Cards Against Humanity: The Game That Can Keep Us Human
Dark humour is a safe space for a lot of people when the worst happens. It’s a coping mechanism, especially during dark times when we can’t make a difference.
“A party game for horrible people”, is the actual tagline of a card game played by drunken college students around the world. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past seven or so years and don’t know how to play; 1) Gawd, just watch a round and jump in (peasants), but 2) according to the OFFICAL RULES:
The group picks someone to be the first “Card Czar”
The “Card Czar” picks a black card from the appropriate deck and reads it aloud
Everyone ELSE chose what they think is the funniest white card from their hand of 10 into a pile
The white cards get shuffled so the “Card Czar” doesn’t know who played what
The “Card Czar” reads all the white cards played (making any weird voices they want)
The “Card Czar” picks whichever card they think is the funniest
Whoever played that card gets the black card, the whites are discarded, and the round winner is the next “Card Czar”
Of course, there are house rules that change, but the basic idea is identical. When I played, my friends and I would take turns going around the circle, so there wasn’t a time when two best friends, who exactly knew each other’s humour were just passing the “Card Czar”-ship back and forth.
This game was produced by a small group of guys who funded the project on the Kickstarter website, making it obvious that this was a thing that the common people on the internet wanted in their lives. With cards like:
it’s no wonder that people with dirty and horror-filled minds would find it funny. And that is precisely the point. Temkin, the 26-year-old co-creator, was quoted “Our main priority is to be funny--and to have people like us" (Lagorio-Chafkin, 2018).
It’s a game that anyone can play, and a game that wants everyone to be included, in getting insulted. Like South Park it runs the gambit of racism, sexism, nationalism, mythology, pornography, war and dead people jokes (with new extensions being added constantly); there is seemingly no subject that wouldn’t be put on a card. Because of this “inclusivity” strangers are easier to befriend, and there is much less of an ‘othering’ culture. It’s also common while meeting new people that they are worried about what they can or can’t say, how much can be joked about, and what aspects of human’s uncomfortable and often tragic history are in the open. Recently it seems that most media is full of people complaining that they have to be ‘PC’ (politically correct) and that feelings of the ‘special snowflakes’ are hurt too easily. This safe environment where everyone can release their worst self makes being a better self outside the game much easier and less forced so that you can make real friends; stupid and terrible friends, maybe, but still true.
Work Cited
Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine. “The Humans Behind Cards Against Humanity.” Inc.com, Inc., 6 Jan. 2014, www.inc.com/christine-lagorio/humans-behind-cards-against-humanity.html.
