Facebook and Twitter erupted Feb. 20 with a new Internet novelty: AU Against Humanity had arrived.
The concept is simple. Anyone can contribute a card on the Tumblr page, usually a sarcastic phrase that highlights an aspect of AU culture. Recent examples include “The AU football team was disbanded because ______” and “That smell in the Berks hallway is a combination of_____ and ______.” The game involves filling in the blanks with random words. Users can print the cards in neat PDF form on the Scribd page.
The AU student behind this Internet novelty was inspired by a certain television series that has recently captured AU’s imagination.
“I had the idea for an AU version for awhile,” said the creator, a senior in College of Arts and Sciences who prefers to be called Evan. “But I only actually decided to do it when I saw how popular the “‘House of Cards’ Against Humanity” edition was.”
Once Evan saw the response to that edition, which had only 25 cards, he realized he could easily create an AU version with far more options. He found another similar page with a Google form and told his friend, who immediately told him he should do the same.
“Originally, I was going to just post the original pack, but I was encouraged to set up a response form for AU students who had suggestions,” he said.
The response, including 4500 views and 70 card submissions in the site’s first 24 hours, exceeded all of Evan’s expectations. He attributes the success of the Against Humanity franchise to the creators’ decision to make their game open-source.
“It’s popular because it plays into the humor, snark and slight inappropriateness that young adults appreciate,” he said. “And since it’s under a Creative Commons license, the inventors empowered their fans to take the game into their own hands.”
Evan chooses to remain relatively anonymous to steer the focus away from himself.
“I thought it would be better to keep the focus on the game,” he said. “As long as people have fun and get a few laughs out of it, that’s all it was intended to do.”
The anonymity has been effective so far – some students told him about the page without realizing he had created it.
“Several of them actually sent the link to me, and I assured them that I was quite aware of it,” he said. “As long as people are having fun and getting a few laughs out of it, that’s all that matters.”
