Aside from a few words that direct hatred at people and groups, there really are no "bad" words per se - words are merely symbols to convey meaning; they are not intrinsically good or bad. It's all about intent - IE, there are no bad words, only bad people. Like Cards Against Humanity, F**k: The Game provides all the fun of saying "bad" things, with none of the guilt - "come on, I had to say it - it's right there on the card!"
Inkster Games reached out to me at an opportune time to provide a review copy of their party games, as I've just read the fascinating Nine Nasty Words, by John McWhorter, and I've also just read this xkcd comic, which pokes fun at various board game genres. Of all the fictitious games in the comic, I was most interested in playing the party game it described (see lower left panel), and essentially, now I have.
F**k the Game is a card game that uses the Stroop Color Test, a psychological experiment that pits the two hemispheres of your brain against each other by presenting you with a word written in a particular color. The challenge is to say the COLOR the word is written in, instead of the word itself. Your brain is conditioned to read a word based on the string of letters it consists of, so saying "Green" when confronted with the word YELLOW written in green is counterintuitive. F**k ups the ante by adding cuss words to the mix, which you always say (no matter the color), except for "fuck". You can see where this is going - it's sort of universally visceral to shout forbidden words, and it's funny when you mess up because when one makes a mistake, one might shout a rude word anyway, which the game simulates.
For those not opposed to such things, it's good fun, and the game is highly portable and easy to teach (just have to get the rules sorted about what to say when, and off you go). I like that the game retains its challenge even after a few rounds. You can get good at this, but no one is likely to master it such that they never mess up. The game has four rule cards that can be spread out on the table for reference.
But if you DO get too good at F**k, it now has a bigger, badder sibling, Blurgh (so named, perhaps, after the grunt one makes trying to blurt the word "blue," then realizing mid-word that you should have said uhrange). This one adds pics to the mix, you get to draw each others' faces and when your face comes up in the game, now you DO say fuck. There are other cards that do all manner of interesting things as well. While I have only described the game thus far, not made any serious value judgements yet, you have likely made up your mind about whether you want to try it or not.
So what did I and my comrades think about F**k and Blurgh? We enjoyed them quite a bit. As a Psychology major and game design enthusiast, I am pleased to see two of my formative influences combining - and as a lover of unbuttoned, inappropriate humor, I embrace the social experience of stepping over arbitrary and needless moral boundaries. As the United States was largely settled by uptight Puritans, I feel we are only now freeing ourselves of a certain reluctance re. certain words - we thank our Aussie brothers and sisters for helping us relax a bit and have fun with some lesser-used language.
Who will enjoy F**k and Blurgh? Anyone who enjoys a light mental challenge and a quick-paced. potty-mouthed card slapping experience (another nice aspect of the game is the social timer - groups can fine-tune the speed of the game since anyone can slap the deck if they feel a person is taking too long on their turn. While this almost never happens, the chance that it could happen is enough to keep things moving nicely). I see this making a splash in college dorms where the youth have escaped the orbit of adult supervision (my freshman year roommate was known to often say "shitbitchcrapfuck," for almost any or no reason - piling them together like a sandwich, just because he could). But grownups who are young, or at least free, at heart would do well to give these a try as well. Happy Blurghing!
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