• Reality TV is the most honest thing on television.
• Trailers should never show the best joke.
• The villain usually has a point.
• Horror films are comedies in daylight.
• Popcorn is the only reason to go to the cinema.
• The front row is the best seat in the cinema.
• Every series should end after three seasons.
• Animated films are mostly for the adults.
• A sequel that needs a recap has already failed.
• Love Actually is a horror film with nicer jumpers.
• Talking during a film at home is fine.
• Christmas films are fine in July.
• Black-and-white films are relaxing.
• Staying for the credits is a waste of time.
• Musicals would be better without the songs.
• The laugh track made sitcoms funnier.

Music hot takes

All office-safe. The one about Christmas music starts a fight every November.

• Every song is better live, even the bad ones.
• Singing in the car counts as a concert.
• The radio edit beats the album version.
• Christmas music can start on the first of November.
• Track two is always the best song on the album.
• Air guitar is a real instrument.
• Lift music is underrated.
• Karaoke is better when the singer is bad.
• Concerts should have seats.
• Nobody really wants the encore.
• Humming counts as singing.
• Ringtones should make a comeback.
• A cover is often better than the original.
• Whistling is a talent and deserves respect.
• Shuffle is the only fair way to listen to anything.

Sports and games hot takes

All office-safe. Keep them about the sport rather than anybody's team, and the fans in the room stay friends.

• Golf is a walk with homework.
• Curling is the best sport at the Winter Olympics.
• Penalty shootouts are the best part of football.
• Board games should come with a time limit.
• Video games are a sport.
• The halftime show is better than the game.
• Mini golf is harder than real golf.
• Bowling is more fun when you are bad at it.
• Watching sport is more tiring than playing it.
• Running is only fun when something is chasing you.
• Rock, paper, scissors is a game of skill.
• Every sport would be better with a mascot race.
• A game of Monopoly should end after one hour.

Travel hot takes

All office-safe, and the best ones to open a meeting the week before a holiday.

• The aisle seat is the best seat on the plane.
• Airport food is good, actually.
• Getting to the airport three hours early is relaxing.
• A road trip beats a flight.
• The planning is the best part of a holiday.
• Hotel breakfast is the main reason to stay in a hotel.
• Souvenirs are clutter with a story.
• The best day of any holiday is the day you get home.
• Museums are better when you skip half of them.
• Camping is paying to be uncomfortable.
• Theme parks are better in the rain.
• Packing the night before is the only way to pack.

Everyday life hot takes

All office-safe. These are the small habits everybody has an opinion about and nobody has ever said out loud.

• Pyjamas are acceptable at the supermarket.
• Folding a fitted sheet is impossible, so stop trying.
• The snooze button is a gift.
• Slippers are the greatest invention of all time.
• Rain is the best weather.
• Autumn is the only good season.
• Winter beats summer.
• Pens with lids are better than clicky pens.
• Cash is more fun than cards.
• Phones should live on silent.
• Answering an unknown number is an act of bravery.
• Voicemail should be retired.
• Mornings are better than evenings.
• Ten minutes early is on time.
• Odd numbers are better than even numbers.
• A clean kitchen is the best feeling in the world.
• Ironing is relaxing.
• Washing up by hand beats using a dishwasher.
• The middle seat on a sofa is the best seat.
• Stairs are better than lifts.

Hot takes for class, all school-safe

These are written for students, and every one is safe for a classroom. Read one out to start a lesson, then ask the class to argue the side they disagree with.

• The back corner is the best seat in the classroom.
• Lunch should be the longest lesson of the day.
• Group projects teach you who your real friends are.
• Maths is the easiest subject, because there is one right answer.
• Field trips are the only lessons anyone remembers.
• Snow days beat summer holidays.
• The library is the best room in the school.
• Calculators should be allowed in every test.
• The walk home is the best part of the school day.
• Science is the most fun subject.
• History is gossip about people who lived a long time ago.
• Scented markers are better than normal markers.
• Break should be longer than lunch.
• Homework should never be set at weekends.
• Every exam should be open book.
• Fridays should be half days.
• Joined-up handwriting is still worth learning.
• School uniforms make mornings easier.
• Dodgeball should be on the timetable every week.
• Stickers on homework should never stop, at any age.

Unpopular opinions, the gentle kind

An unpopular opinion is a hot take you actually hold and expect to lose. A hot take is said to start an argument, and an unpopular opinion is admitted, usually after a long pause. These are all office-safe. Run them as an agree-or-disagree vote to find out how unpopular they really are.

• Small talk is fun.
• Mondays are fine.
• Cold showers feel good.
• Leftovers beat a fresh meal.
• A long queue is a good place to think.
• Writing a to-do list is more satisfying than finishing it.
• Vanilla is the best ice cream flavour.
• Water is the best drink.
• Silence in the car beats music.
• Cooking is more fun than eating.
• The weekly food shop is a fun day out.
• Mild salsa is the best salsa.
• Staying in is better than going out.
• Filling in forms is satisfying.

Hot take questions that get people writing their own

A list is a warm-up. The best takes are the room's own, and these questions draw them out. Each one works as a prompt for whose hot take, as a round said out loud, or as the opener to a poll.

