Cards Against Humanity was a popular late-night diversion at PAX East last weekend, making appearances at gaming tables after midnight and after a few adult beverages. The game, it seems, is indeed as antagonistic as advertised, and can be dangerous to a player's health under the wrong circumstances.
A group of friends in River Falls, Wisconsin, were playing the game late one night last week when one particular off-color remark caused a man to go "bonkers" and sending the rest of the players into hiding in the bedroom, the River Falls Journal reports.
Specifically:
Someone apparently joked about child molestation. A 38-year-old Plum City man erupted angrily, allegedly scattering the cards, breaking a beer bottle, a lamp, throwing a chair and later smashing a wine bottle. Some of the card players raced to a bedroom, locked the door and called 911. River Falls police responded.
The suspect, described as drunk, was found alone in the kitchen. He was persuaded to come outside.
After the police intervened, the man became uncooperative and drunkenly used a phone in the police station to call a county judge, before making his way back to the house where the game had taken place to retrieve his belongings.
It's certainly not the first time in history someone has had a few too many and ruined game night, but it does seem surprising that it hasn't happened with this particular game sooner.
Cards Against Humanity bills itself as a "party game for horrible people." Played like Apples to Apples, each hand one player draws a black card with a question or an adjective. Players put down white cards from their hands that have nouns, ranging from single words to celebrities to full paragraphs. The catch with Cards Against Humanity is that all of the options are, shall we say, decidedly family-unfriendly. From choice bits of human anatomy, to acts that can't be described in polite company, to human tragedies that should not feature in a joke, every play is an opportunity to think, "I'm going to hell for thinking this is funny."
It's a game best avoided in uncertain company. Not only is every hand likely to cause offense, but apparently one never knows which player will find a joke to be one joke too many and snap.
After pedophile remark, River Falls man goes bonkers [River Falls Journal]
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