Cards against humanity.

[MsD]

I think there's a difference between someone's behaviour being comically stereotyped, and being reduced to a piece of meat.

[anton pulisov]

Copper wire was invented by two Dutchmen fighting over a penny.

[WOM]

I think there's a difference between someone's behaviour being comically stereotyped, and being reduced to a piece of meat.

Perhaps you're right.

[MsD]

This sort of expresses it, and I don't think humour changes it, because it's about who's making the joke and "context" doesn't change that.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ast-taboo.html

"Reading about yourself in this way — reduced — is disorienting. I don’t feel that way, like a savage, a Selico, a walking schlong."

Anyway, will leave it there.

[NickSTFU]

I must admit that I'm struggling to see what the colour of a blokes dick has to do with anything. Surely (to some people, including me (sorry)) the thought of the leader of the Catholic Church engaging in anal sex is, in context, darkly funny without emphasising the colour of the appendage.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Copper wire was invented by two Dutchmen fighting over a penny.

Or two Scotsmen, depending on your location.

[WOM]

I must admit that I'm struggling to see what the colour of a blokes dick has to do with anything.

Ever seen Airplane? Where the little boy says "Cream?" and the little girl says "No thank you. I take my coffee black. Like my men."

The taboo is 90% of what makes it funny. And yes, I understand that they're not the same joke, but they're the same joke in spirit.

[DCI Harry Batt]

No they aren't. But this thread is becoming a car crash and I should avoid it.

[NickSTFU]

Ever seen Airplane? Where the little boy says "Cream?" and the little girl says "No thank you. I take my coffee black. Like my men."

The taboo is 90% of what makes it funny. And yes, I understand that they're not the same joke, but they're the same joke in spirit.

The taboo was probably that she was a pre-teen (as I remember it).

Anyway, perception init.

[Bored Of Education]

Also, the reason that the "black men" worked was because she was white. If she had said, "white, like my men", it wouldn't have worked as it wouldn't have been noteworthy for her to say it. If she was black, however, and the line had been ""white, like my men", it would have worked. If, on the other hand, the line had been "strong and black, like my men", it may have been more similar to the "black cock" line.

[WOM]

Also, the reason that the "black men" worked was because she was white. If she had said, "white, like my men", it wouldn't have worked as it wouldn't have been noteworthy for her to say it. If she was black, however, and the line had been ""white, like my men", it would have worked. If, on the other hand, the line had been "strong and black, like my men", it may have been more similar to the "black cock" line.

Ummmmmmmm.....no.

Yes, the reason 'black men' worked was because a) she was white and b) she's clearly a child. It's a two-fer, that one.
No, 'white like my men' wouldn't have worked at all.
If she was black, and said 'white men', there would have been no centuries-old cultural taboo to play off of. It would have landed with perhaps a wry smile, but not a guffaw. Remember, 1980 didn't do
'irony' like the 2010s.
I don't think the 'strong and black' would have added or taken away anything; in 1980, for a child to drop that line, she may as well have said 'big black etc...'.

Comedy really do improve with dissection, don't it?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Yeah, to make it work nowadays you have to say Strong, black, and with a spoon in.

[anton pulisov]

Surely you can't be serious.

[WOM]

Excuse me stewardess. I speak Jive.

[N est ŕ?]

I like my coffee like I like my women: kept at an emotional distance due to my deep fears of abandonment and rejection

[MsD]

I like my rice like my men; boiled in a large pot, then divided into small containers and kept in the freezer.

[anton pulisov]

Captain, how soon can you land?
- I can't tell.
You can tell me, I'm a doctor.
- No, I mean I'm not sure.
Can't you take a guess?
- Well... not for another two hours
You can't take a guess for another two hours?

[NickSTFU]

I need to watch the film now. Thanks.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Were it a broadly-used (abused) cultural trope or stereotype or go-to, then yes. But it's not, so ... no.

The larger point is, again, trying to sanitize humour (or humourous premises). The very nature of humour is to create degrees of surprise / shock by causing discomfort / offense.

I guess my point would be, if you don't wish to hear something that might offend you, don't go to a comedy club. If you don't wish to engage in causing offence through parlour games, don't play purportedly offensive parlour games. They're not hard to avoid.

And yes, without wishing to offend TT, there are people whose job it is to get offended when the wind blows.

it's a racist caricature that has in the past been used to literally justify genocide. i'm not sure i'd be offended if a comedian made that joke but i'd probably cringe my own face off that i'd paid money to watch someone who considered that punchline funny, clever or appropriate.

