Outrage over ‘vile’ dinner party card game that mocks Madeleine and Hillsborough dead
BILLED as ‘a party game for horrible people’, it is the latest craze being played at dinner parties across the land. Cards Against Humanity is a game in which players are encouraged to be as ‘despicable’ and offensive as they possibly can.
Critics have slammed the US creators who admit their aim was to tarnish Britain’s most sacred institutions.
The card game mocks the Royal Family, politicians and the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool football fans died. It also insults dead reality TV star Jade Goody and missing youngster Madeleine McCann.
The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: ‘The offensiveness of this speaks for itself. For the makers of the game to make light of a missing child is beyond offensive. They should reconsider what they’re doing and all Madeleine references should be cut out of future editions. It is deeply offensive.’
In the game, one player asks a question from a black card and everyone else answers with their ‘funniest’ white card. It is the nature of the questions and answers on the cards, that make the game so controversial.
Each black card is either a question, or a phrase where the key words have been left as blank. At first they might seem innocuous, such as: ‘What’s that smell?’ However, another card reads: ‘In Michael Jackson’s final moments he thought about...’
The players then respond from the selection of answers from white cards they have in their hand. These include ‘Madeleine McCann’, ‘Jade Goody’s cancerous remains’ and ‘Hillsborough’. One card reads ‘Queen Elizabeth’s immaculate a***’ and another says: ‘Leaked footage of Kate Middleton’s colonoscopy.’
Other cards include ‘Auschwitz’, ‘Kids with bum cancer’ and ‘Chunks of dead prostitute’. The person who creates the ‘funniest’ or most offensive answer wins a point.
Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, said: ‘It’s in extreme bad taste. It’s not satire, it’s very unfunny whether you’re a monarchist or not.’ Steve Rotheram, MP for Liverpool Walton and Hillsborough campaigner, said: ‘It is hard to understand the mentality of those who have produced such a disgusting and offensive game. I hope people refrain from becoming involved in such a despicable activity.’
However, the creators remain unapologetic. Eli Halpern, 27, project leader of the British version, said: ‘One card is “Queen Elizabeth’s immaculate a***”. That was our mission statement, to take the most sacred thing in the UK and tarnish it.
‘The British have a different humour from Americans. We sent a survey out on the internet with a list of the US cards and asked people to cross out the ones they didn’t understand. Then I had meetings in pubs to discuss the cards we should include in the British version.
‘Hillsborough seemed fair game because it was historic. When we were testing that card we never hit a raw nerve or got any complaints.’
Cards Against Humanity was invented by eight childhood friends from Chicago in 2009. Fellow inventor Ben Hantoot said: ‘We had no idea how it would take off. This was a game we made up on New Year’s Eve to entertain ourselves.’
The UK version also includes references to David Cameron and Ed Balls, J.K. Rowling, Boris Johnson and England’s dislike of ‘the bloody Welsh’.
Mr Hantoot said: ‘We’ve not had to withdraw any cards. “Jade Goody’s cancerous remains” is a cringer which came up during one of our play tests and remains one of the most popular cards.
‘Madeleine McCann was the riskiest one because we don’t have anything like that in the US version. That was the untested one but people love it. Our goal is to be as funny as possible and sometimes things that are really offensive are also really funny.’
The eight inventors of the game are all now reportedly millionaires.