Is it possible to make a game comedy?

[Flatfrog]

Let me clarify. I'm not asking if it's possible to make a game 'funny' - of course it is and there are multiple examples. What I'm wondering is if you could make a game that is a comedy in terms of its structure and plot. A game equivalent of, say, Fawlty Towers.

My opinion is that it's impossible for one reason: comedy is about mistakes. You need your protagonist to do something stupid that they try to recover from by doing something even more stupid until it all falls apart (that's the 'farce' structure, but the same applies to most comedies). And a big part of that is also dramatic irony: we the audience need to know things that the protagonist doesn't.

But in a game, the audience *is* the protagonist, so how can their mistakes be built into the gameplay? Is there any way it could be done?

 

[SturmDolch]

Game genres don't really work like film, TV show, or book genres. Making a game a comedy is actually just making the game funny. "Comedy" does not describe gameplay at all.

 

[Daveman]

Different types of comedy work. Satire works, black comedy works, screwball comedy works, parody works... I mean fawlty towers is alright but it's not the be all and end all of comedy.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

It's easier to give games the basic structure of comedy compared to tragedy.

Comedy: Bumbling fool (typical player) rises to greatness (typical game story).
Tragedy: Great person (let's face it, very few of us are such hot shit) makes a key mistake and falls from grace (gamefaqs says hello, you expect players to make obvious mistakes deliberately in order to get a bad ending).

Tragedy is more about making fatal mistakes than comedy. Comedy is about you playing badly but somehow winning in the end anyway to an amusing and maybe unpredictable chain of events.

 

[Flatfrog]

Game genres don't really work like film, TV show, or book genres. Making a game a comedy is actually just making the game funny. "Comedy" does not describe gameplay at all.

Sounds like a bit of a cop-out to me. We don't feel like there's any problem describing a game as a horror or thriller, by analogy with the same genres in books and movies. I understand what you mean about comedy not describing gameplay, but neither does 'horror'. It defines the story structure, which should be *reflected* in gameplay but isn't identical to it. What I'm asking is whether there is any gameplay methodology that could be applied to a comedy story.

While writing this, I did think of one example: Grim Fandango. Admittedly it's a mystery rather than a pure comedy, but the story did revolve around you completing tasks that were occasionally detrimental to your own success. And allowing some broadening my definition of what constitutes a comedy, I'd say Abe's Oddysee/Exoddus might also qualify.

 

[SturmDolch]

Sounds like a bit of a cop-out to me. We don't feel like there's any problem describing a game as a horror or thriller, by analogy with the same genres in books and movies. I understand what you mean about comedy not describing gameplay, but neither does 'horror'. It defines the story structure, which should be *reflected* in gameplay but isn't identical to it. What I'm asking is whether there is any gameplay methodology that could be applied to a comedy story.

While writing this, I did think of one example: Grim Fandango. Admittedly it's a mystery rather than a pure comedy, but the story did revolve around you completing tasks that were occasionally detrimental to your own success. And allowing some broadening my definition of what constitutes a comedy, I'd say Abe's Oddysee/Exoddus might also qualify.

True, we do. But those are usually first person shooters or third person shooters. I thought you meant a completely new genre of game classified as comedy, and I'm not too sure how that would work without just making an interactive movie.

But just plain comedy games? I think Sam and Max are, although I haven't played them. I'd say Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie were comedy games, and I heard Conker's Bad Fur Day was as well. Fallout: New Vegas is a dark comedy.

Huh. There aren't that many of them, are there? I guess it's because everyone is still trying to make the Citizen Kane of video games.

But in a game, the audience *is* the protagonist, so how can their mistakes be built into the gameplay? Is there any way it could be done?

I didn't actually see this before, but I think it would be interesting to see it done like Bioshock, where the player is guided into making the mistake themselves instead of through cut scenes. And there's always the possibility for situational humour when the player triggers scripted events, like if he led a squad of manly men into a women's bathroom or other such things.

 

[McAster]

Phoenix Wright and Ghost Trick come to mind, as well as many classic DOS point and click adventure games where you can get it wrong or say the wrong thing and seeing how it was meant to be done can be just as amusing.
Oddworld Abe's Odyssey entertained me because it wanted me to mess up and see how I could let everyone down and get killed before I went to do the right thing.

SEGAGA was nothing but a game industry comedy.

A Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire style game that uses comedy could be done. A Mass Effect farce wouldn't be too hard to imagine with all the "mistakes" that you could do in it.

 

[Bobic]

Plenty of point and click adventure games are comedies, they seem to work quite well.

 

[Lullabye]

Yes. Its called Armed and Dangerous.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Yes. Its called Armed and Dangerous.

What he said. Also, try out Sam and Max, any of them. They play out like episodes of a Police Comedy, with pint sized lagomorphs.

 

[80Maxwell08]

My best guess would be basically any NIS(Nippon Ichi Software) America game but thats basically because the humor is basically everywhere but I'm not sure how much its "built in". However they are very fun so I would recommend trying...well any of them.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It could be done. I don't know if it would be any good but it could be done.
Of course, you wouldn't be the protagonist. More like a third person/god or something like sims. Sim3 could actually be played as a comedy by Flatfrog's standards.
I'm kind of happy it's not done though. The movie games are bad enough. Could you imagine games based on sitcoms?
You know they wouldn't do good ones like Faulty Towers or Arrested Development.
It would start with the cursed Mork & Mindy game that killed the Colecovision. Only for the trend to be revived with Who's the Boss on the NES and Perfect Strangers on the SMS. Then of course one of the worst games for the SNES would've been Growing Pains and the worst game for the Genesis would've been Full House.
I'm imagining a crappy Friends game on the ps1 and a much anticipated but equally crappy Seinfeld game on the n64: who wants to play a game about nothing?
That 70s Game for the ps2 would've been cool if it weren't for the broken controls and jerkey camera. Of course now, the Wii would be the king of crappy sitcom games with everything from the Office to Big Bang Game.

