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Comment by vezzy-fnord | Hacker News Reader

We removed all of the “rape” jokes from Cards Against Humanity years ago. We’ll continue to use the game as best we can to “punch up” and not “punch down.”

Is this the same Cards Against Humanity that I'm thinking of? Because I'm pretty sure that game "punches down" quite hard.

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It depends on the group of players in my experience. The cards definitely can be insulting if played in that manner. They can also be hilarious and disconnected to any specific person, Glenn Beck notwithstanding.

Right, but the decision to remove rape jokes, given all the obscene content related to far more severe acts (including genocide), is just so arbitrary it's hilarious.

Yeah I was also surprised by the willful inconsistence of that sentence. "The hardworking Mexican" / "Homeless people" / "AIDS" / etc. Personally, while I think rape jokes belong almost nowhere, I'd be a little disappointed to find that there isn't even a place for them in CAH -- it's the definition of "agreed-upon safe place for offensive jokes" and you would have to neuter the game to consistently remove offensive jokes from it.

(Also, "Surprise sex!" is still on the list at http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/wcards.txt)

Although I realize that on some level it's just not my kind of humor, I honestly think this game is pretty disgusting and I'm surprised by how popular it is.

I've actually never met someone who was offended or disgusted by it, excluding those who are socially conservative or religious. That may also be due to the fact that I'm still in the 18-25 age group though.

I'm neither socially conservative nor religious nor over 30, yet I think it's horse shit. It's like everything I hate about Reddit distilled into a deck of cards.

Somehow all my friends love it; I personally don't care to imagine midgets ejaculating into dismembered bodies regardless of the context. I guess I just don't understand the humor of shock.

I usually find an excuse to leave a party sooner after CAH gets pulled out, whether I'm roped into playing it or not. Maybe that makes me a loser, whatever.

I don't really consider it shock humor for whatever reason. I think it's actually kind of clever and somewhat low-key. It's more like general Internet humor, not so much 4chan humor.

I'm also used to things that are way, way more "edgy". There are games out there that are much more offensive and rely only on shock value, usually involving the n-word and related interspersed frequently.

>"I'm surprised by how popular it is."

So were the creators: http://fusion.net/modern_life/story/cards-humanity-creator-p...

They are popular for the same reason garbage like Cheetos and Pepsi are popular - they do a ton of advertising.

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