Joking Hazard: An Offensive Card Game From Cyanide & Happiness

WARNING!

This review features subjects which may cause offence.  If you are easily offended by ANYTHING then for the love of God stop reading now!!!

Almost 3 years ago to this very day we posted our review for Cards Against Humanity (UK Edition), and it proved to be our most popular review ever by an incredible margin.  Now, whilst CAH didn't follow an original format (Apples to Apples being its main inspiration), it did set a pretty high bar for offensive "fill in the blank" games.  Since its release there have been many CAH clones trying to capitalise on the success, but finally it appears to have a true spiritual successor: Joking Hazard, from Cyanide & Happiness.

Cyanide & Happiness, for those who may not be aware, is an online comic strip series.  It features (usually two) stick-men, and over the course of three or four frames they play out an event which can sometimes be quite meaningful and moving, but most often dark and twisted.  For an idea of their format, you can check them out here (but please come back to us afterwards!).

Joking Hazard follows a similar format to Cards Against Humanity, but instead of creating a joke with black and white cards, 3-10 players compete to create the funniest (and usually most offensive) Cyanide & Happiness comic strip.

The box contains 350 cards, each depicting a single frame of the comic.  Many are generic and innocuous, but when combined in the right way can become something altogether more horrifying!  Unlike CAH, there are no black card/white card equivalents; everything is just of one single card type.

Each player begins the game with 7 cards in their hand, and then one player - chosen through non-violent means, as dictated in the rules - becomes the judge for the first round.  That player then draws one card from the top of the deck, and places it face-up in the centre of the table/floor/building site/satanic altar (here at Games & Tea we feel you should be able to play wherever you feel comfortable).

The judge then chooses one card out of their own hand to accompany this card.  It can be placed either before or after the first card, depending on what the judge finds most fitting.

These two cards now form the "setup", and all of the remaining players now submit a card to the judge to be played as the final frame of the comic, and the judge must select their favourite to gain honour and glory (and also a point).

So in fairly standard offensive game fare, the players above have gone for options of violence, anti-Semitism, and sex.  Once the judge has picked a favourite, that player gains a point, all players draw back up to 7 cards, and the next player around the table becomes the judge, repeating the process until one player scores 3 points and is declared the winner.

If a red-bordered card is drawn off the top of the deck then it becomes the final frame of the comic, and the players must instead create the two card setup from their hands.  And that's pretty much all there is to it!

There are a couple of variants included in the rulebook, such as a set of drinking game rules, or "The Neverending Story", wherein each turn just adds a single frame to an ongoing strip, leading to the creation of truly epic stories!

Of course Joking Hazard will be primarily compared to Cards Against Humanity (at least until the Joking Hazard clones start hitting Kickstarter), and we have to admit we found it to have some advantages over its spiritual predecessor, and some disadvantages.

The big advantage is that due to the storytelling nature of each round, the cards played have to make sense.  We've witnessed several games of CAH where points were won by players just because they played the most controversial white card, despite it not fitting with the black card whatsoever.  With Joking Hazard any non-relevant cards played tend to draw few laughs, meaning that even those most controversial cards have to wait for their golden moment!

The largest downside is ironically in the same vain.  We often found ourselves with setups which didn't work for any of our cards!  Sometimes this was just down to nothing being suitable, but a lot of the time it was down to having a card with the perfect response, just being delivered by the wrong character.

The other downside is that the game creates a bit less of a social atmosphere than CAH.  Joking Hazard is very visual by its nature, and quite a lot of the cards actually feature no dialogue, just actions or facial expressions.  This means that when the cards are laid out on the table (altar... whatever), it's usually quietly with all of the players leaning over to read them, and this is where you can really feel the difference between everyone being told a joke, and everyone reading the joke for themselves.  Now, in fairness, the rules do say the judge should read out the cards, but again those dialogue-free frames don't really work with reading out-loud, and some players don't feel comfortable with effectively acting out a scene.  At face value it might not seem like much of a difference over the CAH format, but it does feel a little bit odd when you start playing.  It's certainly not enough to ruin the game or make it an unpleasant experience by any means... just a little odd!

