Not That Funny turns Cards Against Humanity on its head to challenge microaggressions

Make a stand against harmful microaggressions with Not That Funny, an upcoming board game that flips titles like Cards Against Humanity on their head.

Created in response to a racist incident suffered by the game’s designer, Jesse Lipscombe, Not That Funny invites players to challenge jokes and comments that perpetuate harmful stereotypes against marginalised people. A party game for three or more players, Not That Funny follows a similar formula to titles such as Cards Against Humanity in that players play cards in response to a prompt. However, rather than attempting to be the most offensive, players will be looking to play the response they believe is best for the situation proposed.

The game begins with the shortest person becoming the selector, whose role is to choose and read out the various situation cards. Once players have their seven potential response cards, the selector then reads out a situation card of their choice. Players then select a response card for the selector to read out in conjunction with the situation card. When all response cards have been read aloud, the selector chooses whichever one they think provided the best reaction - the player who used that card gets a point.

Should the selected card show a Not That Funny logo on it, then all the players besides whoever played the card will be able to gain a point for explaining why and how they think the card is problematic. The selector will need to decide who they think gave the most accurate explanation. However, if the selector thought that none of the explanations were very good, then they can choose to award the bonus point to the player who used the Not That Funny card.

The selector role then switches to the person on the right, with the game continuing thus. Should a player ever feel like they need a break, then they can play their time-out card and have five minutes to calmly discuss whatever topics they want, before resuming play. Whichever player reaches a total of ten points first becomes the winner of Not That Funny.

Besides creating Not That Funny, Lipscombe is best known for being an actor - having previously starred in the 2017 film It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway - activist and co-founder of the Canadian anti-discrimination campaign #MakeItAwkward, which aims to encourage people to challenge racist, homophobic, sexist and other discrimitory behaviour.

The launch of Not That Funny on Kickstarter follows last year’s allegations made against the co-founders of Cards Against Humanity. Described as possessing a“toxic work environment” by former employees of the party game company, such as Theresa Stewart, Cards Against Humanity responded to the allegations with the assurance that it would be “hiring a specialist firm to review and improve all HR, hiring, and management practices at the company”, and apologised to any staff “who were unheard or dispected” at the company.

The Kickstarter campaign for Not That Funny is live until June 2nd, with a pledge of CA$ 59 (£35/$48) getting backers a copy of the full game shipped internationally in September. Alternatively, a digital PDF version of the game is available for a pledge of CA$ 25 (£15/$20).