I woke up this morning surprised to find my twitter feed slowly but surely spreading this article speaking in-depth about how people actually go as far as despise the game of Cards Against Humanity.
To reply by simply saying “it’s just a game” would be irresponsible and avoiding the problems brought up by the people that well… have a problem with the game.
Cards Against Humanity isn’t an ice-breaker to play with people you don’t know. At least that’s not how I’ve ever played it. You play it amongst friends you know well and play your cards keeping in mind who the judge for the current round is. Yes, you are pandering to what that particular person finds funny (in an ironic way or not), but in that regard it’s more than a “shut your brain off and go” game. It does in fact require some sense of strategy by not just thinking “what’s the best LOL TEH RANDUMB” thing or most racially/sexually/tumblr-enraging thing. You play your cards based on the person currently judging.
And for people that have created their actual grown-up livelihood around comedy, I can see why that would upset them. The entire idea of pandering is never seen in a positive light. People love to hate shows like Big Bang Theory because it tries too hard to pander for an audience without the TLC required for said audience to actually *like* what’s being attempted to be shoved down their throats. But that’s pandering to a broad audience. Let me reiterate: Cards Against Humanity is something to be played amongst a small circle of friends that are fully aware of just how ridiculous the concept is. It’s the difference between telling a silly one-liner to a friend and taking that said one-liner and attempting to get a publishing deal based solely around it.
But wait, what about all the offensive choices you’re given and clearly encouraged to play? Choices mocking certain races or religions or sexual-orientations or disabilities, etc. etc.
Again, this has to do with the certain group of people you’re playing with. As a Filipino twenty-something, my small circle of friends are of similar backgrounds and during the handful of times we get together to play Cards Against Humanity, the inappropriateness of the game is all in good fun. None of us are actually involved in things like casual racism or the like–it’s simply the nature of the game. The “jokes” played during each round are laughed at not due to how genuine they are, but because of how downright ridiculous they’ve become within the small timespan of each round.
That is not to say that there doesn’t exist a breed of people that partake in said game, partake in a round and laugh at the cards played in a serious “I’m laughing at the subjects being mocked rather than the ludicrousness of the situation” manner. These people are idiots with too few brain cells to look past the face value of something and realize a different level of humor is at play. Said people will always exist regardless of whether or not Cards Against Humanity was ever made. The existence of Cards Against Humanity does not “breed” insufferable-ness. Rather, it better categorizes what kind of person you are based on just what exactly it is you’re laughing at.
So is Cards Against Humanity hurtful? It can be. So can kitchen knives. But for the most part, people just use those to cut fruit. Only the true whackadoos actually use it in an intentionally hurtful manner and yet for some reason those are the people that we like to focus on and create this entirely different image on the product at hand because of such.
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