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The Kitchen Table

Cards Against Humanity

10 years ago

Have you heard of this game? Played it?

It was highly recommended to me by friends who said it provokes hysterical laughter and is always the biggest hit at their game nights. When I looked it up on Amazon I found a 5-star rating and well over 7,000 reviews! I couldn't wait to try it.

It bills itself as "a party game for horrible people," and I was warned that it wasn't at all politically correct and could be quite raunchy. That didn't worry me; although I don't think of myself as a horrible person, political correctness doesn't exactly rule my life, and no one would ever accuse me of being a prude.

So I bought the game and took it to game night this week, and discovered that Cards Against Humanity is not for me. It did produce a lot of laughs, but it also produced some uncomfortable silences. Players use cards with various things written on them. I think a younger (much younger) crowd would have enjoyed some of the pop culture references more than we did, and they also would have understood more of the terminology.

Some of the sexual/anatomical references were funny, and some were just plain gross. A lot of the "jokes" fell flat. But the biggest thing, for me, was that all eight of us had one or two cards in our hands we wouldn't play. There are some things I just will not make jokes about, and my friends felt the same way.

Given that one of the nicest people I know bought this game for her kids in high school and college, I didn't expect to react this way to it. But I can't stand Howard Stern, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.

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Comments (3)

pam_25f
10 years ago
What you said is what I have heard about this game. Unfortunately for me I don't have game playing friends (although we are talking about it!) but my nephew highly recommends Catch Phrase. He married into a family that regularly plays games together and when he was single he and his friends drank beer and played this. He said they laughed themselves silly.
User
10 years ago
We played it Christmas Day at my son's house. While it's incredibly politically incorrect, it's also hilarious. There were a few times I couldn't read the cards given to me to complete my sentence because I was laughing too hard. My kids and I all did agree though, it's a game you can't play with some people, unless they have a very open warped sense of humour. And you really have to have a very warped sense of humour to play this game. Yes, we know some of the answers given were things we would never say to someones face, but it's a game. And trust me, even though we laughed so hard we sometimes cried, you would always hear someone say, "oh my gosh, that's soooooooo wrong!"
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I always have trouble with the boys-- my db and bils. I got them all yeti coffee tumblers. I ordered the 30 oz size and laughed when they arrived because they were so ridiculously big. One of the orders ended up being delayed so I bought another locally and when the package arrived, I kept it for myself-- I use it ALL the time! I love the big size and while they do keep coffee warm, they are even better at keeping drinks cool! I now have 4 of them for myself! some other ideas.. a milk frother, cards against humanity, nostalgic candy from their childhood, lens cleaning cloth/cleaner, travel pepper grinder (one of my fav gifts ever), a new or favorite book, an artisan cocktail book, stone drink cubes, heirloom beans or rice, battery tester (I just had a conversation about how I need to get one-- I always used my tongue!)
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lydia1959
10 years ago
I've never played it, but have seen all the 5 star reviews on Amazon while looking for a game for my college-aged nephews. I do think it would appeal to a younger crowd... not sure it would a game I would enjoy.

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