My good buddy is turning 50 tomorrow, and we are meeting at the bar for his bday.
I need suggestions for goofy gifts. We want to give him funny stuff that makes him feel old.
What do you all think?
Eons ago, when my then-boss turned 50, his wife conspired with his secretary to have the following stuff appear in his office while he was in a meeting:
A cake iced in black with little “tombstones” all over it
A “bouquet” of dead, dried out foliage
and, best of all
A black vulture pinata
That vulture sat on his file cabinet for years - for all I know it’s still there, if he’s still working. I thought it was lots funnier than the usual box of denture cream and Depends.
Probably not what you are looking for, but when someone I know turned 50, one of her friends organized a bunch of people to give her 50 of something each day. Like one day she got 50 pinwheels in her yard, another day 50 pounds of mulch, another day 50 stamps or stickers, . …
Not really helping the OP, but …
When a good friend was turning 50 a few years ago he expected the usual funeral-themed party.
His wife, being much smarter than that, told everybody to plan on having a B-day party for a 10-year old. Everybody brought kid-appropriate gifts. The guest list was ~20 adults aged 35-70.
We had a blast.
Squirt-gun fights throughout the house, pin the tail on the donkey (much better when well-buzzed), multiple frisbees in the living room, etc. Best of all, no nagging adults to ruin our fun, since we all were the adults.
Even opening presents was fun, because each one reminded somebody of something from their childhood which brought out lots of stories. Everybody got into it & was really eager to see what the next present was.
He’d had a pretty rough childhood & later got all choked up & said it was the 10th birthday he’d never had the first time.
They kept a couple of small toys as mementos & the rest were given to a charity for kids with parents in jail.
Much much better idea than a cake with tombstones on it.
LSLGuy will you be my friend?
That party idea is the best.
I turn 50 this year also.
I’d try and get one of those ‘day you were born’ newspapers. But fake it up so the headline is…
“Look out wheel, now we have fire!”
I did a similar thing for Mr. S’s 40th, because he’d never had a birthday party when he was a kid (grew up REALLY poor). The invitations had the zero crossed out, and guests were asked to bring inexpensive gifts suitable for a 4-year-old. We still quite a bit of the booty: Barrels of Monkeys, coloring books, paper parachute men, etc.
Someone gave my mom 50 bags of Skittles (her favorite) at her 50th birthday party. As someone else said, much cuter and more fun than the tired old Depends and denture cream (and less of a waste of money). That joke’s been done to death (you should excuse the pun).
Mickey Mouse was “born” the same year as my dad. So his 50th birthday party had a Mickey theme, and he got a Mickey Mouse watch, which he still has.
Too late for your friend, but I’m inspired anyway. What got started in 1957?
– The Frisbee
– Dodgers left Brooklyn for L.A.
– Jailhouse Rock was released, so an Elvis theme would be reasonable. If someone really wanted to be mean, they could focus on the Big, Old Elvis
– '57 Chevys are teh kewlness!
– How the Grinch Stole Christmas was published (Jeez, that long ago? :eek: )
– “American Bandstand” and “Leave it to Beaver” premiered
– Hanna-Barbera was established
'S’all I got right now. If anyone else is planning a 50th birthday this year, I’m sure they could make something of those.
We made the best 50th birthday gift for a guy here it is:
Go out and find a “Y” shaped stick about groin height: Decorate it, put a kazoo on it whatever…Now that he’s over the Hill he’ll need some help “keep’in it up” 
My wife and her friends put one of those tricycle honking things on it, and a kazoo, with some ribbon. It was a huge hit at the party - which was at a bar as well.
After all these great ideas I have to go and post a lame one. For a friends 50th I made up a prune bouquet. Made of kabob sticks and you guessed it prunes. All ties together in a nice little bow.
We bought my cousin depends, a walker, some bibs. Stuff like that.
I’m turning 50 this year, and if I get gag gifts like Over The Hill Pills and the like I will leave the party. As if anyone is giving me a party. But I would like the “50 of anything” theme. I once went to a party like this for the choir director’s wife. She got things like a bag of 50 candy kisses, 50 envelopes, 50 dimes, 50 assorted greeting cards, 50 packs of her favorite gum, a book of 50 greatest love songs…you get the idea. The best was what her husband gave her. Apparently her Sunday night tradition was to send him out to the store to buy a loaf of bread for their sandwiches for the week, and a pair of pantyhose. So he bought her 50 pairs of pantyhose…back when they came in the little plastic eggs. He had to go to many, many stores to get enough, and they made quite an impressive pile…plus she got 50 plastic eggs!
The childhood theme sounds like fun, too. My family wasn’t the party-giving kind, so my first birthday party was when I was in high school, and I had to share it with a friend (with the same first name, born in the same hospital). Now that was fun, but I haven’t had a birthday party since, and maybe I could get some of those cool toys I missed out on as a child! If no one does it for me (exactly 31 days from today) I’m going to suggest it for my girlfriend Laurie’s birthday: she at least has little kids who would like the toys!