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Hey dudes,

I'm conducting a bit of informal research about humor in games (or "humour," as the queen likes to spell it). I'd like to know your opinions about which games you've found funny, and which games have failed at it miserably. I'm especially interested in mainstream games, since I'm not all that familiar with them.

I'm looking for specific examples that I can use in my "indie rant" thing at the IGS. Oh, and don't worry, I already know about Portal. :)

Help a brother out?

well I was going to say Portal.
How about Fallout 3? I only played the beginning but it was pretty funny, and I think it was intentional.
This is making me realize how few games I play....

Monkey island, Sam & Max...
...anything by Tim Schafer, Lucasart or Telltale Games really.

Rare also made some sick stuff.

Not really mainstream anymore though, but it was.

Yeah, Monkey Island is genius.

Yeah monkey island is a great example ...
Monkey island 1 was very funny.
But with each new sequel they kept repeating the same jokes and it became more and more boring to the point were I found MI3 tedious to play.
PERSONNAL OPINION YEAH!

I thought Psychonauts was wonderfully funny. Two games I have yet to find funny are The Simpsons Game and Eat Lead: Matt Hazard Returns. Coincidentally,both are made with the intention of mocking videogame cliches. The problems I have with both are the same: Great ideas, poor execution. I think timing has a lot to do with it. The Simpsons Game especially has tons of awkward silence between lines, such that punchlines have no punch at all.

Yes. Psychonauts. I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the entire time I played through this. Probably the second time, too.

Most Rockstar games are filled with humor.

Team fortress 2? Left 4 dead?

King's bounty: The Legend is quite hilarious, but more in a "wtf?"-kinda sense.

Trials 2, stair dismount, sumotori dreams, etc in a "ragdolls are hysterical"-kinda sense.

noby noby boy is hilarious.
in a non-joke way.
so was a lot of katamari damacy.

the GTA series always had great humor in its fake ads on bilboards, radio, TV, brand names, stores, etc etc. lots of "environmental humor", if you will. it's just everywhere around you.

world of goo had a lot of funny bits in it, too! the sign painter's stuff was great.
there's even jokes hidden when the game boots and initializes itself.

the karoshi games have a very unique sense of humour, in their subversiveness, beyond the more obvious dark elements.

Well, there's like well written joke humor, in which case all of Tim Schafer's games go neatly at the top of the list, and there's emergent humor (there was a thread on slapstick in games around somewhere), in which case I'd say Sumotori Dreams and second Phil's Noby Noby Boy.

there're also games like theme park and theme hospital; whose humorous elements can be viewed in several different lights.

then there's the humour you get from doing nasty things to people, like in the sims.

then there's the humour of the sort in the trial scene near the beginning of chrono-trigger, which plays on the genre.

giants: citizen kabuto was quite funny.  maybe one of the funniest games i've played?  in a very recognisably funny way. (you know, it had a decent script/&c.)

OH MAN!!! I forgot about Giants completely. That WAS a great game, if a bit unpolished. I still have the CD somewhere.

Would also like to add Earthbound and the rest of the Mother-series. Great humor all the way around.

Super Paper Mario, I think, is a pretty good example of a game that is trying to be funny much more than it actually is.

The Monkey Island games had anachronistic humour, slapstick humour, classic old-school cartoon humour, video-game humour, puns, and funny characters too. ("I AM MURRAY! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHHH!!!")

I haven't played the other ones after MI3 yet.

A lot of good shareware games were "humorous" too. Commander Keen, Monster Bash, Duke Nukem, Halloween Harry (AKA Alien Carnage in some countries), Paganitzu, Jazz Jackrabbit, Boppin...

Life of D Duck II (http://www.bjornarb.com) - play this at your own risk. This is hands down the funniest game I ever played.

Space Rangers 2 - the writing is genuinely funny, but the bad translation from Russian just makes it even funner. See also: King's Bounty

I have to second the GTA games, they've always been lough-out-loud funny for me, not just in the puns and environmental jokes but also because of the dialogue, the situations the characters get themselves into, the acting, the cutscenes, the radio, all of it (GTA 4 failed to amuse me though - not sure what went wrong).

