I received a text this morning from my sister-in-law asking what I wanted for Christmas. I told her I didn't want or need anything. I usually just by for the nieces and nephews and my parents and that is it. I never buy for fellow siblings. It cuts down on the stress of the commercialized holiday.
I didn't go out on Black Friday for the crazy shopping. I'm more creative in my gift giving than just looking for cheap deals and steals. I've never participated in Black Friday and hope I never have to.
Cards Against Humanity creators have similar feelings about the retail monster that is Black Friday. They haven't planned to give great sales during the weekend, but instead ,"To celebrate Black Friday, we're digging a tremendous hole in the ground."
It is, in the truest, most literal sense of the phrase, a money pit.
Throughout Black Friday, as Americans spent billions on shopping, the makers of a popular card game convinced thousands of people to give them money so that they could dig a hole.
And that’s it. The pit isn’t intended for any other use; those who pay will not receive anything in return and the company, Cards Against Humanity, has said it will only keep digging as long as people continue to give money.
Naturally, the “Holiday Hole,” as the company calls it, has raised more than $82,000.
Why is the company doing this, and why are people throwing thousands of dollars at them to do so?
“You’re supposed to think it’s funny. You might not get it for a while, but some time next year you’ll chuckle quietly to yourself and remember all this business about the hole,” the company’s website says.
Where is this hole?
“America. And in our hearts,” the website says.
There is a YouTube live stream tracking the progress of the hole. The company has already garnered enough money to keep going well into Sunday. But despite the website’s promise that “we’ll find out together how deep this thing goes,” the excavator seems to be enlarging the pit instead of going deeper, at least as of Saturday afternoon.
This is not the first odd thing Cards Against Humanity has done to “celebrate” Black Friday and the holidays. Last year, the company asked people to pay them $5 for nothing whatsoever. The year before that, they sold actual bull poop for $6 per box. And in 2013, the company raised the price of its game from $25 to $30.
“We really hate Black Friday,” the game’s creator, Max Temkin told Business Insider last year. “It’s this really gross orgy of consumerism right after a holiday about being thankful for what you have — so we’ve always tried to think of funny jokes or comments we could make about the tradition.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the internet has become fascinated with the company’s latest bit of viral nihilism. The comment section on the live stream has become a way for observers to offer their opinions on the excavator’s technique, the dump truck’s movements and any thing else going on in the mostly silent, repetitive video. – miamiherald.com
If the digging is still being paid for, here is the live feed. At the time of this posting, there was just little over an hour and a half left before funds ran out.
If the digging has stopped above, here is a 10 min video of the hole digging project.
Did you partake in the mayhem that is Black Friday?
I lied. I did take part in Black Friday one year, when I was working part time in the home goods section of Macy's. All I can say is, I would have rather watched a hole being dug than doing that ever again.
h/t: miamiherald.com