The Good Points

• Joking Hazard is extremely easy to learn, pretty much taking just seconds.
• If you're a Cyanide & Happiness fan, this will tickle your funny bone in all the right places.
• Capacity for up to 10 players, making an excellent party game.
• Requires a little more thought than CAH or most of its clones.

The Bad Points

• As with CAH, some people will find it offensive.
• Sometimes it can be tricky to play a fitting card for the setup.
• Can create an odd non-verbal atmosphere.

Recommended Number of Players: 4+ (The more the merrier!)

Again, as with most games of this format, 3 players is the minimum requirement for the game, but 4 players is the minimum to get a decent selection of cards going for the judge to choose from.  Of course you could always import the Rando Cardrissian rule from CAH, as we did!

Average Game Time: 20-40 minutes

If you're just playing to the three point win condition in the rulebook, a game of Joking Hazard will last about half an hour.  Of course, this is one of those games where you can set your own win condition or just say "to hell with it, let's keep playing!", so games can go on for as long as you want!

Replayability: High

There are a lot of cards available in the base set, creating a truly gargantuan number of possible strips.  With a set gaming group it should last for quite a while, but with a group of rotating members it could feasibly last for years.

The Future: Bright

At the moment Joking Hazard is fresh of Kickstarter, and the only expansion is the Blast From the Past 50 card pack, all set to a historical theme.  However, the fact that there's already an expansion ready to go means that there will almost certainly be more to follow, and the idea of them being thematic is very appealing.

Price: £25

Joking Hazard is now available to buy on Amazon for £25.  Whether it will remain an Amazon exclusive much like CAH or whether it will quickly find its way onto the shelves of hobby stores remains to be seen.  It is also currently available to buy online through the Cyanide & Happiness store for a price of $35, which includes the aforementioned Blast From the Past expansion.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

Tea consumed during this review: Tetley with milk and 2 sweeteners.  Brew rating 7/10.

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Cards Against Humanity: Some Of Our Favourite Card Combinations

WARNING!

This review features subjects which may cause offence.  If you are easily offended by ANYTHING then for the love of God stop reading now!!!

A few weeks ago we posted our review of the long-awaited UK Edition of Cards Against Humanity. Now CAH was a popular game in its own right before the UK release, but since reaching us on this side of the Atlantic it's well and truly taken off, and it seems that right now it's impossible to spend more than a few minutes on the internet without someone making reference to it.  Indeed, it's probably the most frequently played game here in our collection.

Well we're not too proud to jump on a bandwagon when we see one rolling past, so we're going to follow on with the currently popular trend of posting some of our favourite CAH card combinations.  Some of these will be offensive, but we're falling back on the same old disclaimer we used in the review, and we hope that if you're still with us by this point that you're not the easily offended type.  Enjoy!

Yeah we know we used this one in the review, but it's still one of our favourites!

Kids, it's perfectly normal to touch yourself...

Okay this was dark even by our standards.  It won the sought-after Awesome Point though...

It's all part of growing up, Tracy.

Because he will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger...

Sometimes you get a white card which just works with too many black cards!

Again this is so, so dark.  Another Awesome Point in the bag then.

Wow.  Sean Penn's a dick to survivors.

Sorry, Maureen, but it was 25 years ago.

Sorry, God, but you just don't cut it.

It's all good fun until you need to get out.

But which drop are we talking about?

Because every cloud has an AWESOME lining.

Sometimes the winner is just too hard to choose.

Jimmy Savile continues to disturb even now.

Well the social elite need something to pass the time. 

She does keep them locked in her trophy cabinet after all... 

Now now, Mr Grylls, I think that's called "cheating".

Because they're an inspiration to us all.

