BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Cards Against Humanity versus Trump's US-Mexico border wall

  • Published
    15 November 2017
Share page
About sharing
Portion of the fence near El Paso, Texas
Image caption,

Portion of the fence near El Paso, Texas

By Sherie Ryder
BBC UGC and Social News

Board and card games can be fun, challenging and keep family and friends occupied. But one rather risqué game has recently embarked on a more politically strategic challenge.

Cards Against Humanity - "a party game for horrible people," according to its creators - has been mentioned in over 14,000 tweets, at time of writing, after revealing it had purchased a plot of land on the US border with Mexico.

The company is known for self-aware stunts, such as launching a pink edition of the game for women and raising $95,000 (£72,000) to dig a hole for no reason.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post by CardsAgainstHumanity

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post by CardsAgainstHumanity

According to the company's website, which uses language some may find offensive, the aim is to "make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible, external" to build US President Donald Trump's proposed border wall.

The Chicago-based company claims it will "save America," having asked for $15 in exchange for six "America-saving surprises."

According to the website, there are no more slots remaining to sign up for the "surprises", but those who have paid will get "an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of our promise to fight the wall, some new cards, and a few other surprises."

It has enlisted the help of a law firm specialising in "eminent domain" - the power of the federal government to acquire private land at a market price.

  • Your questions on Trump's wall answered by Anthony Zurcher

Many on Twitter have found this highly amusing. Instagram model Crystal Leigh described it as "the best thing", external to happen all day.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 2 by Crystal Leigh

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 2 by Crystal Leigh
This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 3 by Kaivan Shroff

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 3 by Kaivan Shroff

Cards Against Humanity founder Max Temkin is pretty impressed, external with all the activity on social media and has been kept busy carrying out interviews.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 4 by Max Temkin

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 4 by Max Temkin

He also tweeted 150,000 subscriptions to the game were sold within nine hours, which would earn the company $2.25m.

However, not everyone has been impressed with the game's latest stunt. Jennifer Primich, posted on Facebook, external Cards Against Humanity was "ruining fun" and it should "go back to making offensive fun games for everyone".

Meanwhile, although the response on Reddit was largely supportive, several posters pointed out those who would ultimately pay would be the US taxpayers who fund the government's lawyers.

Jennifer Primich writes on Facebook: I may have officially stopped purchasing and promoting this game now, thanks a bunch for ruining fun, I can deal with what your dishing, it is funny but not if it is one-sided, go back to making offensive fun games to everyone.Image source, Facebook

You might also like:

  • US hails '40% drop' in illegal immigrants from Mexico

  • 'Russian trolls' promoted California independence

  • Mexico and Mr Trump: What will happen to trade ties?

This is not the first time the company has acquired land. In 2014, an idea to buy an island off Maine, external came from a previous joke about how $70,000 profit from a holiday promotion, external could be spent.

The team then - again using language some people may find offensive - blogged on social networking website Tumblr, external about how they established "Hawaii 2" and realised the problems in dividing the land among thousands of people.

Courting controversy in 2016, Cards Against Humanity produced a party game called Secret Hitler, which "models the rise of fascism in a democracy".

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 5 by Max Temkin

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 5 by Max Temkin

Temkin tweeted a video clip of covering letters and packages, external of the game about to be sent to every US senator in February 2017, which was liked 8,000 times.

While the idea was to satirise the Trump administration, some people on Twitter replied they felt "alienated" by the political stunt.

More on this story

  • US parks may lose federal protection

    • Published
      26 April 2017
    Bears Ears
  • What might Trump's wall look like?

    • Published
      27 April 2017
    Pennagroup options

Around the BBC

  • Trump wall designs at Mexico border - BBC News

  • 6 things that could topple Donald Trump's border wall - BBC News

Top stories

  • Trump sues Murdoch and Wall Street Journal over Epstein article

    • Published
      3 hours ago
  • Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

    • Published
      7 hours ago
  • Amber warning as thunderstorms set to bring flash floods

    • Published
      54 minutes ago

More to explore

  • 'There were bodies everywhere': Druze residents describe 'bloodbath' in Syrian city Suweida

    A health worker and other men walk in a hospital courtyard, past the bodies of victims of the recent clashes in Syria's southern city of Suweida on 17 July 2025
  • Taliban 'revenge' and Labour's 'case for power'

    The front page of the Daily Mail and The Times.
  • Why 2025 is a scarily good year for horror movies

    A still from I Know What You Did Last Summer shows actress Madelyn Cline with her hands clasped to her face, mid-scream. She's inside a house at night with large bay windows behind her.
  • How history-chasing Italy can threaten England at Euro 2025

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Italy celebrate after reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2025 with victory over Norway
  • Kill Russian soldiers, win points: Is Ukraine's new drone scheme gamifying war?

    A Ukrainian soldier wears a headset to pilot a drone
  • Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions

    A promotional image for a BBC Verify story with branding. A soldier with his head turned away from the camera can be seen in the middle. On either side of him are images of destroyed buildings.
  • Relentless immigration raids are changing California's way of life

    Two protesters in dust masks film federal troops in gas masks in a field of crops in Southern California. One protester flies a Mexican flag
  • Weekly quiz: Why is Kew Garden's Palm House closing?

    Interior view of the Palm House at Kew.
  • Summer Essential: Your family’s guide to the summer, delivered to your inbox every Tuesday

    concentric circles ranging from orange to yellow to represent the sun, with a blue sky background
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    US tech CEO suspended after Coldplay concert embrace goes viral

  2. 2

    MasterChef crisis: Wallace and Torode were 'never friends'

  3. 3

    Amber warning as thunderstorms set to bring flash floods

  4. 4

    Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

  5. 5

    Taliban 'revenge' and Labour's 'case for power'

  6. 6

    Trump sues Murdoch and Wall Street Journal over Epstein article

  7. 7

    Wasps are back this summer – a lot of them

  8. 8

    Sylvanian Families' legal battle over TikTok drama

  9. 9

    Dog who helped police Queen's funeral dies after car crash

  10. 10

    Is this the death of the late night US chat show?

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • Martin Scarsden faces a new mystery

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Scrublands S2
  • Sinister events in an old Spanish town

    • Attribution
      Sounds
    Uncanny: Summer Specials
  • Ghosts US returns for series 4

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Ghosts US S4
  • What does it take to build the perfect athlete?

    • Attribution
      Sounds
    The Infinite Monkey Cage
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.