7 Best Alternatives to Cards Against Humanity

Enjoy a bit more depth without sacrificing the laughs.

By Sam Desatoff

For better and for worse, Cards Against Humanity has become synonymous with the term “party game,” and it’s easy to see why. The game has simple rules, a crooked sense of humor, and accommodates a large number of players. Because it is so accessible, CAH has skyrocketed to popularity since its release, and has earned a place on the shelves of dorm rooms everywhere.

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though. Cards’ abrasive humor and simplistic formula can alienate many, and it does little to encourage creativity beyond choosing the most offensive and filthy card in your hand. Luckily, there are many fantastic alternatives that offer a bit more depth and replayability without sacrificing the laughs. Choose one of the following and your next party is sure to be a hit.

Superfight

Superfight is all about beating your friends in a hypothetical super-powered fight. Each player is dealt random characters, powers and weaknesses, and then must argue why their specific combination would win. Maybe you’re Hillary Clinton who can shoot bees from your mouth, but you haven’t slept in three days. It’s up to you to explain why you’d beat a robot that can control plants, but cannot see. The combinations are often hilarious and outrageous, and always lead to heated (but fun) arguments.

Exploding Kittens

A Kickstarter success story, Exploding Kittens is essentially a card game version of Russian Roulette. Drawing an exploding kitten card eliminates you from the game, but there are ways to manipulate the draw through the use of your action cards. Some let you peek at the next card to be drawn, others force opponents to draw multiple cards, and so on. As the game goes on, the tension builds until there is only one player left standing amongst the chaos and the fur.

Bucket of Doom

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were swallowed by a suicidal whale? What about if you were a snowman trapped in a heat wave? Bucket of Doom lets you live out these far-fetched situations and tasks you with escaping them by using a deck of item cards, some common, some fantastical, and others hilariously useless. How could you use Wilson from Castaway if you were a mermaid lost in the Sahara? Can a depressed circus tiger save you from a car sinking into icy water? Bucket of Doom will bring out your inner MacGyver.

Joking Hazard

From the minds behind the hugely popular webcomic Cyanide and Happiness comes this party game sure to delight--and offend--everyone at the table. Joking Hazard sees everyone jockeying for the final panel of a randomly drawn three-panel comic strip. Cards depict all manner of butt and poop jokes, and it’s up the the players to decide the punchline to the joke. It’s deliciously juvenile, inappropriate, and hilarious.

Punderdome

Do you fancy yourself quick-witted? Put that wit to the test in Punderdome, a game about crafting the most groan-worthy jokes possible. On a turn, one player flips two cards, and everyone has 90 seconds to write the best pun possible. This game favors the writers and comedians among us, but the right combination of people will result in a deluge of hilarious puns that you’ll be reciting for weeks.

Step right up and give your best sales pitch in this clever game of picky customers and ridiculous products. Each turn, one player draws a customer card that casts them as a cheerleader or alien or some other character. Then everyone else attempts to sell them dubious goods made up of a pair of item cards from their hand of six. Snake Oil encourages improvisation and often results in roaring laughter as someone tries to sell a meat helmet to a caveman, or a fart broom to a vampire. Now get out there and start selling!

Apples to Apples

In terms of games that use the “pair-a-card-with-another-card” mechanic, none do it as well as the original. We owe a great deal to Apples to Apples, because without it we may not have the myriad party games that have aped its style. There’s a reason the mechanic has been copied so many times--it’s easy to learn and lends itself to all manner of subjects. The grandaddy of Cards Against Humanity is still a great deal of fun to this day, especially if you're looking for a more tame, family-friendly time, so it might be worth dusting off your old copy and breaking it open again.

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