The history of Cards Against Humanity, a popular adult party game known for its politically incorrect content, began with its creation by a group of eight Highland Park High School alumni. Its original name was “Cardenfreude,” and it involved players writing humorous responses to topic questions. The name later changed to Cards Against Humanity, featuring pre-written answers on white cards. It drew inspiration from various games, including “Magic: The Gathering,” “Balderdash,” “Charades,” and notably “Mad Libs”.
The game’s development was financed through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, starting on December 1, 2010, and raising over $15,000, far exceeding its original $4,000 goal. This success allowed for the addition of fifty more printed cards to the game. Officially released in May 2011, it quickly became the number one game on Amazon a month later, witnessing a steady increase in popularity and sales over the years.
Cards Against Humanity’s first expansion, released in October 2011, contained 100 new cards and 12 blank cards. It sold out in three days, marking the game’s growing popularity. The base game cards are licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 license and are available for download from their website.
The creators of Cards Against Humanity are known for their unique and often satirical promotions, especially on Black Friday. These have included raising the game’s cost, selling boxes containing sterilized bull feces, offering to receive $5 for nothing in return, live-streaming the excavation of a “Holiday Hole,” creating a parody brand of potato chips, and conducting a Black Friday A.I. Challenge.
In more serious undertakings, the creators donated $250,000 to various charities in 2020 and paid visitors for completing various tasks in 2021. They also launched new products and expansions, including a family edition of the game, a design-themed expansion pack, and a special edition called “Cards Against Humanity For Her”.
Cards Against Humanity has also been involved in political activism. In 2016, they released two “America Votes” packs for the presidential candidates, with proceeds going to the Clinton campaign, and formed a political action committee called the Nuisance Committee. They continued their political engagement through various campaigns, including protesting the Trump administration’s U.S.-Mexico border wall project.
In 2022, the company announced that revenue from purchases in states likely to restrict abortion rights would be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