 

[random_bars]

Grim Fandango. Admittedly it's a mystery rather than a pure comedy, but the story did revolve around you completing tasks that were occasionally detrimental to your own success.

Like what? I haven't played it in forever, but from what I remember most of the puzzles involved screwing someone else over - in the second year, especially. Except in the very beginning of the game, where your attempts to get a decent client get you fired, I guess.

 

[Premonition]

Even if you were to make Fawlty Towers in to a game, that wouldn't make it a comedy. It would probably be more of a Sim game. You can't exactly compare movie genres with game genres.

 

[Flatfrog]

It could be done. I don't know if it would be any good but it could be done.
Of course, you wouldn't be the protagonist. More like a third person/god or something like sims. Sim3 could actually be played as a comedy by Flatfrog's standards.
I'm kind of happy it's not done though. The movie games are bad enough. Could you imagine games based on sitcoms?

*Shudders*

Don't get me wrong, I'm not by any standards suggesting that! I can count on one hand the movie tie-ins I thought were any good. Obviously you wouldn't want to actually copy a sitcom, I was thinking more about the structure.

Mostly I've been won over by responses here - you're all correct, I was too limiting in my definition of what constitutes comedy, and I should have narrowed it down a bit to 'comedy of errors'. The whole thing started in my head because I was thinking about the Extra Credits video where they were talking about sex in games, and thinking there's a good reason why it's generally avoided and awful when it's included. And that set me thinking about the 'rom-com' story and how impossible it would be to make an interactive rom-com. And then I thought 'or any comedy'. But I agree I cast my net of impossibility a bit too wide at that point...

So there's a revised and perhaps more interesting challenge: could there ever be a rom-com in game form (or other interactive media)? Leaving aside the question of whether you would want to, of course, but I'd say if you could, there would probably be some people with money that would like to talk to you...

 

[omega 616]

Let me clarify. I'm not asking if it's possible to make a game 'funny' - of course it is and there are multiple examples. What I'm wondering is if you could make a game that is a comedy in terms of its structure and plot. A game equivalent of, say, Fawlty Towers.

My opinion is that it's impossible for one reason: comedy is about mistakes. You need your protagonist to do something stupid that they try to recover from by doing something even more stupid until it all falls apart (that's the 'farce' structure, but the same applies to most comedies). And a big part of that is also dramatic irony: we the audience need to know things that the protagonist doesn't.

But in a game, the audience *is* the protagonist, so how can their mistakes be built into the gameplay? Is there any way it could be done?

Go on youtube and type in fork handles or the argument clinic, comedy doesn't have to be just physical. Personaly word play and stand up will always out do things like Mr. Bean and little Britain.

I don't think there could be a comedy game though, just wouldn't work.

 

[Minky_man]

Only way to possibly make a Purely comedic game would be to break the 4th wall over and over plaster it up then break it again.

And as a person who enjoys occasional 4th wall breaking, that game would SUCK!

You can make a game funny, but trying to make an interactive Monty Pyhon and making it a GAME rather than a movie that has "press X" shine on screen would be very hard indeed.

 

[Flatfrog]

Go on youtube and type in fork handles or the argument clinic, comedy doesn't have to be just physical. Personaly word play and stand up will always out do things like Mr. Bean and little Britain.

That's an odd response to my post - I wasn't talking about physical comedy at all (actually, I'd say slapstick is pretty easy to implement in a game - think Raving Rabbids). And to put Little Britain in the same category as Mr Bean is just bizarre - Little Britain is mostly class comedy with a gross-out edge, not at all the same kind of thing.

But the Fork handles sketch is another good example of something that wouldn't work interactively - the whole point of that sketch is a carefully crafted misunderstanding between two people.

Ha - in your face, Extra Credits! 'There's no limits to the kind of stories we can tell' - say that to the Two Ronnies, hey? hey?

 

[omega 616]

Go on youtube and type in fork handles or the argument clinic, comedy doesn't have to be just physical. Personaly word play and stand up will always out do things like Mr. Bean and little Britain.

That's an odd response to my post - I wasn't talking about physical comedy at all (actually, I'd say slapstick is pretty easy to implement in a game - think Raving Rabbids). And to put Little Britain in the same category as Mr Bean is just bizarre - Little Britain is mostly class comedy with a gross-out edge, not at all the same kind of thing.

But the Fork handles sketch is another good example of something that wouldn't work interactively - the whole point of that sketch is a carefully crafted misunderstanding between two people.

Ha - in your face, Extra Credits! 'There's no limits to the kind of stories we can tell' - say that to the Two Ronnies, hey? hey?

Not really, the thing you described was it building on mistakes, there are plenty of funny things that doen't do that.

Mr. Bean and little britain are kind of the same, just people acting like tools. Weirdly, I think Mr. Bean is class and little britain is the worst show to ever come on TV, somebody saying "computer says no" loads of times isn't funny.

There is no gross out in little britain, I did know of a comedian that did the most "gross out" material I have ever heard, although his name eludes me at the moment.