Nothing more needs be said really.

Those childrens tears again.

"Hope" is actually Bear Grylls' nickname.

If only Wendy could say the same thing.

And I might not even get it back afterwards...

These are just some of our favourite combos (and we can't help but suspect there may be further Cards Against Humanity galleries in the future!), but if you've seen better then why not post your favourites in the comments section below and give us all a good laugh?

Cards Against Humanity: A Party Game For Horrible People (UK Edition)

WARNING!

 

This review features subjects which may cause offence.  If you are easily offended by ANYTHING then for the love of God stop reading now!!!

 

So far at Games & Tea we've stuck very closely to non-offensive games.  Certainly most specialist games do tend to have complicated rule sets which can make them largely inaccessible to younger players, but with enough time and teaching they can plausibly be enjoyed by the entire family.  Every now and then, however, a game comes along which is undeniably for adults only, and it's with utmost pleasure that we're able to bring you a review of the newly-released (and long-awaited) UK Edition of Cards Against Humanity, a party game for 4 or more people.

 



Because horrible people like parties too.

 

Cards Against Humanity is a Kickstarter success story, and has found itself a very strong fanbase thanks to its wickedly dark sense of humour and very basic game mechanic.  The box itself features no unnecessary ornamentation; what you see on the box is exactly what you'll find inside the box.  This is a party game for horrible people, and as long as you have a dark and twisted sense of humour and can make a joke out of any subject, you'll fit right in.  If, on the other hand, there is ANY subject at all which you find too sensitive, then it's best to steer clear, because the odds are it features somewhere in this game!

 

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.  Upon opening the box, players will be greeted by a short rules card, and a rather generously-sized stack of cards; 90 black and 460 white.  These two decks are separated out and given a decent shuffle, and then each player is dealt an opening hand of 10 white cards.  The player who most recently pooed (yes, this is an official rule) is the first player to take on the role of The Card Tsar, and the game is ready to begin.

 

 

The Card Tsar takes the top card off the black deck, and reads it out to the rest of the group.  All of these cards take the form of either a question, or a phrase where the key words have been left as blank.  Many of these questions lend themselves easily to innuendo or offense, but some are actually quite innocent at first glance, which can actually make the next part of the game that much darker.

 

 

With the question/phrase presented to the group, the other players must pick a white card from their hand as their answer, and hand the card face-down to The Card Tsar.  Once all players have submitted their responses, The Card Tsar shuffles them together and reads them aloud one by one to the group.  When all of the submitted white cards have been read out, The Card Tsar chooses their favourite, and the player who submitted that white card scores an Awesome Point.  The players then draw back up to 10 cards, and the next player to the left takes on the role of The Card Tsar for the next round.  Play continues this way until one player reaches a number of Awesome Points decided at the beginning of the game.

 

 

That's the basics of Cards Against Humanity, and it's easy to see how with such a simple mechanic it's achieved such popularity.  One of the greatest parts of the game is playing to The Card Tsar's sense of humour.  If you have a set gaming group and you're very familiar with what makes eachother tick, then you can tailor your white cards accordingly.  A card which one player may find hilarious might not make another player tick at all, so sometimes you can have an agonising wait on your hands, waiting for that perfect play.

 

 

This may be a perfect example.  Nicolas Cage has well and truly become an internet legend, and his bee-based demise in The Wicker Man is a firm favourite amongst his fans.  To someone who appreciates this, the card combination above is virtually unbeatable, but to those unfamiliar with his cult status then it would probably only cause confusion.

 

They're in his eyes.  Oh dear.

On top of this basic rule set, there are some optional house rules which can enhance gameplay, or make things a little easier for players struggling with their white cards.  A popular rule is "Rando Cardrissian", where, during each round, one white card is randomly pulled from the deck and added to the stack of answers.  This card belongs to the non-existent extra player, and if he wins the round then he scores an Awesome Point just like everyone else.  If Rando wins the game, then all of the real-life players suck.  Other rules allow for players to discard a white card if they don't understand it (but they must face the humiliation of admitting their ignorance to the group), or spend an awesome point to discard as many cards from their hand as they wish, and draw back up to 10.

