For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
Disco Elysium is the most recent game that was just chock full of humor, though maybe not focused on it specifically… beyond that the only games I can even really think of that had a focus on comedy were the old LucasArts classics. Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Monkey Island… And Borderlands.
I was just thinking about how this doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore. Where are the comedic oriented games? Why is everything so damn dark, and serious and brooding nowadays?
But I haven’t played that Not-Really-Rick-and-Morty-shooter. I heard that was funny.
So many of those old adventure games were hilarious. The Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest. But I was also a kid back then (probably shouldn’t have been playing Leisure Suit Larry…). I wonder if they’d still hold up for me today.
@JCPhoenix They definitely do! I replayed Sam & Max and DOTT on an emulator for my phone and played the remastered versions of Monkey Island. They are still awesome games.
I want to add "ToonStruck" to this list as well. One of the funniest, weirdest games I ever played.
Yes! Sam and Max is wonderful! There’s something so perfect in the way they react with complete nonchalance to all the weird stuff going on. And the soundtrack is great too.
But wasn’t that the evil AI very explicitly trying to psychologically hurt the protagonist and being really lame about it? I mean it’s the evil AI doing it and I remember the point of it being that fat jokes are lame.
I always sort of read those jokes as illustrative as GLaDOS being a bad person fielding weak material more than like, an earnest expression of the game writer’s values. Like, the game itself doesn’t present the remarks themselves as funny so much as GLaDOS being rude, snippy, and actively incorrect given that Chell is mega-fit.
Yeah, that always came across as “I’m trying to neg you but I ran out of my best insults like an hour ago so I’m throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.” Same with the adopted joke.
I get that context, and I think that was for sure the intent, but they did not stick the landing. We already knew GLaDOS is evil. Casual fatphobia was not necessary. Plus the fact that some people won’t get that context or choose to ignore it and just think it is funny, as evidenced further down this thread.
Edit: The person saying they would replay it for the fat jokes was removed, so my last sentence makes less sense, but that was the reason I said that
There’s an extremely long list of creative works made to be satire that idiots don’t understand. The Colbert Report, Starship Troopers, hell there are people that think Homelander is the good guy in The Boys. I think it’s a little too restrictive if someone can’t make a point that certain jokes are lame out of fear of how a few idiots might misinterpret it (many times deliberately). There are people right now arguing that the Barbie movie is actually “anti-woke”.
Also consider how many people actually did get the message. They heard how lame the jokes sounded and realized how stupid fat jokes are. From what I recall, the game really makes an effort to deconstruct these jokes. There is no audience within the game laughing at the jokes, and the evil AI explicitly states that it’s making the jokes solely to to negatively affect the protagonists psychological well being to prevent her from achieving anything. And the jokes are directed at the player, so someone that might have made these jokes themselves hears someone else directing these jokes at them and can hear how lame they are. The evil AI comes across as lame, petty, and desperate. Someone who made fat jokes before playing that game might have had the realization “is that how I sound?”
I feel like the people that didn’t get the context likely made fat jokes before playing the game, and would be making fat jokes even if they never played the game. So I don’t think there was any negative impact. Someone that committed to being an idiot isn’t going change in either direction from any kind of media.
Like I said, I understand the context. I don’t need more of it.
Jokes like this and the other examples require either a very deft hand or an extreme level of satire. The jokes did not achieve either of those for me. The harm it causes by folks misinterpreting or ignoring context is not worth the people who get it. I have friends that would 100% understand the context and would still be made uncomfortable by the delivery. That to me is the best indicator to how well it aged.
Also, posting a wall of text full of ableism is also not a great way to convince me otherwise
Yeah I never except anyone on the internet to admit they’re wrong about anything. But randomly accusing someone of being ablest based solely on a disagreement over the interpretation of a piece of media is rather petty behavior (even by internet standards), don’t you think?
For me its gotta be Donut County. I was baked out of my mind and my best friend was like “Dude you gotta play this game” and handed me his controller. It was awesome.
I’ve only played a little bit of Katamari Damaci but its such a WILD game!! I should go back again and try to beat it. Oh yeah, there’s totally some influence
For a game that’s a full comedy romp, West of Loathing consistently ruined me with laughter. The spittoon descriptions are probably the most derangedly funny writing ever put into the world. I’ve got to remember to play the sequel one of these days. Its also extremely mechanically satisfying, with several enticing roleplaying moments (as well as the occasional dramatic or scary moment that hits just as well as the comedy)
For a game that’s not explicitly only comedy but still hits strong marks, Yakuza 0 is a full meal. While most Yak games are fairly wacky when it comes to sidequesting (1 being perphaps the single exception, as the beginning of the series was quite dry), 0 feels like the one where they really hit their stride. There’s so many flat out ridiculous moments (you’ve most likely seen the chicken, and that’s just one of many) that you even forget this is also a heavily dramatic story and a full blown action beat’em up.
If you liked that it’s based on a browser game called Kingdom of Loathing, the gameplay is not as tight or refined but there’s plenty to do and it’s pretty enjoyable to play when you have some time to kill on a work pc lol.
First off, Rare had a reputation for good games, but they were cute, child friendly games. Conker was even a cute character with child friendly games. Then they made this… thing, which starts with Conker hungover from a night drinking and quickly descends into him fighting a giant poo monster. The game was rated R/18, which was crazy for Nintendo. The amount of little movie references everywhere was insane, also.
Someone else mentioned Procession to Calvary - an adventure game set in a cut and paste world of renaissance art with a very surreal plot and sense of humour. Pythonesque.
There Is No Game is pretty hilarious, the voice acting always makes me crack up.
Agatha Knife is a funny point and click adventure game where you're a 7 year old girl who's a butcher and needs to set up her own religion sacrificing pigs in the basement for... Reasons.
Just recently played A Hat in Time. We’re never told, but every detail points at this being the fantasy adventures of a little girl with A LOT in common with Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, an overabundance of imagination and hyperactivity. Charming and funny (well, save for Queen Vanessa, which I feel was instead a masterpiece in ambience). Loved it, gotta try the DLC. Just be ready for hard platforming at many places.
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