Yes, if you're at the sort of party where there is a keg of beer, or at a large family picnic especially. They're the standard disposable cup for situations where the hosts wouldn't have enough cups for everyone and don't want to deal with potential loss and breakage.

It's not like there aren't other disposable cups used, but yeah, very common

They're the first hit for "plastic cup". They're cheaper than the clear version. You can get store brand, or Solo brand if you want to go posh.

Red cups are like yellow school buses. Both are real.

They're called Solo Cups.

Yes, but not just parties. Parties using red cups are historically going to be drinking parties for younger people like “keggers.” Red cups are fairly ubiquitous for lots of events like picnics, cookouts, birthday events and the like.

I can’t say they’re used at all parties, but they’re pretty common.

These 7oz/200ml cups are the worst, the very worst. Holds two mouthfuls of drink and crack in half if you look at them funny, just terrible

Family events with a sharpie so everyone knows which drink is theirs

its a common thing for parties, not just for beer, but for birthday parties, barbeques, holding even solid food.

I’ve seen this asked a few times over the years, here or back on Reddit maybe.

Yes. Yes we do. But it’s mostly like high school or college parties. Kids who don’t have a lot of money and are going to make a mess. Sometimes even adults if it’s like a large outdoor barbecue kind of thing. Or around water or a pool where you don’t want glass.

You usually wouldn’t do this for a more formal or “classy” type of occasion. Though it does happen. Some might see it as tacky in that context.

It's a real thing we do...is that weird?

Naw. Not exclusively. They come in lots of colors now.

Yeah. There are a bunch of different brands that make them, and they come in a lot more colors than red, but that type of disposable plastic cup has been pretty ubiquitous since the 1990s. There are also clear plastic disposable cups that are just as common, but you tend to see those at more adult functions because they give off less of a high school kegger/kids birthday party vibe.

I think Hollywood uses the red ones so much because it's an easy visual shorthand to express to the viewer exactly what kind of party is going on. They're also are opaque, so they can just hand everyone an empty cup and not have to worry about liquid levels and visual continuity, which probably makes things a lot easier on set.

Those cups became very popular in the 1970s, particularly amongst younger people living at home or going to college. If you and your buddies from college were having a big party, you could buy a sleeve of cups and a beer keg a have a good time. I remember going to parties like that. The law said people were not allowed to sell alcohol without a license, so to cover the booze costs, the hosts would sell cups at the door that people could drink from.

I sincerely think that Red Solo Cups beat out other disposable cups are because of the lines. They are actually measurements that you can use to measure mixed drinks if you're not drinking beer or wine.

I only use

We use red Solo cups everywhere, not just at parties.

Red Solo cups