What do I think about Cards Against Humanity? Not that anyone needs to care, I guess I feel writing how I feel about it would be easier then blurting it to myself like a drooling madman.
Cards Against Humanity can be and plenty of the time is a funny game. I don't think that it is unfair to say that. It's also a little unfair to decry the fact that people combine cards to make themselves feel funny. Of course they do! To feel funny is a great feeling, to feel like you can make people laugh is a great thing! And CAH provides that in a small and easy package that you can pick up and play in seconds. When you can lose people in the time it takes to learn a lot of board games that is one huge thing CAH has going for it - it's a game that anyone can play in thirty seconds, and then make someone laugh. That's a big deal.
But then I am that privileged white guy. Plenty of childhood horrors and miseries, but still plenty have it worse. Plenty would be hurt by some of the worst stuff CAH has to offer. A lot of it though, won't offend plenty more people. Maybe more then that will laugh through the edgy humour. That doesn't make them bad people - that doesn't make them incredible racists or paedophile supporters, it makes them... I don't know what it makes them. Human? Everyone has laughed at a blonde joke, or a priest joke, or a joke about a politician - are we not supposed to tell jokes for fear that people are offended?
That of course has it's own problems, because humour that offends large amounts of people is based in a sinister truth - that it is okay to demean these people. But then there are jokes about everyone. I'm from essex, there are lots of jokes about my county (Thank you, The Only Way Is Essex, you really did good...) and there are probably lots of jokes about everywhere else. There are lots of jokes about me! Thank you dear friends...
Where am I going with this? I guess where I'm going is that Cards Against Humanity is like a drunk night out with a bunch of friends where everyone is free to take the piss and common etiquette flies out the window. That isn't nessecarily a bad thing. It's just well, edgy, and can overstep the bounds of human decency. That's what Cards Against Humanity represents. It's not really representative of what board games are - board games require more effort, and give greater reward. I have never gone to more effort assembling a game then I did an Arkham Horror game me and two friends played - but it was also the funniest night of gaming I've ever had, where everything was set on fire and I shot my friend in the head to prevent Mr Tentacles winning. (We still lost.)
Cards Of Humanity isn't a bad game because of the limited plays or the offensiveness. It's a good game but one held back by the fact that it's the drunk night out of board games. Fun and funny in the moment - but theres more fun elsewhere, if you know where to look.
Hope that made sense. I put a lot of effort into it dammit.