OREGON — Goodbye Holiday Hole. It was nice knowing you.
A hole outside of town — as large as it was pointless — was filled in Wednesday, putting an end to the latest Black Friday stunt by Cards Against Humanity, the “party game for horrible people.”
The nationwide publicity stunt mocked America’s willingness to literally throw money in a hole by digging one, for no reason, for as long as people were willing to pay for it. For every$5 donated, the dig time increased by 16 seconds. The more money people gave, the deeper the hole went. Fifty-two hours and $100,573 later the internet’s piggy bank was tapped.
The company’s website said the hole was located in “America. And in our hearts.” It turns out that’s about 30 minutes south of Rockford.
Ogle County property deeds show the 5-acre lot in the 1700 block of W. Pines Road 5 miles outside of Oregon, was purchased by Hole Holding LLC, on Nov. 2, for $25,000. CardsAgainst Humanity Experience Manager Claire Friedman signed for the property and deemed herself the “hole mom” on her Twitter account, where she tweeted updates of the digging progress.
Digging began at midnight on Black Friday and concluded Sunday afternoon. The online buzz stirred local residents to stop along Pines Road to watch the excavating crew move dirt from point A to point B.
“There’s a lot of local people complaining about it, but it’s not their money to care about,” saidKrystal Portner, who drove from Mount Morris to attempt a look at the hole on Sunday. “I think it’s cool. I kind of don’t want it to end.”
But all good things must come to an end — even pointless ones.
“It’s nearly completely filled back in,” Mike Reibel, Ogle County planning and zoning administrator, said Wednesday morning. “Soon they’re going to cover it with black dirt and get it seeded. It didn’t appear to harm anything.”
Myers Excavating, based in Oregon, was contracted to dig the hole but owner Rob Diehl said he was sworn to secrecy on what they were paid. Diehl said he thought the idea was pretty weird when the company contacted him a couple months ago.
“To dig a hole and then just fi ll it back in isn’t really our normal work scope,” he said of the job that took six men. “But we did it.”
Cards Against Humanity also live-streamed the digging, which according to co-founder Max Temkin’s latest tweet, accumulated 17 years worth of viewing time.
The Holiday Hole isn’t the first time Cards Against Humanity has humored America with pointless jokes. In 2015, if you paid $5 they would mail you a box of nothing — literally an empty box. They made $71,145. In 2014, you could purchase a literal box of bulls---, or send it to someone you felt deserved such a gift.
The company hasn’t announced what it plans to do with the money from this year’s stunt. Last year, however, employees kept it all to themselves and listed how they spent it. Don’t worry, most of the staff made some sort of charitable contribution with their extra cash — but they didn’t stop there. Scott paid $1,500 for LASIK corrective eye surgery; Alex bought $500 worth of cat litter — because “my two cats poop a lot,” he said; and Jenn splurged on a $1,200bespoke Robin Hood costume.
That’s right, America quite possibly threw money in a hole for Jenn to buy yet another Halloween costume.
—Kayli Plotner: 815-987-1391; kplotner@rrstar.com; @kayplot