I also found the cut scenes in Disgaea genuinely funny in lots of places, and the way the vassals in the castle just sit around and banter at you between missions, really funny stuff. Incidental and missable if you rush past, but really good fun if you stop to look. I Think that covers a lot of the humour that appeals to me actually.

Armed and Dangerous was pretty funny in a Britishy way.
Also anything by shiny up until 2000 was hilarious.

thief had an interesting feel of humour; listening in on people's rather dull conversations had a definite voyeuristic charm.

I second Earthbound/Mother series

I found most games translated by Working Designs to be pretty funny (they worked in a lot of jokes). Sometimes the jokes weren't that good, but most were okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYvPTW08MJc

I third the Mother series.

Simon the Sorcerer games were pretty funny, though it kind of sucked that they tried to work punchlines into the puzzles (hush puppies.. WTF!)

I think second Mondo game had some great deadpan humor. Mostly through the Boss's monologues, but also emerging from gameplay and visual design (there's something kind of absurd about a guy with a TV for a head shooting at flashing red pixelated indians).

Humor emerging through gameplay is actually a pretty interesting topic. I keep thinking of Lemmings, but I'm sure there are better examples. Maybe Sim City, depending on how you play...

darn. someone beat me to schafer.

sumorotori dreams:
This games humor works is that it's physical humor boiled down to it's essentials. a clumsy enity trying to cope with random events that are thrown at him, ands it's effect uppon itself and its surroundings. thats basically the entire game. sorry for the spoiler.

I think humor in games can be more than a well written joke. games that really get humor down is when they incorporate the idea of humor into the game. there's more games like these, but I can't remember them at the moment.

there is also a good deal of satirical games. achievement unlocked is a more recent one. you have to burn the rope is a satirical game, not really in my opinion an art game.
the simpsons have always been like that, or at least they used too, or at least they did it right when they used to. some of the genius is that they always left out the obvious punchline, even when the joke was completely waiting for it. now its just a bunch of writers trying to haphazardly dodge any semblence of a plot that occured in a previous episode, which cannot be an easy task. also, it's drawn by koreans.

edit: dammit! didn't read the mainstream games part. you don't really see games that are meant for the sole purpose of humor much in mainstream games because it's not something that people look for in games, and becomes unpitchable.

I think one of the more interesting things humor has arisen in video games is the mode where you unlock some rediculous alternate costume. one that replaces all the bad guys with teddy bears, or gives the damsel in distress a suit of medieval armor, or replaces the protaganist with tofu, or makes everyone really fat/thin/hydrocephalus.

tony hawk games always had a good sense of humor about them. like when you had to race a hobo in a shopping cart. that was more skater culture tho...

Quite Soulless and IWBTG come to mind for funny indie games, QS for its sheer absurdity and IWBTG for the ridiculously unfair deaths (eg. the moon falling down and killing you). Mainstreamwise, I found the city segments in Jak II fairly funny, although I doubt this was intentional. The ridiculous combination of cartoony visuals and having the ability to beat up and kill people and steal cars and smash into cars to destroy them often made me laugh out loud. Oftentimes I would punch a citizen just for kicks and they would run away screaming and waving their arms in the air in an extremely unnatural way. It was also hilariously funny how, when you punched a person once in front of a guard, the whole squadron would come after you in their floating cars and you would have to crashland your car in the water district and go under the water for a couple of minutes. I guess what makes me laugh in these games is absurdity, contrast between the graphics and the gameplay, and ridiculously exaggerated responses to small threats. The rest of Jak II was rather boring and I never got very far into it, but I've played the city area for hours in a rather freeform, goalless way.

QWOP
http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html

Judging only by footage I've seen, humour in A Vampyre Story wasn't so great.

Of course! :gentleman:

Ratchet and Clank series, forgot about those - and to a lesser extent, for me,  the Jak series mentioned above - these are downright hilarious in their cut scenes. Not so much in actual gameplay though. It is just really great application of some pretty traditional humour, even cliche stuff is done really really well. Great animation, sound, direction, it's top notch stuff IMO. There's probably some on youtube.

The intentional humour in Jak 1 & 2 was horrible (never played 3) but what I mentioned above was quite funny.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga had a pretty good sense of humour; it came across as a game that didn't take itself too seriously, and made fun of a lot of Mario's heritage.

