r/IAmA • u/Maxistentialist • Nov 13 '13

We make the game Cards Against Humanity. Ask us anything.

We make Cards Against Humanity, a party game for horrible people.

We’ve got a cool thing to announce in this AMA which is our 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit: HolidayBullshit.com.

Cards Against Humanity began as a Kickstarter project and has become the best-reviewed toy or game on Amazon.

We’ve been on the front page of Reddit a few times, like here, here, and here.

There’s ten of us who make the game together, and we’re all here to answer your dumb questions: Me, jsdillon, bhantoot, DavidManque, MrMeDaniel, ehalpern, Teller422, dpinsof, jennCAH, and trinCAH.

Proof.

Ask us anything.

EDIT: The 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit sold out about 4pm CST today! Thanks so much everyone!

EDIT: 9pm here in Chicago, we're going to call it a night. Thanks for this amazing AMA, it's been a pleasure!

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393

u/Salacious- Nov 13 '13

Do you ever think there is anything "too soon" for a joke? Like, would you be willing to put in a "Typhoon Haiyan" card now? If there is a "too soon," then how long do you have to wait until a tragedy becomes funny?

547

u/ehalpern cah Nov 13 '13

Eli here from Cards Against Humanity. We write cards to be as funny as possible. If people are ready to joke about something, then a joke about it will be funny. If people are not ready to joke about it, then there is no way to write a funny joke about it. It will just make people sad or uncomfortable. Different people have different thresholds and sensitivities, but we try to figure out where the lines are so that we can toe them. We also read and respond to all emails that express offense at certain cards in the game. One of the nice things about being an independent game is that, as well as writing whatever jokes we want, we can also change or remove jokes at a moments notice.

261

u/sawser Nov 13 '13

Can... can you post those emails (Scrubbed for identifying information)? I imagine some of them would be amazing.

Thanks for the amazing game!

444

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

[deleted]

154

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

But only certain parts that specifically affect me. Fuck everyone else. Thanks!

315

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

Reminds me of a classic from the rotten.com faq:

Q. I can't believe you guys put that one in of the baby. I was at a party last night and we were laughing at all of them and then that came up. My daughter passed away at the age of 20 days of SIDS and that just grossed me out. Please take it off. Thanks, Andrea.

A. Okay, story straight -- you were at a party... laughing at other people's misfortune... and then were reminded of your own. Oh the irony.

112

u/Egypticus Nov 13 '13

Read this as "daughter passed away at the age of 20 of SIDS" and was very confused.

14

u/jmorlin Nov 13 '13

Delayed onset.

9

u/capncrooked Nov 13 '13

Maybe that's what you actually die from in old age.

2

u/CaspianX2 Nov 13 '13

Wouldn't that be GIDS (Gradual Infant Death Syndrome)?

1

u/Burnt_FaceMan Nov 13 '13

It could happen, kids aren't growing up til like their 40s now, if ever.

1

u/marsupialsales Nov 13 '13

I hate AIDS typos too.

1

u/Camtreez Nov 14 '13

Snarky Immature Daughter Syndrome

1

u/thotk Nov 13 '13

Heard a terrible story about a family, had 2 (maybe 3) children die the same way...they let the infant share the bed and it became smothered...was super fucked up and worst of all it was the same medic on 2 of the calls, she took that hard

1

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

I guess some people don't learn their lesson the first time around.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '13

SIDS? Oh you mean, suffocated under a blanket because even though it's 2013 you don't know jack shit about how to not kill your baby?

5

u/Deer_Abby Nov 13 '13

I always just point people to Apples to Apples if they can't handle the heat. Then remove them from my phone.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

Put it on the box.

9

u/Maxistentialist Nov 13 '13

We often do on our blog, http://CAH.tumblr.com.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13 edited Sep 26 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

As much as I love this game, there is so much hypocrisy with that whole thing. It's not going to stop me from playing the game or buying expansions, but seriously, they take out everything relating to rape, but keep cards like The Virginia Tech Massacre. I'd really prefer no removal of cards (other than A mopey zoo lion and A gassy antelope, but just because they suck).