The thought of a load of middle-aged white men sniggering about "big black cocks" is beyond pathetic tbqh. There's fuck all remotely clever or brave about breaking racist "taboos". If you haven't noticed, society is still incredibly racist - you're not an iconoclast; you're just another iteration of Jeremy Clarkson or the Sheffield United fans who sing songs about Ched Evans "[shagging] who he wants". Just another tedious reactionary who thinks that ironically telling jokes that shit on marginalised people means you're not perpetuating their marginalisation.

CAH is a bad game, and there's better and funnier games out there that aren't created by a rapist.

[DCI Harry Batt]

What BLT said, pretty much, yeah. Though I hadn't seen that a woman shared her experience of being raped. That ought to have been an end to anyone offering support to him.

It's nice to see that they did remove the date-rape and roofies jokes though. Obviously, hilarious rape jokes are great and not in the least bit misogynist, in the same way that hilarious racist trope jokes aren't in the least bit racist. But still, and all.


Fuck me, people.

[MsD]

I didn't know about the rape or the date rape card, which makes this game even worse.

TBH, until this thread, all I knew about it was from watching some obvious wankers play it in the pub, Googling it briefly, and being doubly glad that I didn't know them.

I feel a bit sorry for people who can't make up their own jokes, though.

[Artificial Hipster]

I've been reading this thread with interest since playing the game on Christmas Night and reflecting on it in the sober light of Boxing Day. Today is the first occasion sine then I've had the time to sit down at a computer, crossword clues usually being the extent of my ambitions for posting on my phone.

Taking firstly the less contentious issue of whether or not the game is funny my experience is that it was hilarious. Obviously humour is both subjective as well as contextual. Everyone was very drunk, none of us playing it had any idea beforehand what the game entailed and so the shock factor element was very much to the fore. Without making any grandiose claims for the creative side of the game it plays out a lot better than a cursory read of the instructions would suggest and in any case the fact that all the game's jokes are in a sense already built in says no more about how lacking in wit and spontaneity anyone enjoying it is than watching comedy does.

But...

There can't be many cards in the pack with racist overtones as none were played during our game but one is too many. Towards the end of the game I picked up the card, 'Sassy black female.' There are doubtless many on here who would do a far better job of explaining everything wrong about the card than I could but suffice it to say the existence of the card tells me all I need to know about what the designers of the game think about women in general and black women in particular.

So, in the absence of the racist cards I'd probably play the game again though with the expectation that it would be nothing like as funny as it was the first time. Those cards though are the game changers which damn it irrefutably.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

I've been reading this thread with interest since playing the game on Christmas Night and reflecting on it in the sober light of Boxing Day. Today is the first occasion sine then I've had the time to sit down at a computer, crossword clues usually being the extent of my ambitions for posting on my phone.

Taking firstly the less contentious issue of whether or not the game is funny my experience is that it was hilarious. Obviously humour is both subjective as well as contextual. Everyone was very drunk, none of us playing it had any idea beforehand what the game entailed and so the shock factor element was very much to the fore. Without making any grandiose claims for the creative side of the game it plays out a lot better than a cursory read of the instructions would suggest and in any case the fact that all the game's jokes are in a sense already built in says no more about how lacking in wit and spontaneity anyone enjoying it is than watching comedy does.

But...

There can't be many cards in the pack with racist overtones as none were played during our game but one is too many. Towards the end of the game I picked up the card, 'Sassy black female.' There are doubtless many on here who would do a far better job of explaining everything wrong about the card than I could but suffice it to say the existence of the card tells me all I need to know about what the designers of the game think about women in general and black women in particular.

So, in the absence of the racist cards I'd probably play the game again though with the expectation that it would be nothing like as funny as it was the first time. Those cards though are the game changers which damn it irrefutably.

OK cos I hate myself, I looked at the CAH cards (via the downloadable PDF). Here's some white cards from the first few pages - i.e. these are the intended punchlines

"The Jews"
"Eugenics"
"Suprise sex"
"Roofies"
"AIDS"
"Amputees"
"Passable transvestites"
"the gays"
"preteens"
"ethnic cleansing"
"date rape"

[Bored Of Education]

Ah, but they have got rid of the ‘rape’ and ‘date rape’ now because they are being kind to chicks now, innit?

[Artificial Hipster]

Clearly reading that list there is nothing to suggest the possibility of humour and it may well be the case that, even setting aside the shock factor and incongruity on which it relies, everyone who has laughed while playing the game has something fundamentally wrong with them in which case I'll be damned too.

With the rider that I don't know what roofies are, there are no cards in that list which perpetuate racial or cultural stereotypes though.