As shown on the official website, Cards Against Humanity is “a party game for horrible people.” Designed as a dirty version of the more family-friendly game, Apples to Apples , it’s pretty easy to see what the makers mean.
The company itself isn’t exactly the horrible people kind.
Cards Against Humanity is known for its charitable donations and for giving out free versions of the game, even free boosters for paying customers. Of course, it’s easy to focus on the ridiculousness of the company instead, like when they sent real bull poop to customers who didn’t believe they were being literal.
Over the holidays, Cards Against Humanity had roughly a quarter of a million customers participate in a holiday themed event. Labeled “Ten Days, or whatever, of Kwanzaa,” participating consumers paid a grand total of $15 dollars per person for 10 days of mystery packages.
Some of the packages included profanity-laced stickers, Miracle Berry tablets (a tablet that causes bitter food to taste sweet for a short amount of time), a different game called Slap.45 and part of a private island.
That’s right. Fans of Cards Against Humanity were surprised at the end of their holiday event to find that they were given 1 square foot of an island in Maine called Hawaii 2 .
“We wanted to do something big,” Max Temkin , a co-creator of Cards Against Humanity , said. “We thought about trying to launch something into space, or doing something visible from space. Eventually that led us down the path of buying a private island, which is something we’ve joked about in the past.”
According to the letter each participant received, Cards Against Humanity had three reasons why they decided to buy the island: “1) Because it was funny, and 2) so we could give you a small piece of it. Also, 3) we’re preserving a pristine bit of American wilderness.”
People who were gifted part of the island have the right to do almost anything they want on their 1 square foot. However, whatever they do must be recreational and nondestructive according to the license agreement. Cards Against Humanity is adamant about the necessity of keeping the beauty of the island intact.
The license agreement was very clear about the preservation of Hawaii 2, “If you hurt a tree on the Private Island, we will curse your family for a thousand (1,000) generations.”
With some of the proceeds from the holiday packs, Cards Against Humanity donated $250,000 to the Sunlight Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to promote transparency in government.
“(Government transparency) is not a sexy political issue and it often gets overlooked,” Temkin said.
[Image courtesy of Cards Against Humanity ]
