WHAT IS GISH?
Greatest International Scavenger Hunt (or GISH) is a scavenger hunt organized by Misha Collins each year to encourage people to perform acts of kindness while also having fun. The week-long event is packed with items to complete and help those in need while causing unreasonable pain and suffering to those taking part in the hunt.
The items include donating sanitary pads to women’s homeless shelters and creating encouraging messages for the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as creating portraits of celebrities in skittles or toothpaste. Other items also include raising awareness about certain relevant topics, such as Daryl Davis and his success in converting 200+ members of the KKK.
Apart from those relatively easier tasks that also help people in need, there have also been tasks that include having to make bio degradable glitter (because regular glitter isn’t enough of a nightmare) and use the glitter and syrup to “tar and feather” someone. That item was not only a disaster to create but also to clean up, all the while, Misha was probably sitting on his Throne of Kale and cackling at us pulling our hair out trying to clean up the glitter.
There have also been items where the participants had to solve virtual escape rooms and caused them to grow many a grey hair over that puzzle.
Other items over the years have included launching something with your name on it into space, and getting celebrities to rate the inside of your fridge.
During the lockdown, two mini-hunts were organized as well which may have lasted only a day each, but were no less chaotic and mind boggling and with even less time to complete the items.
One thing most of us who participate in GISH know is that for a few weeks before the hunt starts, we all have to save our recycling because you never know what might come in handy. There is usually an item that for sure requires us to go dumpster diving and use stuff from our trash to create something else. A metaphorical phoenix, if you will.
While most of us usually end up regretting signing up and saying “it seemed like a good idea at the time” while cursing Misha out for the legal form of torture he came up with, none of us would have it any other way.
All hail our Overlord, Misha Collins.
