Cards Against Humanity - Review

Cards Against Humanity – You may or may not have heard of this game. Chances are if I walked up to you at a party with shifty eyes and a hushed voice and said  “pst  wanna do some Cards Against Humanity” you would be utterly confuzzled and probably stay away from me for the rest of the night.

The good news is that I don’t have plans to sport a trench coat and roam parties offering Cards Against Humanity to strangers. Not because there is something wrong with CAH, in fact it’s one of the funniest games I have played in any setting.  What I wouldn’t do is be hush about it, that is because CAH can accommodate more than a ton of people [1000Kg / Avg weight of 70Kgs = 14+] and the more the merrier.

What is the game like? The quickest explanation – an adult version of the game ‘Apples to Apples’. But unfortunately I would wager to all of you who are NOT flag draping, twinky gorging, bold eagle on shoulder nesting Americans that name means little to you either. So let me lay out the rules that explains what CAH is all about.

Rules

The game has many white cards (perhaps symbolising the pure minds of unsuspecting guests) and a stack of black cards akin to the sense of humour one must possess to play the game.

Everyone picks up 10 white cards. Straight away you become aware how politically incorrect some of the cards can be, and why the game is called ‘Cards Against Humanity’. So let’s say you picked up the following set.

Then someone in the crowd who is playing is nominated as the judge. The role of the judge is to pick up one of the black cards and read it out loud. Let’s say you picked up the following black card. “Next on ESPN2, the World Series of ______.

Then everyone chooses one white card that best suits that question and puts it down in a pile. Whatever way you want to do it, the judge must not know who placed what cards. So when everyone is done cracking up with the absurd answer that they came up with and manage to place a card down on the table, the judge picks up each card and reads the black card once again filling the blank with the answer on the white cards.

I would have totally went with the following ““Next on ESPN2, the World Series of Cheating in the Special Olympics.” But whether the judge thinks that is the ‘best’ answer is subjective. So try to get in the mind of the person judging and figure out what they may be thinking. I emphasis this is subjective and there are no real right answers.

Once someone’s card is chosen he is the winner for that round and received the Black Card as a single point trophy. Everyone then picks up white card/s to get back to 10 in their hands. The next person becomes the judge, rinse and repeat.

Play up to whatever score you want.

Oh some black cards require you to choose two white cards to complete the sentence. It can be more challenging as not every card fits the bill. But let’s say the following black card popped up, “In a world ravaged by _______, our only solace is _______.”

In a world ravaged by ___ our only solace is _____

Looking back at my cards nothing jumps out at me.  But I would have went with

“In a world ravaged by Old-people smell, our only solace is A good sniff.”

 

Final Thoughts

Definitely a fun and easy to learn game. I played it with a group of friends that I already knew, but this can be used as an ice breaker with new guests.

A word of warning though, not everyone will find these tasteful, and can definitely offend some others, so pick your players wisely. A sense of humour is definitely a must in this game. If alcoholic beverages are flowing it will definitely add oomph to the game, as everyone is more relaxed and is in the spirit of a good time.

Finally I should mention the makers of this game are in the US, and don’t ship to Australia. They also have a problem printing out enough copies of the damn game, so the supply/demand side of economics has made this treat sell in online retailers at exorbitant prices. Likely the good people at http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com  provide a free version of the game to people like us, in a form of a PDF document.

I went to Office Works and printed out the whole game as well as a few sheets of blank cards (create your own white & black cards) on a 300 mgs card stock paper. Then spent the afternoon cutting, and spray painting the back of the black cards. Cost me less than $15 dollars.

Definitely look into it, or invite me over to your parties and I will bring my box.

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