On October 13, the tabletop game company Cards Against Humanity — named for its popular flagship game of “fill in the blank” prompts and chaotic answers — took to the social media site X to share a post aimed at librarians.
“Brainrot and AI slop are taking over the world,” the game company wrote. “One lone bastion of critical thinking remains — a land of air conditioning, white noise, and free WiFi.”
“What is that shining light of civilization amongst the tung tung tung sahur wasteland of our times?” The account asked, referring to an AI-generated figure who serves as the peculiar mascot of what’s come to be known as “Italian brainrot.”
It answered: “Your local library.”
“For the last six years, we’ve been sending free copies of Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition to libraries across the country, to fend off the evil forces that threaten to steal the minds of our nation’s youth,” the post continued. “We’ve equipped almost 5,000 libraries so far, and don’t have plans to stop any time soon.”
“Know a library that needs our help?” The account asked. “Tag them below so we can send them our finest front cortex-flexing products, including Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition and Contact, for free.”
The account signed off by saying, “Let’s get real people to play real games together, in person.”
Within a day, the post had almost 1,000 comments from X users tagging their local library branches, from the Kannapolis Library in Kannapolis, North Carolina, to the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona.
Cards Against Humanity has a long history of supporting public libraries.
In October 2025, the tabletop game company offered presales for their latest game, Cards Against Humanity Explains the Joke, and donated 100% of the presales’ net proceeds to the American Library Association.
“We are exceptionally grateful to CAH for their longstanding support of libraries and thankful for this recent donation, which will help ALA continue its work to protect the right to read freely,” Sam Helmick, the president of the ALA, said in a statement.
The donation corresponded with Banned Books Week. According to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans, nearly 12,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year.
It marked the highest number of recorded bans since the nonprofit began tracking the metrics in 2021.
The donation also came seven months after the Trump administration attempted to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that oversees 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries across the country.
A federal judge later reversed the order in April 2026, but not after it triggered grant cancellations and staffing cuts on a national level.
“This fight isn’t free,” Lisa Varga, the associate executive director of public policy and advocacy, added. “The CAH donation allows us to continue supporting librarians and library workers under attack.”
From 2025 through 2029, Cards Against Humanity also pledged an $1,000 donation match in partnership with the American Library Association’s Games & Gaming Round Table.
“Unfortunately, the idea of libraries as a place of intellectual growth, the safety and livelihood of librarians, and the freedom to read itself are all currently under attack in many parts of our country,” Eliot Weinstein, the co-creator of Cards Against Humanity, told the association last year. “There’s no better time to send a message to librarians (and the organizations that support them) that we’ve got your back.”
“To date, we’ve donated over 5,000 games to public libraries around the world, and we have no plans to stop,” Weinstein said. “It’s our goal to get our games played as much as we possibly can, by offering them to libraries free of charge.”
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Featured Image: Cards Against Humanity