Anything by Tim Schaffer is a no-brainer. Bishi Bashi Special (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-azMAkQeAgg) had a very uniquely Japanese sense of humour, with minigames like 'Hyper Pie Throw' and 'Jump for the Meat'. I guess Parappa the Rapper falls into the same category; it was often amusing simply because of its absurdity. I guess the GTA series is notable for its humour also.

Hm. Schafer - not hoping that adding another voice to the choir will make a difference, but I want to point out that I really like how he manages to use humor in a way that enhances different settings and moods for different games - not many people pull that off, even in movies.

Disney games usually have the same kind of humor as Disney Movies, with a major focus on conveying things through animation. I personally think the Legend of Zelda - the Wind Waker did this better than any Disney game I can recall, though.

Like many others, I found the general over-the-top macho parts and the always awkward other parts of Gears of War 2 to be incredibly funny, but maybe "Laughable" is the correct term here...

Then there's the unintended humor appearing as a result of bugs or technical limitations. Like Link stuffing the kid in his bottomless bag of loot in Zelda 2.

One big problem with humorous allusions in games is that every major game company is scared shitless of being sued for copyright infringement, so few dare to include references to other works that they don't own themselves.

Ikiki!

(http://ui11.gamespot.com/842/earthwormjim3_2.jpg)

Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers... Oh, and I find myself chuckling occasionally playing Metal Slug, but I think it's just the audio.

And what Fish just said.

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but the many instances of Engrish in old-school games are hilarious. I'm sure you've all heard of "All your base" and "I am sleep".

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but the Space Quest series was incredibly hilarious.  Those games were basically the video game equivalent of parody films, with huge amounts of comedic references and allusions to things in the Sci-Fi genre.  Good times!  :-*

Do I sense a slight jab at my Queen and superior spelling?  Because that's totally not cool!  :-X  :D

I find serious sam(first and second encounter) to be hillarious at times. Sometimes there are hints of jokes, like the main character suddenly whistling "singing in the rain" at a rainy level, but the jokes are seldom the things that are funny. It's the game itself that is funny, containing so weird stuff that you just have to laugh at it. Enemies like the beheaded kamikaze that run towards you with an instant scream, the charging buffalo, the hordes of frogs, the fact that a kamikaze can get stuck on a buffalo and ride it, the weapon that is a goddamn cannon that fires cannon balls as big as a car, all of it. It's so very awsome.

Serious sam 2, the official follow-up, is failing so much at being funny at all. Instead of that weird, twisted humor from the first game it has this time actually tried to be funny in a very cartoon network kind of way. They introduce goofy characters that talk with high pitched voices, planets with funny little inhabitants that run around and scream stuff to you, and funny situations like two of those ugly little creatures having sex in a bush and running away from there when you get closer. It is sad and awkward. :(

Also I think that max payne is funny at times. It reminds of the humor in serious sam a bit, hard boiled, silent and twisted. The fact that vinnie is stuck in a captain basballbatboy suit and can't take it of or it will blow his head off is so very tragic and so very funny. Also the villian's conversations when you sneak at them, and the things that are shown on the TVs in the game is really good stuff. And of course the small details like that if you walk up to a piano and press use max tries to play the main theme of the game but fails.

I think I enjoy subtle humor more than loud, at least in games.

Damn, most of my first replies were already snagged ???:handshakeR:

But I feel that I have to put in another cookie for Tim Schafer, Because.

...Someone mentioned Fallout 3 in the beginning, and it sure has it's moments, but Fallout and absolutely and mostly Fallout 2 has so much wonderful humour, on all different levels I feel.

Besides the other titles already dropped in this thread, I don't know... Kingdom of Loathing? :giggle:

The Lego Star Wars games had some pretty funny slapstick.
Duke Nukem 3D was more adolescent humor, but the sight gags are still pretty funny.

Roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl and DoomRL make me laugh every time my character dies.

Going to have to second Life of D. Duck 2 and Third the GTA games.

I'd also recommend Anachronox, in all its unfinished glory, as a great example of humour in games.