• What food does everyone love that you cannot stand?
• Which film does everyone love that you think is overrated?
• What is the most overrated holiday tradition?
• Which rule of manners would you scrap?
• What invention is more trouble than it is worth?
• What popular habit will you never understand?
• Which song would you ban from every party?
• What opinion would you defend forever, even alone?
• What small hill would you happily die on?
• What work habit would you happily retire?
• What is the most underrated thing in your kitchen?
• Which chore do you secretly enjoy?
• What is the best season, and what is wrong with the other three?
• What do people get wrong about breakfast?
• Which children's film is better than most films for adults?
• What is the correct way to load a dishwasher?

How to play hot takes with a group

There are two games here, and they need different things. Agree or disagree needs a list and nothing else. Whose hot take needs a room whose people know each other a little.

Agree or disagree

1. Read a take out loud, from this page or from somebody in the room.
2. Vote at once. On a count of three, thumbs up to agree and thumbs down to disagree. Voting together stops the first hand pulling the rest after it.
3. Let the smaller side talk. It gets one minute to win the room over.
4. Vote again, and see who moved.

For a scoring version, have whoever chose the take say which side they are on and guess the split before the vote. Give a point for the closest guess. Expect them to put too many people on their own side, because Gilovich's finding applies to them too: their own view will bias their sense of how widely it is shared.

Whose hot take

1. Everyone writes one take on a slip of paper, in capitals so nobody can read the handwriting, and folds it twice.
2. The slips go into a bowl. One person draws them and reads each one in a flat voice.
3. Everyone points at once. On three, every player points at the person they think wrote it. The writer points too, at somebody else, so their hand gives nothing away.
4. The writer owns up, and the room gets to ask the only question that matters: who would say that?
5. Score it. Two points for pointing at the writer, and one point to the writer for every person who pointed somewhere else.

The reader can play, because capitals hide the handwriting. Three people is enough to start, and five or more is better: with three, every guess is one of two names.

Fooling the room is a skill of its own. The best bluff is a take that sounds exactly like somebody else in the room, as long as it is still your own opinion.

Hot takes at work: the rules that keep it friendly

No people. Not a colleague, not a team, not a customer and not the boss. A take about a person is a dig with a vote attached.

No politics, religion or money. That includes the joke version. At work, add pay, performance, promotions and redundancies, because somebody in the room is living the serious version of each.

No in-jokes with a target. If a take only works because everybody knows who it is about, it is about that person. Cut it, however good the line is.

Go first, and go small. The host's own take sets the temperature. Pick one from the food list, and the room will match it.

Read before the room does. On paper, the reader can quietly put a slip back in their pocket. On phones, Decka's room gives the host the same power, described below.

The test is one question: would you say it with the person it is about in the room? If it is not about a person, you are fine.

Playing hot takes live, on everyone's phones

For agree or disagree, use a poll. A live poll with Agree and Disagree puts the room's split on the big screen as the votes land. Each answer shows its count and percentage, and nobody's vote is shown by name. Read the take, open the poll, and let the smaller side argue with the bars behind them. To run the next take, change the question.

For whose hot take, use Decka's room for it. The room is called Who Said It? Its door for this game is "Whose hot take?". Players join from their own phones with a code, with no app and no account. The host runs it from the big screen or from their own phone. The game needs three players to start, and five or more is better.

A practice card comes first: a take nobody in the room wrote. Everyone votes on it and nobody scores, so the whole room learns the phone before anything counts.

Then the prompt goes up, such as "Your hot take about food", and every phone writes one take. A card can be edited until writing closes. The phone says the rest: "Nobody will know it's yours until the reveal. When your card comes up, vote like everyone else." While people write, the big screen shows only how many cards are in and how many people are done. It never shows a name.

The cards come up one at a time, in a shuffled order that is never the order they were written. Each phone shows the card and lists everyone in the round except its owner. Everybody is on that list whether or not they wrote, so nobody learns who skipped.

The writer votes too, and their phone looks exactly like everybody else's. Their vote counts in the tally of who has voted, and never in the score. That is what makes the game work. Without it, the one phone that sat still would give the writer away.

At the reveal, the writer's name goes up with the card, along with how many people named each person, how many got it right and how many were fooled. Nothing moves on by itself. The host presses "Next card" when the room has finished arguing.

Naming the writer scores 100 points. The writer scores 50 for every person they fooled. A host who would rather not keep score can turn points off, and the reveal still shows who got it right.

Setting	Default	Range
Prompts	from the template	1 to 5, one round each
Takes per person	1	1 or 2
Writing time	90 seconds	30 to 300 seconds
Guessing time	20 seconds	10 to 60 seconds
Practice card	On	On or off
Scoring	Points	Points or off
Cards played per round	20	10, 15, 20, 30 or all

The card limit keeps a big room moving. When there are more takes than the limit, the room picks at random, and nobody's second take is picked while any writer still has none in.

The host has three ways to keep it friendly. A take that matches Decka's built-in word list is held back, and passes unseen unless the host lets it through. Once writing closes, the host's phone lists the takes still to come, text only, and any of them can be hidden before it goes up. A take already on the screen can be skipped. A hidden, held or skipped take's writer is never named, on any screen or in any report.

The host's report shows each played take, who wrote it and how the room voted, counted per name. It never shows who voted for whom.