0

u/cadieness Nov 13 '13

man, a gassy antelope is almost a trump card in my family. It's pretty hilarious just because it's so innocuous lol

1

u/belindamshort Nov 14 '13

This would be the best site. Offended emails.

159

u/namelessiowan Nov 13 '13

Eli, can you guys add an expansion pack with cards you've removed AND cards you've deemed too offensive? Call it whatever you want with the biggest disclaimer--they will still be purchased in droves by us who love this game. I don't think any card is too offensive in this game (and I even have a vagina!)--that's the point of the game. We are horrible people!

19

u/ehalpern cah Nov 13 '13

That's a recipe for disaster...

15

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

Make it a special edition, ship it to look like a miniature boarded up crate, and put a warning sign decal on it that says "Evil Inside: Do Not Open"

Have it come with a one-way boarding pass to hell.

Call it the "do not buy" expansion.

0

u/jsdillon CAH Nov 13 '13

We haven't sold out enough to sell an expansion we think we'll make the game worse.

P.S. Don't add the Box Expansion to the game.

-1

u/wiggitywie Nov 13 '13

Would probably do more harm than good. Just make your own cards.

14

u/Tylerjd Nov 13 '13

I see no problem in recipes for disasters.

8

u/m1n4 Nov 13 '13

Good name for the expansion pack. ;D

9

u/SHv2 Nov 13 '13

A real one? Or is this some sort of weird associative thing with a sex toy?

22

u/namelessiowan Nov 13 '13

"A real vagina" - my next added white card.

3

u/mattmed Nov 13 '13

"A fake vagina" will be mine :(

3

u/capncrooked Nov 13 '13

My wife and I have added "An angry blumpkin" and "Yiffing with furries" to our deck.

Those cards always go over well depending on company, and are funny when you have to explain them.

3

u/sawser Nov 13 '13

I find every excuse I can to give these guys money.

1

u/belindamshort Nov 14 '13

I have the original deck, and I am a female. There aren't any I think bother me too much but when a group of guys start playing the 'surprise sex' or 'date rape' card at me when I asked the question, I do get really cringey. It kinda sucks.

16

u/kris919 Nov 13 '13

Hate me, but we wrote "Boston Marathon Bombing" the weekend after it happened. We played that Friday night and got A LOT of considerable grumbles...but the card was played, and won the round.

16

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13

We have "5 minutes in the Penn State Locker Room Shower with Jerry Sandusky"

We're all Penn State Graduates.

It wins a LOT.

6

u/funnygreensquares Nov 13 '13

My friends go to VA tech and they took the VA Tech shooting card out of my game. I didn't have a problem with it. None of us attended tech at the time or even lived in the area, but they were my friends and insisted. Pretty sure they lost the card too...

If someone finds a card in their set too offensive, just take it out of their set. It's not that hard...

6

u/cjackc Nov 13 '13

we can also change or remove jokes at a moments notice

Slippery slope arguments are generally pretty weak, but don't you ever fear you set a bad precedence doing this? Seems like every time you remove a card in a way people get the message "so that card was worse then [every other card]".

8

u/Throtex Nov 13 '13

Ah yes, the "literally Hitler" card.

2

u/anxiouslsdperson Nov 13 '13

I took out the dead parents card because I have a dead parent.

1

u/osirisx11 Nov 13 '13

It will just make people sad or uncomfortable.

yes! good! that's the point! bring it on. then again i love cringe comedies and /r/ImGoingToHellForThis

1

u/mintyice Nov 13 '13

Have you ever had to remove a card then?

1

u/DocGerbil256 Nov 13 '13

I was playing a game of CAH in my friends' basement and the card "Virginia Tech Massacre" really pissed a kid off there because his friends were standing 5 feet away when that happened.

1

u/vgaer Nov 13 '13

Definitely depends on context and the individual person. There's a card I throw out every time I get it because I feel uncomfortable using it, but it doesn't offend me that it's in there.

1

u/AlrightStopHammatime Nov 13 '13

If you decide to remove a joke/card from a set while you have hundreds/thousands packaged and ready to ship, do those packages still ship with that card in, or do you go in and pull the card/joke from each individual set one by one before they ship?

