You need at least four people who are old enough to understand sarcasm for this to work. Ideally, everyone involved is twelve or older. If you have a bunch of kids under that age, send them off to play Apples to Apples Junior instead. This version thrives on large groups. It’s party fuel. The Apples to Apples Party Box exists for a reason, holding hundreds of cards so you don’t run out of material before you run out of friends.
Setting the Table
Start by shuffling the Red Apple Cards and the Green Apple Cards into the tray. Pick a judge. It doesn’t matter who it is. Everyone gets a turn eventually. The judge deals seven Red Apple Cards face down to every player, themselves included. Don’t show your cards. Keep them hidden until you play them.
The judge pulls a Green Apple Card from the top of the deck. They flip it face up in the center of the table. Then they read it out loud. That adjective is the prompt.
How to Submit the Best Match
Everyone picks one Red Apple Card from their hand that fits the Green Card’s adjective. This is where the humor lives. If you don’t have a perfect fit, get creative. Think about the judge. Their taste is the only thing that counts. Is your judge obsessed with Star Wars? Play the Darth Vader card. Do they love puns? Lean into the absurd.
Hurry up. The rules say if you are too slow, you are disqualified for that round. Speed matters. Place your red card face down on the table. The judge can’t see who played which card.
Judging and Winning
The judge gathers all the red cards. They shuffle them slightly so the order is random. They remind everyone of the green adjective. Then they read each red card submission one by one. They think. They pick the best match.
The player with the winning card takes the Green Apple Card as a prize. The judge role moves clockwise to the left. The new judge deals a new Red Apple Card to everyone so their hands are back to seven. They flip a new Green Card. The cycle repeats.
Keep playing until you get bored or someone collects enough green cards. The official rules suggest eight green cards to win in a four-player game. For a huge group of ten players, you only need four.
Why It Works
The game is built for variations. You can twist the standard rules until it breaks or becomes hilarious.
Look at some of the best matches ever recorded on the official Facebook fan page. The humor comes from the unexpected pairings:
- Irresistible matched with “My body”
- Touchy feely matched with “Helen Keller”
- Chewy matched with “Mike Tyson”
- Dirty matched with “My dreams”
- Masculine matched with “Eleanor Roosevelt”
These don’t make literal sense. They make you laugh. That is the point.
