I think whatever the semantics are, that it really needs to be made clear before the gift giving begins.
I know I went to a party like that at work a few years back. I don't remember what I brought, but it was something that was a decent fairly inexpensive gift for either a male or female. We were doing the gift grab where you picked numbers and then selected a gift when your number came up, you could either steal a gift, or take one from the gift table. It's a lot of fun, good natured and people enjoy it.
I took a gift off the table, opened it, and it was a pair of fake groucho marx glasses that also had little windshield wipers on them. That was it, I was out. The guy that brought the glasses thought it was a hoot (a few months later this guy ended up being my boss). He kept saying to other people, "well you know me, you know how crazy I am" That was all well an good, but while everyone else was still enjoying the activities, I was done. No one was going to steal this joke of a gift from me. The gift I brought went around three times before it stayed with one person, but I was effectively shut out from the rest of the festivities. I was pretty pissed off.
A few years before that I had the same thing happen in a gift exchange with a dance club I belonged to, one woman brought a boob mug and I ended up with it. It was shaped like a woman's boob, you poured the liquid in the top, put the lid on and then drank out of the end of the boob. It was a great gag gift, it was also the only gag gift. I really wasn't thrilled with that one either.