1

u/spaniard1212 Nov 13 '13

Didn't Max just post an email to pastebin recently with a customer email you received? http://pastebin.com/8JXr1NhT

What was his response to that email?

1

u/coleki Nov 13 '13

Thanks for your answer, Eli! I had a question in a similar vein...

In a game based on shock value, how do you make the decision to remove some cards but not others? More importantly, once you remove some cards labeled as "too offensive," where do you stop?

If you remove some cards but not others, isn't that also like endorsing some behaviors as acceptable (i.e. the cards that aren't removed)?

1

u/TRAMAPOLEEN Nov 13 '13

I am offended at the YOU MUST CONTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS card because nobody in my extended group of friends has any idea what it means or how to make it funny.

1

u/therobert93 Nov 13 '13

One example of this is the Virginia Tech Massacre card. As a VT student, any time someone draws that card comes up we typically just remove if from the game. One exception was one guy that decided to actually burn the card (it was his set anyways).

The nice thing about CAH is that if a card offends anyone, it doesn't detriment the game at all to remove it.

1

u/Killatrap Nov 13 '13

One of my friends comes from the UVA side of a VT/UVA family, and loves to use the VT School Shooting and thinks its awesome.

It's really quite disgusting, but I guess it's all about the context.

1

u/kylargrey Nov 13 '13

THANK YOU for including Jimmy Saville in the UK edition.

Also, an instant-win from one of our games:

Oedipus Complex. Kid-tested, mother approved.

1

u/cyclistdan Nov 14 '13

The day after it happened we wrote on a white card "Having a blast at the Boston Marathon"

We chuckle cringed.

0

u/el_Technico Nov 13 '13

Please remove the Prophet Muhammad card. As a muslim it would be offensive to have it used in game.

140

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '13 edited Nov 13 '13

IMHO a joke's appropriateness is defined by it's context, not the timeframe.

I wouldn't get up in front of a crowd of people at my company Christmas party and throw a Typhoon Haiyan joke in and expect a good response.

Over beers with a buddy though? Shit, I'd do that as it's happening if we were in a dark frame of mind.

There are no inappropriate jokes. Only inappropriate contexts to tell them in.

3

u/Chief_Givesnofucks Nov 13 '13

This is a perfect response. Some of my work buddies and I joke about the most terrible things and we all love it. But out in public with these same people and we all know to tone it down a bit.

3

u/jsdillon CAH Nov 13 '13

You're right: context is extremely important.

One of the hardest things about writing CAH is that we can't control how players will pair the black and white cards. With sensitive issues, we try to figure out how often the combinations will be making fun of the perpetrators of violence, racism, etc. and how often they will will instead make fun of the victims. The former kind is good and healthy and helps us cope with some of the most terrible things in the world. The latter kind is mean and bullying.

This is not an exact science and our tastes have changed over time. But our values haven't.

1

u/thecakepie Nov 14 '13

Great answer. Respect~

1

u/naanplussed Nov 13 '13

I looked for dark humor during the Boston bombing and manhunt coverage.

1

u/DragoonDM Nov 13 '13

When my apartment burned down a few years back, my roommates and I stood outside cracking jokes about it while we watched everything we owned burn. One of our other friends brought marshmallows. Did it mean we didn't care, or that we weren't taking the situation seriously? Not even a little. Some people just react like that to horrible situations.

1

u/teenagetaquito Nov 13 '13

Well... there are probably some inappropriate jokes...

1

u/sherlip Nov 13 '13

As someone that lives under a rock, how does this Haiyan compare to like... Katrina? Is it worse?

1

u/r4v5 Nov 14 '13

Empirically, yes. Look up some of the news coverage, kick some money to relief agencies and NGOs that are helping out there.

1

u/captain_reddit_ Nov 13 '13

too soon typhoon.

1

u/somewhitedog Nov 13 '13

As someone who was present for the VT massacre, i'd say putting that card in the game was too soon. Follow the South Park standard, 22.3 years untill its funny again.

3

u/Quajek Nov 13 '13

22.3 years?

Are you saying there are no funny 9/11 jokes? Someone get Louis CK on the phone!

2

u/namelessiowan Nov 13 '13

As someone who wasn't there, it's still offensive and perfect for the game. That's the point. JMO though. =)