# Playing the Game "Sorry" With Dice and A Bell
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [July 9, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384 "2009-07-09T00:29:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/1 "2009-07-09T00:29:00Z")
I was watching a rerun of _Carol Burnett_ and it was a “Eunice” sketch, and Ed, Eunice and Mama were playing the game “Sorry.”
Now whenever I played it we had cards.
But our favourite trio were playing “Sorry” with a pair of dice and a bell. Instead of drawing a “1 Card” or a “2 Card” they had to roll doubles to get out. And when one piece landed on another piece they rang a bell and said “SORRY!!!”
Was the game ever actually played like this? Or was it just done on _the Carol Burnett Show_ like that for comic effect?
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### Author:  [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/2 "2009-07-09T00:50:48Z")
We played with the cards when I was a kid, so it’s been that way for at least fifty years. Dice wouldn’t give you the instructions that come with the numbers, and you’d have a possibility of six and nine. That’s like a whole different game.
I suppose you could use the six or the nine as the sorry card, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/3 "2009-07-09T02:06:48Z")
We joke about playing it with the bell BECAUSE OF the Mama’s Family sketch, but I don’t think we’ve ever actually done so.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/4 "2009-07-09T04:08:50Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#):
>
> We joke about playing it with the bell BECAUSE OF the Mama’s Family sketch, but I don’t think we’ve ever actually done so.
So they just made up some weird version to make it better for TV?
😕
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/5 "2009-07-09T06:29:53Z")
I believe I’ve seen a version of Sorry with dice, but I believe it is relatively new.
Still, I see no reason someone can’t improvise rules to a game. Maybe they lost the cards and wanted to play with dice. Still, it would be a completely different game, as two dice are not nearly as random as the cards.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/6 "2009-07-09T12:52:10Z")
I’m going to move this to … Cafe Society? Game Room? **flips coin** … the Game Room.
twicks, MPSIMS mod
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/7 "2009-07-09T13:11:37Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> So they just made up some weird version to make it better for TV?
>
> 😕
Yes, occasionally TV writers will set up situations that are out of the ordinary for comic effect. It was a joke. I’m not sure why this idea is confusing.
Did you ever watch the show or see the episode in question? “Mama’s Family” wasn’t exactly supposed to be a documentary.
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### Author:  [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/8 "2009-07-09T14:44:31Z")
I always assumed that game was Aggravation instead of Sorry. I’m sure that’s influenced by the fact that one set of my grandparents loved that game and we used to play it at their house all the time. We never used a bell, though I could see how that might be fun!
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/9 "2009-07-09T15:11:00Z")
You would also not get a 1 if you rolled two dice.
Also, the OMG thats NOT cheating move of using a backwards 4 to skip the entire board by just going back 4 sqaures at start to be right at home, wouldn’t work either.
Aggrivation is a star shaped board, with up to six players. It’s a different beast all together, with shortcuts, and star shortcuts. Both obviously come from Pachisi and Ludo obviously, but, there is enough, IMHO, that Agg and Sorr are different games.
Dice would make the game entirely different. Then again, I also know a variant where you are dealt sorry cards to in the beginning, look at them, and play one card per turn.
But the bell? That’s… I just might have to try that. And a noise for getting out of start, entering home, sliding…
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/10 "2009-07-09T15:12:50Z")
> [@twickster](#):
>
> I’m going to move this to … Cafe Society? Game Room? **flips coin** … the Game Room.
> twicks, MPSIMS mod
I would have :
I’m going to ::rolls dice:: move this thread up 6 spaces. Oops, it landed on another thread, so it gets bummped back to Game Room. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/11 "2009-07-09T17:45:10Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I would have :
>
> I’m going to ::rolls dice:: move this thread up 6 spaces. Oops, it landed on another thread, so it gets bummped back to Game Room. Sorry.
Heh. That would have been much better. Oh well. 😃
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/12 "2009-07-09T21:50:00Z")
Here’s a link to the show
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmdfSXWVW1M)
Look for (6:34) when Carol goes “SOOOORRRRYYYY”
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJLVgPPF40M)
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### Author:  [@VintageBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VintageBrain)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2025, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-the-game-sorry-with-dice-and-a-bell/502384/13 "2025-12-14T05:19:17Z")
I know this is a really old post, but yes. They did indeed play the original version. I laughed hard at Carol Burnett’s skit but not because of the annoying bell, but because I have the bell and I wished I’d known about annoying others by doing that with it. It was at my grandmother’s home. Mine now. Us grandkids played a lot of Sorry with her. but using the cards. She just happened to still have that old bell so we got that out with the newer game when we were playing.