Cards Against Humanity as a Deviant Leisure Activity

This paper examines Cards Against Humanity (CAH), a commercially successful party card game built around offensive or "politically incorrect" phrase completion, through the lens of deviant leisure theory. Despite its wide commercial reach and critical acclaim, the author notes that the game has received little academic attention, and the work aims to address this gap by exploring why players are drawn to its edgy humour and why they choose it over family-friendly alternatives.

The theoretical framework draws on leisure studies, particularly the notion that leisure does not always align with society's accepted values. Drawing on scholarship that defines deviant leisure as participation in activities that violate moral norms, the author proposes that the appeal of CAH may lie partly in resistance to the homogeneity of consumerist culture and the alienation of routine labour, rather than in offensive humour alone.

The preliminary findings are based on interviews and surveys conducted so far with college-age students at a mid-sized state university in the United States, with broader recruitment planned. Participants who regularly play CAH report that it is a game they play with friends but not with family, particularly parents. Some players described using the game as a way to vet newcomers to a social group, with responses to offensive cards signaling whether someone might join its inner circle. Others reported regret about playing with certain acquaintances, as the intimacy generated during gameplay made later social interactions awkward.

The study is ongoing, and the author indicates that data collection and analysis will be completed before the conference. The findings reported are therefore provisional and limited in demographic scope.