Clarkson Potter Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers Game – January 1, 2013

My extended family loves to try new games when we all get together. I bought this last Christmas for my husband, as he comes up daily with bad puns to make me groan....but he never opened it to check it out. So at our summer family gathering I brought it along. Everyone thought it looked too hard, I persisted that we needed to just try it. I had 8 takers, and about 6 who said they'd watch. We weren't strict with time limits....some puns took longer than others, but there are pun jokes on the back of each card that you can read aloud to entertain the crowd while you're waiting on that last contender to finish their pun. I was amazed at how clever some of my relatives were! Each round you flip two cards (one pile has nouns, the other pile has verbs) - you must write a pun that utilizes both words in some form or another. My husband didn't disappoint: with the words "Vampire" and "Fly" - his pun was simply "Bat"....the shortest "pun" ever. The reviews from the crowd were mixed.....while we all laughed and laughed at the reading of each contenders pun, the end-result was "this game would be funnier if everyone was drinking". Tough crowd!

Game came delivered in a handy envelope so no extra boxes to deal with. I like the portable size to just throw in a bag if going to a party. Set came with two sets of cards, two notepads, two prize envelopes and a few sheets of tear away mystery prize slips. The dividers in the box keeps everythign nice and neat! Game play is very straightforward and mirrors the play of Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity. I did find that running through a few Pun Questions and Answers helped people understand what the game asks. Once we moved onto to using the white and green cards the 90 sec needed to brainstorm was definately needed! After a few rounds, people got more competitive and silly. Having to collect 10 sets of cards seems like a lot to win, but game play went to about a full hour with just 3 people. Looking forward to playing in a bigger group. I do like the endless combinations of the cards and the challenge of playing. I could see this game working well for all ages for kids learning to write to elders helping them stretch and use their brains in new ways. This father and daughter team knocked it out of the park again!

I have to say this game has fabulously designed packaging. Very compact and well designed, just generally very pleasing to the eye. What immediately caught my eye is that this game is actually based on a live Game Show from Brooklyn, New York.To play it is very straight forward. You need a minimum of three people, one of which is labelled a 'prompter' for the round. The prompter picks up two cards, and reads a quick pun question. The player who responds the quickest with a pun connecting the two cards wins extra seconds for the next round. The next round the prompter selects a green and a white card and players have 90 seconds to write down a pun combining both topics. The best pun, as chosen by the prompter rewards the player with the pair of cards. The winner of the round becomes the new prompter.The objective of the game is to win the mystery envelope prize by being the first player/team to obtain ten pairs of cards. The mystery envelopes are included.The game comes with the sets of cards, 2 note pads, 2 mystery envelopes and envelope prize cards. An instruction card and a tips card are also included.While it takes a bit to get into the idea of puns - once you play it a bit you really get going and it is a lot of fun. This would be a great game to play with more than three people too. Some of the puns are so ridiculous, but it's all for a good laugh - which we cannot do too much of in my opinion!Please note that I was sent a copy of this game for purposes of review, however the opinions are my own.

Finally - a game that restores the good name of the pun. I think of puns as the mimes of wordplay - both are unique art forms that are unjustly maligned. Clowns I get - they should be maligned at every opportunity. I enjoy a good pun, and am a big fan of Cards Against Humanity, so I thought I would give it a try. I played with a small circle of friends I call The Mosquitoes, after the Faulkner novel, and at first it was hard to get used to thinking of something clever in under two minutes. However, we adapted quickly, and once we abandoned the clever part, and let ourselves indulge in some truly tortured puns, the time flew by and we enjoyed some solid competitive merriment. Be forewarned - the ability to pun does not always correlate with braininess. Some very smart people struggle with getting the hang of punning, and others are surprisingly adept. It's lots of fun to see who has the mind for it, and for everyone to get the hang of it together. I feel smarter for having made this purchase!

With the right group of people with the right mindset, this game is a blast. I played this with a group of 12 people. We paired up in groups of 2, which made it easier to come up with a good pun or skip a round if you are really drawing a blank. The group you play with have to stay positive too. There's no teasing if an answer was stupid or doesn't make sense. And there's no judging if a group simply say "we can't come up with an answer".I see a lot of reviews trying to compare this to "Cards Against Humanity". And that really isn't the best comparison. CAH creates the jokes for you, it puts a certain limit to your creativity but it is almost guaranteed a laugh. Punderdome is really closer to...interactive trivia night. You need to stay active, you need to stay creative, and you need to stay positive when something doesn't work out.We'll keep trying this game with friends, it is a really interesting game. But there are just way too many other card games out there that are simply better.