Picture this:
“When Uncle Coot staggered in the door at 3 in the morning, the first words out of his mouth were,” reads Charlie, 14, holding up a red card.
Mom, Dad, and brother Jason, 16, peruse through their seven yellow cards. Mom giggles, Dad scratches his head. What Would Uncle Coot Say (WWUCS?)? This is intense—there are so many ways to frame this. Alas, three yellow cards lay in the middle face down.
Charlie shuffles up the cards and begins to read them aloud.
“That thing has seen better days.”
“I’m naked under my clothes!”
“How about putting some in that hole?”
The family then votes. “I’m naked under my clothes!” wins, and lucky for Jason, that his was card. He gets to keep the red card, and if he can manage to win four more before any one else does, he will be deemed…Relatively Insane! Mwahahahaha!
HUH. What?
So rewind…what’s going on here? Folks, this is just your typical game of Relative Insanity, from PlayMonster. This quick-thinking family game prompts players to create funny scenarios or phrases to win.
It goes like this: one player will reader a Setup Card, while the remaining players choose the tackiest, random, or most insane card from their hand of Punch Line Cards to pair it with. A group vote chooses the winning card, and the mastermind behind this oh-so-magnificently-zany pairing will come forward and boast in the glory of crafting such a redonkulous phrase (while also collecting the red card).
The game will continue, as everyone replaces their Punch Line Card with a new one from the pile so they always have seven in hand, and the already used Punch Line Cards will go off to the side (Bye, Felicias). Now the player to the left of the reader will read, and so on. The first person who collects five red cards wins.
Think Cards Against Humanity meets What Do You Meme?, but a more family-friendly version. A version that won’t have your teenagers 14 and up saying “Mom this is lame,” yet not expose them to inappropriate content.
In fact, the whole game actually revolves around family content, meaning that most of the Setup Cards will be focused on a family member or family situation. The Setup Card card could focus on a brother, a parent, an uncle, etc. Then players will assign a phrase to that card. The game’s slogan even reads: “You can’t pick your nose, but you can pick your family,” alluding to the fact this is the one game you can assign wacky phrases to family member, or maybe phrases that fit them just right, via the cards. Just please, play nice.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that this word game was made and played by Jeff Foxworthy, of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? fame. Yup. Goofiness and family are the two main ingredients of this game.
Overall, it’s a relatively insane game that I would recommend for large close-knit families that love to laugh. Perhaps an Easter dinner game?