 

As you can probably tell from the way we've spoken about it, we're very big fans of Cards Against Humanity, and everyone we've played it with has enjoyed it thoroughly.  However, we can't stress enough just how much this game can offend if played with the wrong crowd.  Whilst most of the black cards aren't too bad in themselves, there are a couple of risqué cards, such as "During Michael Jackson's final moments, he thought about [blank]"

The white cards, however, are where the potential for offensiveness truly lies, and where Cards Against Humanity earns its description of "a card game for horrible people".  Some of the worst white cards include "Auschwitz", "Wanking into a pool of childrens' tears", "Chunks of dead prostitute" and "AIDS" (there's a very good reason we put that warning at the front of this review).  This makes Cards Against Humanity something of a marmite game, as most people will either love the sense of humour or loathe it for being in poor taste.

 

The Good Points

• Cards Against Humanity may well be the easiest-to-learn game we've ever played.  One player poses a question, the other players answer it.  There really is nothing more to learn, so absolutely anyone with a dark sense of humour can play.
• The game is absolutely hilarious to play, and is one which you genuinely don't mind losing.  Of course it's nice to win, but Cards Against Humanity is more about laughing at the card combinations rather than fighting tooth and nail for points, which does make it a perfect party game.
• Nicolas Cage.
• Bees.

The Bad Points

• Due to the way it plays, Cards Against Humanity does need a minimum of 4 players to function smoothly, so really is more of a party game than a regular games night game (unless your games nights do actually feature 4+ people, in which case you're sorted!)
• We should mention the overall politically incorrect tone of the game; anyone easily offended will not enjoy playing.  However, on account of the warning at the top of the page, those people should have stopped reading by now, and so this point is no longer valid.

Recommended Number of Players: 4+ (The more the merrier!)

In order for The Card Tsar to have a good selection each round, Cards Against Humanity recommends a minimum of 4 players, which can be augmented with addition of Rando Cardrissian (who turns out to be an unerringly good player!).  The fantastic thing with this game is that it does improve with more players, and the best games we've played have featured 8 of us including the dastardly Rando.

 

Average Game Time: 30-90 minutes

We are giving quite a wide window here, but that's because it's hard to put an average time on Cards Against Humanity.  It entirely hinges on the number of players, and the target number of Awesome Points.  Typically at Games & Tea we play to 5 Awesome Points, and with 4-5 players this takes around 45 minutes.

 

Replayability: High

With so many cards in the set, and so many combinations available, Cards Against Humanity is extremely replayable.  Even if you reach the stage where you've seen every white card a dozen times, it's just as much fun to see someone else's reactions to the cards when you introduce them to the game for the first time.

 

The Future: Bright (or should that be dark?)

As well as having a great deal of replayability in the basic box set, there are already 3 expansions available, each featuring new black cards, new white cards, and blank cards of both colours so that players can make their own.  These are all the more fun if you have a regular gaming group, as you can personalise the set with your own in-jokes.

 

Price: £20/Free

Cards Against Humanity costs a thoroughly reasonable £20 (we'll address the "free" option in a moment), although availability is somewhat limited.  The UK Edition has only been recently released, with the original US version formerly only available from the official Cards Against Humanity website.  With the long-awaited UK release, the core game and the expansions are now all available on Amazon, but we're unaware of it being available through any other channels.

If you have the capacity for mass card printing, however, the PDF files for the entire set of cards are available to download for free from the website!  If you wish to do so, then both the US and UK versions can be found here.

 

 

 

OVERALL SCORE: 9.5/10

 

Tea consumed during this review: PG tips with milk and 2 sweeteners.  Brew rating 8/10.

 

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!