Yeah, that's a house rule not the official one. Like playing Monopoly with the Free Parking rule (where money from negative chance/community chest cards and the income tax space go to free parking instead of the bank and if you land on free parking you get the cash). I've only ever played Uno that way in one of the video game versions.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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There actually is a game very similar to UNO that has a card that works like that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Magazine_Card_Game
I only played it in German, where the names are different, but according to that article, the card is called "What Me Worry? You Worry!" in English: if you are getting something bad done to you, you can play that and instead do the same thing to the person who did that to you.
That seems to me to imply that in the game, the reverse card turns things around on the other player. Like if they play a +2, you can play the reverse card and make them pick up 2. Is that the way some people play?
Exactly, as I am used to, action cards do add up: E.g. if someone (player A) plays "draw 2", the next player (B) can lay another "draw 2" on top without drawing 2 cards themself forcing the next player (C) in line to draw 4 if they themself don't lay another "draw 2" or a reverse card of matching colour. The latter would then chang the direction of play and force player B to act accordingly.
I've never heard of anyone playing like that. I think it's just that if it can reverse turn order, it can reverse ANYTHING!
That and it's just a joke.
it can reverse ANYTHING!
Chaos, chaos!
Uno reverse… it reverses nothing.
I've not seen anyone play as the meme would imply, I think that entire meme basically just comes from the card being called "reverse" and nothing to do with the actual rules :p
Reverses the order of play when 3 or more people play or behaves like a skip when only 2 are left.
My kids brought home from kindergarten the house rule that you can discard all cards you hold with the same number at the same time when it is your turn so long as the bottom card matches the suit being played. Very chaotic but they love it.
Grouping like cards is essential if the ruleset forces you to pick up a lot of cards.
It also works to rubberband the game a bit, since more cards increases your chances of playing multiple cards.
Yes, we used to play that way. Basically any attack card could be stacked on top of a previous one (of a matching colour or type), and the first person who couldn't add to the stack got all the effects combined (so you might pick up 6 cards from a stack of +2s)
I have never seen Uno played that way. If a player plays "reverse", then the order of play switches from counterclockwise to clockwise or vice versa. The effects of the previous player's card still land on their usual targets.
The free parking rule gave a reason for the space and a bit of financial padding to the game. I'm pretty sure there were a few more extra enhancements back when I played it as a kid, just to add to the game. As long as everyone agrees to the changes. We used to mess with chess variations in high school, learned very quickly that some games get really screwed up if you bend rules or add things too much.
The game comes with official rules.
Obviously, but not everyone plays by the official rules. See the famous Monopoly example
How do you use the Uno reverse card?
My friends and I would play like that for shits and giggles usually after drinks. You can play reverse on top of pick up on top of skip, etc. so inevitably someone ends up with a massive hand and a plan to exact (friendly) revenge that often backfires spectacularly. But I wouldn't say most people play that way. Just one of those figures of speech one says without really thinking about.
It sounds fun playing that way. You just played a change the colour card? Well now I get to pick the colour
Yes. Most people I've played with do some variant of the super stacker ruleset.
All draw cards function as a skip your own turn and add to the draw stack. Skip and reverse can also function as passing the stack to someone else. This adds an additional element of risk/reward, do you play a scarce action card to pass the large stack at the risk of it backfiring and you possibly receiving an even larger draw stack, or do you just take the draw now?
The variants were popular enough that the UNO Facebook page has officially suggested them, for what it's worth.
Rules for Stacking Draw Cards in UNO | Uno Variations - https://www.unovariations.com/uno-variation-stacking
This was how we played growing up. We knew it wasn’t official, but knew it was more fun.
This just feeds into the notion that "the rules of Uno are whatever you can convince other people they are"
Uno is indeed Calvinball