At the end of the day, you play board games to have fun. Tabletop gaming is a staple of parties and get-togethers the world over, and when you’re playing a game in that setting, you usually don’t want to play something strategically deep and atmospherically serious. You want to play something that will make you and your friendslaugh!
There are many different kinds of comedy games, from vulgar card-matchers to off-the-wall parodies of other gaming experiences. No matter what you’re looking for, here are some games likely to give you the laughs you want.
Cards Against Humanity
One of the best card games ever made
This legendary, vulgar, obscene game has players matching response cards with prompt cards in order to create the best-yet-worst-yet-best combinations imaginable. This game will take everyone to terrible places in the best possible way.
No one is surprised to see this here. Cards Against Humanity is the definitive party game.Vulgar, disgusting, offensive, and hilarious, this game has its players drawing black cards, which contain questions or unfinished statements, and matching them with white cards from their hand that they think pair with them the best. On its own, this mechanic isn’t that unique, but what gives Cards Against Humanity its personality is the unique (and deeply offensive)contentof those cards.
Where similar games like Apples to Apples use commonplace adjectives and nouns, Cards Against Humanity asks questions like “What are school administrators using to curb rampant teenage pregnancy?” and offers answers along the lines of “A sad handjob” or “A snapping turtle biting the tip of your penis.” The cards in this game vary from the sexual, to the scatological, to the deeply politically incorrect.
Not all of them are as inherently vulgar as the examples I just gave, but that’s only because sometimes it’syourjob to make them vulgar through your careful selection of the prompts you pair them with. The resulting game is hilarious, and will bring out the worst in everyone in the best possible way. If you’re going to be hosting a party full of adults (and only adults!) this is the game for you!
Munchkin Deluxe
Inside jokes from this game will follow your table forever
This Dungeons and Dragons parody by the legendary game designer Steve Jackson makes a delightful mockery of the standard fantasy adventuring loop that is the basis for many of the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing games. If you’re looking for something light to play in between D&D sessions, this is the game for you.
We live in a golden age of tabletop role-playing, where the market is rich with dozens and dozens of skillfully-crafted games that allow players to explore a wide variety of settings. Sometimes, though, you find yourself wanting to take fantasy role-playing back to its roots. Sometimes, you just want to kick in the door of a dungeon, kill the monster inside, and make off with its treasure. If that’s how you feel, Munchkin is the game for you.
This parody of classic fantasy dungeon crawling games like Dungeons and Dragons has you playing the role of an adorable munchkin who draws from a deck of door cards and does battle with the monsters they reveal. Much like with our last entry, it’s the content of the doors which makes this game a riot. Instead of fighting orcs and goblins with regally enchanted weapons, you fight monsters like the “Floating Nose” and the “Robot Cow” with weapons like the “Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment.” The game is rich with references and in-jokes that are sure to make any consummate gamer howl with laughter.
Fiasco
This game is absolutely bananas
A simple one-session RPG about making plans and seeing them go awry, everything about Fiasco is designed to facilitate a perfect comedy of errors for your characters to experience, and your friends to laugh at.
Fiasco is one of those games that straddles the line between a board game and a tabletop RPG. Like a traditional board game, it’s relatively simple and meant to be played out over a single session. However, the game has relatively few physical pieces, and revolves heavily around rolling dice and roll-playing as a character. These characters are custom-built, though they’re extremely simple, and mostly defined in terms of story rather than abilities and stats.
Once players have built their characters, the game is divided into two phases. In the first phase, characters establish a dramatic situation and make intricate, meticulous plans to accomplish all of their goals. In the second phase, everyone at the table rolls the dice and generates complications which force those plans to fall to pieces. By far the most dramatic game on this list, Fiasco does a wonderful job balancing wonderful humor with gripping drama, allowing you to become deeply invested in your character even as you laugh at their collapsing plans.
New Phone, Who Dis?
For when the man is around to get you down
Similar to Cards Against Humanity, this game has players competing to select the best response to an out-of-the-blue text, to amusing and potentially offensive (though nowhere near as offensive as CAH) results.
There are a lot of people who would like to play Cards Against Humanity but can’t. Because of how vulgar and offensive that game is, there are many spaces where it simply cannot be played. High schools, youth groups, official college clubs, any place where you’re likely to find a child or a grandma who simply does not have the constitution for jokes about having your dick bitten off by a turtle. If you’re looking for something in-between, something PG-13 that will carry some transgressive edge while still being accessible in more spaces, New Phone Who Dis? is probably the game for you.
This game is structured similarly to Cards Against Humanity. Its prompt cards are framed as out of the blue texts from unknown numbers, and its responses are framed as replies to those texts, with the objective being to provide the funniest response. The game has plenty of PG-13 sexual humor and doesn’t feel sanitized, but it still has enough restraint to sneak its way into spaces whereCards Against Humanity simply cannot go.
Gloom (Second Edition)
Sad, but often too cartoony to take seriously
This gothic black comedy card game has each player tormenting their cartoonish family with a wide variety of comedic misfortunes while simultaneously interfering with the other players’ attempts to do the same.
Gloom is a darkly comedic game where each player governs over one of several eccentric families. Just from hearing that, you might expect that the object of the game would be to bring their family fortune and success, but this game is about just the opposite. Each player uses their cards to inflict comedic misfortunes on their family and then, if they are strategically canny, immediately ends the family members’ lives before another player has a chance to alleviate their suffering.
The people and situations are cartoonish enough that these misfortunes are mostly funny rather than upsetting, though sensitive souls may still find themselves feeling sorry for these poor souls. Gloom is best played with a group that’s good at narration and light role-play, who can turn the alliterative prompts on the cards into interesting and funny stories about their victims’ tragic fates.
Would You Rather?
Shows you things you never knew you wanted to know
This party card game takes the classic concept of “would you rather” and turns it into a proper card game with prompts presenting a wide variety of difficult questions, and forcing everyone present to reveal more about themselves than they’d ever likely want to.
The basic concept of Would You Rather is very old, but this party game by Spin Master Games structures that classic social experience with great prompt cards featuring difficult questions which are sure to have embarrassing answers. This version of the game is a bit spicy and not quite appropriate for children, though it’s not as extreme as Cards Against Humanity.
It contains a variety of situations, sometimes forcing you to choose between two good options, other times forcing you to choose between two bad ones. Either way, the choices are fun and revealing, though we can’t promise all of those revelations will be welcome.
FAQ
What if I Need Something Family Friendly?
Though the games on this list vary somewhat when it comes to which demographics they target, the majority of these games are not appropriate for children, either due to their vulgarity (as with Cards Against Humanity) or their complexity (as with Fiasco). Some more child-appropriate games include Superfight and Snake Oil, both of whichhave been coveredby TheGamer in the past.
Which of these Games is best for Someone Inexperienced?
Cards Against Humanity is extremely easy to understand no matter how new someone is to Tabletop Gaming. Would You Rather and New Phone Who Dis? are also pretty simple. Muchkin and Fiasco are comparatively more complicated, though Fiasco is still simple enough to be tractable for someone just getting into tabletop gaming.