I would like to add some games to this list, even though really I guess it is kinda two lists...

Games that are hilarious in that special way that only games can be (e.g. Katamari, GTA):

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Worms
Halo (co-op)
Little Big Planet

Games that are funny because they're well-written (e.g. Psychonauts, Monkey Island):

Bionic Commando Re-armed

Yeah, the SSB series is because of the results, not in it's own right. The ways you can die always create laughter! He he he!

(http://files.xboxic.com/xbox-360/dead-rising/dead-rising-e3-2006-pic4-2.jpg)

Fish keeps taking the ones I forget, and it makes me sad.

I think being able to dress up in the children's clothes is the best part. But the Servbot helmets are incredibly awesome.

i played most of that game in drag.

with a servbot helmet.

also, everything wario ware.

Anybody here played Chulip?
(http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/videogames/chulip-a.jpg)
That game is the epitome of Japanese humor, where it's so insane that you can't help but laugh. You play as a little boy who moves in next door to the girl of his dreams, but in order to win her over, he has to become a stronger lover. How does he do this? By seducing every living thing in the town and kissing them. Man, woman, child, underground telephone monster, doesn't matter. Because it's all in the name... of love!

 

Banjo-Kazooie Nuts&Bolts is incredibly well written. There's so many jokes and sightgags. They even make fun of the changes made to the series.

Hey dudes, sorry for falling off the face of the earth for a bit there. Damn flu season.

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. I was surprised that so many of you pointed to old adventure games as examples of "humor," but I guess they were some of the last big games to make the writing a selling point. I also can't believe that "zany" sold so well, but the early 90s were a different time.

A few of you stumbled upon topics I'm going to get into during my talk, e.g. satire and user-generated content. I think I've got enough examples here now, so thanks for weighing in.

What I'm looking for now is an example of some spectacularly bad writing. Maybe even specific lines, if you happen to remember them. Bonus points if said writing takes place in a cutscene that is immediately followed by an ambush and some spectacularly graphic killing. Basically, I'm looking for a scene that I can use to make a straw man illustrate a point about writing in action games.

I think the Resident Evil games are particularly famous for bad writing.

Edit: Haha, Chulip is the japanese Leisure Suit Larry. :D

Yes, there are several cutscenes from the first Resident Evil that may be useful:

'The master of unlocking' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XyghKl72R0)
'Jill sandwich' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtTfptkUgj0)
'It's really powerful, especially against living things' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy6alp5r80c)

I think you get the idea...

Last Alert: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I15afrYlTFI&feature=related)
Final boss: "Why would a hireling soldier like you go through so much trouble to torment me? Why?!"
Player: "Garcian! No one can hire my feelings!"

The site Audio Atrocities (http://www.audioatrocities.com/index.html) should be helpful in finding some absolutely terrible videogame writing and voice acting.

"What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets!"
-Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night

Richter Belmont: Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!

Dracula: It was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh! I was called here by humans who wish to pay me tribute!

Richter: Tribute? You steal men's souls, and make them your slaves!

Dracula: I suppose the same could be said of all religions...

Richter: Your words are as empty as your soul! Mankind ill needs a savior such as you!

Dracula: What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk... Have at you!


(And yes, that was from memory.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhcaj8UHD9I&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhcaj8UHD9I&feature=related)

House of the Dead II: "We're meeting G over there".

The delivery is important to that one though.

If you want to have a go at action games, how about Gears of War II:

"There's a shitload of locusts down there"
"More like ten shitloads"

Jesus wept...

Ha ha! These are great, keep 'em coming. I feel like these lines would lend themselves well to a coffeehouse setting and/or a dramatic reading.

I AM ERROR

That sounds like a GDC breakout session waiting to happen. Especially if they could be declaimed in the manner of Shakespearean actors, one hand on breast and one outstretched...

Alas, poor [insert game character], I knew him, [insert game character].

Forsooth! What light through yonder window breaks? Tis the east, and Aeris is the sun.

I should've been the one to fill your dark soul with LIIIIIGHHHT! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8qG4AlK1qk)

LEEIIIEEEGHT

He was going through puberty, I guess.

Amaaaazing. ;D

Not so much bad writing as bad everything. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg)