Cards Against Humanity parody Offensive Adult Party Game has one joke – and it’s savage

Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to deny the influence of Cards Against Humanity since the “party game for horrible people” first landed on tables nearly a decade ago.

Its hugely popular spin on Apples to Apples’ ‘fill the blank’ gameplay has given rise to dozens of similar social card games since 2011, both decent and bad (mainly bad), which have tried their best to follow in the wake of its gleefully unapologetic politically incorrect attitude and the stark monochrome design of its black and white prompt and answer cards.

At first glance, Offensive Adult Party Game appears to be little more than another game attempting to cash in on the seemingly endless Cards Against Humanity success train. Look a little bit closer, though, and it quickly becomes apparent that it’s much more than another CAH clone. 

Created by Jeff Kornberg, the brains behind parody YouTube channel The Dragon’s Tomb, which sends up everything from Catan to Ticket to Ride with deliberately misleading ‘How to play’ rules tutorials, Offensive Adult Party Game is an extremely unsubtle jab at Cards Against Humanity – and the people who play it.

Decked out with a near-identical typeface to Cards Against Humanity and coming in a similar black box with a play on its tagline – “An offensive game for adults at parties.” – Offensive Adult Party Game is less a game than it is a ruthless takedown of the apparent encouragement of lazy and offensive humour by CAH and the numerous games that have followed it.

“I've always loved 'edgy' games because they let regular old boring people feel like they're funny and creative,” Kornberg writes with his tongue firmly in his cheek on the game’s Kickstarter page. “Instead of having to be original, you get to take jokes that have been crafted by a business and pretend they're your own. It's all the benefits of being humorous, with none of the work!"

To hammer home its point, Offensive Adult Party Game features just one black prompt card which reads “I like playing offensive adult party games because __________.”

As in Cards Against Humanity, players each choose a white card to fill the blank – except that all 17 of the white cards are identical and have the answer: “I lack creativity and enjoy the illusion of being funny.” The campaign’s achieved stretch goal of $6,000 (£4,500) raised unlocked an 18th card that says exactly the same thing – an additional card, also the same, will be added at the $8,000 (£6,000) mark.

As far as one-note punchlines go, it’s pretty blunt. It’s clearly something that has struck a chord with some players, too, as Offensive Adult Party Game has already exceeded its £3,400 target by over £2,000 thanks to the support of nearly 400 backers, with over three weeks left on the clock.

The game will be a real set planned to find its way into the hands of backers this November. In a slightly ironic twist, Kornberg has said that the cards will be approximately the same size as those found in Cards Against Humanity and other similar party games, meaning the joke game could probably be used as an unofficial expansion in the very games it’s taking aim at.