In the modern world where claiming victim status seems to allow you to say whatever you want, EVERYBODY thinks he’s “punching down”.
I don’t find the whole “punching up” versus “punching down” distinction to be all that valuable. Yes, sometimes it’s really obvious who’s in power. Sometimes it’s not. But, also, even if people who are members of your class are much more often in power than people who are members of another class, you as an individual may well not be in power at all.
Whoops. Accidentally clicked on this article while looking for BoingBoing’s reviews of that wholesome family show, Game of Thrones.
This came up in line right after “Twerking Stormtroopers”, which itself reads like a CAH card.
…or maybe you just need to stop playing Cards Against Humanity with assholes. My experience with the game is completely different than what is reflected in the review, probably because I’m playing with smart, caring people who are more likely to make a joke about racist people than they are to make a racist joke.
There’s definitely more to CAH than lazy offensive humor. One of the cool things is that it’s a little bit like poker, you have to learn to read the people. Maybe one friend likes potty humor so you save all the poop cards when she’s judging, but another friend likes pop culture references, so you play the GoT cards for him. It’s interesting to get to know people by what cards they pick as the winner, like some sort of drunken psychological experiment.
I know a few people who play with a rule that if you draw one of those cards (one you think is just there to be racist/sexist/etc), you’re allowed to remove it permanently from the set and draw another.
It is entertainment and not all forms are for everyone. Maybe stick to Candyland, which is dark and twisted in its own unique way. I don’t like the GTA games, but I don’t condemn them OR the people that play them. 
You could always play Apples to Apples instead.
It is the same game after all, but without the suggestive stuff.
I don’t need to censor myself nor is this a moment of self reflection. I just feel that we should be allowed to be silly and not feel forced into behavior all of the time or make sure we aren’t offending people all of the time. Comedians can’t be offensive anymore and, life has to be about rainbows and sunshine. Games spent played with family and friends should be wholesome and pure. Blah blah blah. Live a sterile inoffensive life. Sleep, just sleep. It’s okay.
I’ve played CAH a few times with different, totall distinct groups of friends. What I find interesting about it is that it’s self levelling. The cards people pick, or don’t pick, tend to be defined in part by the kind of people they are playing with.
CAH is a game that requires a good understanding of the other people in the group. Just because you find a rape joke funny (I don’t, so I’ve never played a card like that), it won’t win the hand if no one else appreciates it. I can’t actually remember that many hands where someone played what I would regard as a genuinely offensive (in the sense of being racist, say) card combo, simply because most of the people in the group wouldn’t have found it funny. What I tend to see is groups playing just on the edge of what they collectively regard as appropriate.
In fact, from my experience, the really offensive cards are difficult to play well. When people do play them they just aren’t funny, and will lose to a much more innocuous but appropriate card. Every time I’ve played I’ve ended up with a least a couple of cards that I got in the initial deal, but I just never wanted to play.
Complaining about CAH is a little like all the people who complain about Facebook/Twitter saying that it’s just people posting boring narcissistic crap crap, missing that this is really just a criticism of their friends and the people they follow.
We’ve also played a game called Apples To Apples, which is the same mechanic as CAH, but kid safe. Funny thing is, rounds were frequently won by people who managed to get something dodgy in there, but again that only works if the person dealing that hand gets the joke.
If you don’t know which person at the poker table is the sucker, then it’s you.
If you don’t know which of your friends is an asshole, then …
The slope from “Critique of a popular game” to “They’re trying to take my freeze peach” is pretty slippery today. Watch your step, everybody!
My sense of humor is offensive. I know it is. I don’t apologize for it, but also won’t make messed up BDSM jokes at work.
With my friends, who appreciate dark, twisted, kinky humor? Game on. CAH is part of that grand tradition of “letting off steam after being nice to absolute shits at work all week”. I’m not going to cater to the offended-on-other’s-behalf professional outrage artists who have an arsenal of ways that anything can oppress.
Just.
Done.
With.
It.
Don’t like offensive humor? Don’t play the game. You can even say that you think it’s problematic, and I can grant you your position. But telling me to stop is just going to make me more willing, and desiring, to offend you some more. I lived nearly my entire life being told my family was unnatural, and twisted. The difference between censors from the left and censors from the right is very slim.
The last time I played CAH was at a convention and a lot of the fun did seem to be about saving up the most filthy cards so that the priest we had at the table (no, not his character, really his job) had to read them out.
I thought it was worth me actually looking into the game before continuing any discussion surrounding it… and although it’s definitely pretty edgy with all it’s rude words and what not, what bothers me more is that it seems pretty lacking as an actual game.
It really does look like an excuse for grown ups to butt silly sentences together and laugh about it? Which is fine… but… there are like a gazzlion awesome table top games out there, and this is raking in millions? 
Edit: @caryroys summarised the game quite well, much better than what I read when making this comment. See further down thread if you share my opinion, as there is a bit more to it.
Did any of you actually read the article? The critique isn’t “This game is horrible because people are telling racist Holocaust jokes and MUST BE BANNED.” The critique is “This game sucks because your lazy paint-by-numbers racist Holocaust jokes aren’t actually funny, and taboo breaking that risks nothing isn’t actually interesting.”
It’s kind of like the difference between Louis CK and Carlos Mencia.
Apparently not.
I’ve only played CAH two or three times. It’s easy to play and you can decide when you want to stop so it doesn’t drag on and on, which makes it perfect for parties. I’m not setting up Catan after everyone’s had three rounds of whatever beverage they like best. You can of course make up juvenile and incredibly offensive combinations, but those don’t always win or even get the biggest laughs. And people do laugh. Sometimes they laugh at the offensive combos but the bigger laughs are reserved for the ones that work on more than one level, offensive and having a smart, unexpected twist. If it were merely offensive without elements of absurdity or intelligence, I doubt it would be popular. The OP and underlying article insist that it is not, not, NOT funny. I realize that if you play with the same set of cards all the time it could get old quick. I don’t get why insisting that something you don’t find entertaining cannot possibly be entertaining for others. More importantly, your view of something’s meaning doesn’t make it true for me just because you are absolutely convinced the meaning you perceive is true.
This, exactly. All the people arguing that playing CAH is about “being allowed to not self-censor” must be absolutely terrible at CAH, which is a game about selecting what you “say” based pretty much exclusively on the opinions of another person instead of yourself.
I’ve very rarely seen hands won by the offensive cards, and when they are it’s because it manages to be really very very funny, usually for some reason well beyond the simple confines of the cards in play.
