What Do You Meme: The Party Game, the Rules and the Editions

What What Do You Meme is

What Do You Meme is a judging party game. Each round, one player is the judge. The judge picks a photo card and props it on a small easel so everyone can see it. Every other player chooses a caption card from their hand that they think fits the photo best. The judge reads all the captions and picks the funniest match.

That's it. There's no board, no dice and no timer. The whole game is matching a picture to a line, and then hoping the judge sees it your way.

Here's the table version of the box facts, from the maker's instruction sheet and its Core Game page:

• Players: at least 3; the sheet's win table goes up to 10
• Age: 17+ for the core game, per the maker's page; 8 to 12 on the Family Pets Only Edition listing
• In the family-edition box: 300 caption cards, 65 photo cards, 1 easel
• Hand size: 7 caption cards
• Goal: win a set number of photo cards
• Co-op or competitive: competitive, with a rotating judge

The maker's Core Game page calls it an adult party card game and gives the age reason plainly: mature language and references. That's the first thing to know about the core box. The family-edition sheet, linked from that same page, describes the same game with family-friendly cards.

How What Do You Meme plays

The rules below are in my own words, from the family-edition instruction sheet that the maker links from its Core Game page. The Core Game page itself describes the same steps: draw 7, a judge, a photo on the easel, captions passed face down.

Setup

1. Sit around a table. You need at least 3 players.
2. Shuffle the caption cards and the photo cards into separate decks.
3. Everyone draws 7 caption cards.
4. Set the easel in the middle, or in front of the first judge.
5. The youngest player is the first judge.

Step 5 is a nice touch. The youngest person at the table starts with the most power.

A round, start to finish

1. The judge looks through the photo cards and picks one for the round.
2. The judge shows it to everyone and puts it on the easel.
3. Everyone else picks the one caption card from their hand that pairs best with the photo, and passes it to the judge face down.
4. The judge shuffles the captions so nobody can tell whose is whose.
5. The judge reads each caption out loud, one at a time, with the photo in view of the whole group.
6. The judge picks the winner. That player keeps the photo card. One photo card is one point.
7. Everyone draws back up to 7 caption cards.
8. The player to the judge's left becomes the next judge.

The sheet makes a point of step 5: keep the photo visible while the captions are read. It's right. A caption read without the picture is just a sentence.

How you win

The first player to collect enough photo cards wins. The sheet's target depends on how many are playing:

Players	Photo cards to win
3	7
4 to 5	5
6 to 10	4

I ran the worst cases, because that's how a math teacher spends a Saturday. With 3 players and a target of 7, the longest possible game is 19 rounds: everyone sits at 6, then someone wins one more. With 6 players and a target of 4, it's also 19. With 4 players it's 17, and with 5 it's 21. The targets keep the longest game near 20 rounds for small and medium tables. That's a quiz question I'd actually put on a quiz.

With 10 players and a target of 4, the worst case climbs to 31 rounds. In practice, most games end well before the worst case, but a big group should agree on a target before the first deal. The sheet says you can raise or lower the number for a quicker or longer game.

The hand-swap rule

Stuck with a hand where nothing fits? The sheet has a fix. You can trade one of the photo cards you've already won for a whole new hand of 7 caption cards. You lose that point, but you get a fresh start. It's the most honest trade in party games: you pay for a bad hand with something you earned.

Your own photos

The sheet recommends adding your own photos to the game. That's a house-friendly idea with one rule of thumb from me: use pictures everyone at the table is happy to see on the easel. A photo of the dog, yes. A photo of Uncle Ed asleep in the recliner, ask Uncle Ed.

What Do You Meme editions on Amazon US right now

Our data lists three What Do You Meme boxes on Amazon US as of October 2026. The table above shows what each listing states. Where a listing leaves a field out, the table shows a dash.

What Do You Meme? Core Game

The listing calls it the Core Game and lists it as a fill-in-the-blank party game. It doesn't state an age or a player count in our data, which is why the table shows dashes. The maker's own Core Game page fills one gap: it recommends 17+ for mature language and references.

This is the original box. If your table is grown-ups only and you want the game as the maker first sold it, this is the one.

What Do You Meme? NSFW Expansion Pack

The listing marks it as an expansion, as adults only, and lists 90 caption cards. It's a fill-in-the-blank add-on, so it adds captions, not photos. The listing in our data doesn't name a base game, but an expansion of caption cards needs photo cards and an easel to play with, so plan on owning a core box first. This pack is for adult tables only.

What Do You Meme? Family Pets Only Edition

The listing says ages 8 to 12, marks it as not adults only and not an expansion, and lists 300 caption cards and 65 image cards. Those counts match the family-edition instruction sheet: 300 captions and 65 photos.

The edition name says the photos are pets only. It's the box in our data for a family table with kids in that age range. The listing gives 12 as the top of the range. Adults can still play it with kids, of course. It's the kids it was labeled for.

Which What Do You Meme fits your group

Quick matches, from the listings and the maker's page:

• An adults-only party: the Core Game, 17+ on the maker's page
• An adults-only group that already owns the core: the NSFW Expansion Pack, adults only
• A family table with kids 8 to 12: the Family Pets Only Edition
• A table of 2: none of these; the sheet says 3 at minimum

If you're buying for a mixed group, the age line decides it before anything else. A family gathering and a grown-ups' night are different evenings, and these boxes are labeled for one or the other.

Judging well, a few house rules

These are house rules, not the maker's. They help a new group.

1. Read flat. The judge reads every caption in the same voice. No extra drama for the one the judge likes. It keeps the vote about the card.
2. No lobbying. Once captions are passed, nobody says which one is theirs. The sheet's shuffle step hides authorship. Talking undoes it.
3. Judge's tie. If two captions tie in the judge's mind, the judge must pick one anyway. No splitting the photo card. A decision is the judge's whole job.

Setting up the table

You need a table everyone can sit around and an easel everyone can see. The photo is the half of the joke that doesn't get read aloud, so it has to face the room. If your group is big, put the easel in the middle and let the judge sit next to it.

Keep the photo deck within the judge's reach and the caption deck within everyone's reach. Hands get refilled every round, so a caption deck at one end of a long table means a lot of passing.

Who should skip What Do You Meme

Skip the core game for any table with kids. The maker recommends 17+ for the Core Game, and the NSFW pack is adults only. For kids 8 to 12, the Family Pets Only Edition is the box the listing labels for them.

Skip it for a table of 2. The sheet says 3 players at minimum, and the game needs at least two people competing for one judge.

Skip it if your group wants strategy. You choose one caption from seven each round, and the judge's taste decides the rest. Some tables love that. Some tables would rather have a plan.

And skip it if your group doesn't like being judged by each other. The whole game is one person picking a favorite out loud, round after round.

If you like What Do You Meme, look at these

Pages chosen by what they share with What Do You Meme: a judge, a big group, cards only.

• Party games: the wider shelf for a crowd
• Cards Against Humanity: another judge-style card game for adult tables, check the age on each listing
• Apples to Apples: a judging card game with editions labeled for younger players
• Telestrations: a drawing and guessing game for a big table

Pick a judge, deal seven, and play to the judge, not the room.