In Cards Against Humanity (CAH), players seek to accumulate as many black cards containing a fill-in-the-blank prompt or question by playing a white card that fills in the blank. A key mechanic for CAH is that every round a different player judges who played the best white card. CAH does not outline how to consider what is the best card for a prompt, instead giving the judge on a given round full discretion. A dynamic emerges in which players seek to appeal to the judge’s humor (or another subjective quality) to win the round. Typically, the player that made the judge laugh the hardest is the winner (although this is not always the case). Ironically, such a dynamic produces profound camaraderie pointing to Fellowship being a core aesthetic of CAH. Although players are in competition with one another, rotating judgement and the subjective nature of judging in each round ties players closer to each other by having them learn about everyone’s interests, humors, and, ironically, morals (in a opposite sort of way). Laughter is way to bring people closer together, and CAH may extend the relationship between laughter and friendship by helping friends process bad times. In such a case, the subjective nature of the game is even more important since a player might never be in the same headspace in different times playing CAH. Ultimately, CAH strengthens bonds by creating a magic circle in which players let go of morals and prejudices for the sake of humor.
