Why Can't Comedy Games be Funny to Play?

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Worms Armageddon was probably one of the only games to make me laugh without scripted jokes. The lines were scripted, but the physics on many of the weirder weapons was so wonky you could never tell when you'd set off a chain reaction of exploding barrels/mines/worms/whatever. Also there was enough variety in the lines and voices that you wouldn't get too many repeats, and when you did get sick of Soul Man you could just switch to Rabbi or Sportscaster or Smooth Babe. Maybe they were on to something when they decided to put over 100 voice selections in that game.

Paper Mario Thousand Year Door wasn't quite that funny but these two taken together suggest that randomness is indeed a key component of making a combat-focused game funny. People in the audience would throw items or rocks at you. Stagelights and stage props would occasionally drop or a Dayzee would put the audience to sleep. Allowing 'combat breakdowns' on both enemies and PC (allowing both to lose arms, legs, weapon, head, etc.) and applying random strange conditions (shrink and giant affect character voices in the Smash Bros. games, to amusing affect) to each battle comes to mind, but like the cool sprayer in TTYD that can get frustrating.

 

[IrenIvy]

Sneakers, like "Thief", might be a possible game environment for comedy games. You sneak on people, you are eavesdropping and sometime Garrett made a funny comment about the situation he was sneaking around or eavesdropping onto. I remember Benny as well and Benny was a comedic gold, just like that guy in "Thief 3" who tried to impersonate Garrett. Such game would require quite a bit of work but no more than "Portal", I believe, in writing, and while giving random guards funny lines and dialogs might not work because of repetition, talks that only occurs once and/or even tied to exploration might work well.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I find going on murder sprees in Saints Row: The Third is funny but maybe I'm twisted.

 

[Yosarian2]

I find going on murder sprees funny in Saints Row: The Third but maybe I'm twisted.

Yeah; he had asked

"..what other comedy games, besides Portal, possess raw gameplay and challenge mechanics that could be interpreted as reflecting the context and tone of the humour?"

And the Saint's Row games were the best example I could think of.

It is lowbrow humor, but I still think one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a game were in Saint's Row 2 when the one lieutenant sketches out this whole detailed plan for how he's going to rob the casino, clearly based on the movie Ocean's 11; he has the floor-plan all stretched out, and he starts going through the whole plan. Then the protagonist says something like "Why don't we just walk in the front door and just kill everyone and then take the money instead?" And you do.

It says something about the personality of the protagonist in the game that that made perfect sense.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

It wasn't the gameplay in Psychonauts which was funny but the situations and ideas which came up. For example the bureaucracy level (don't know what else to call it) was great comedy when you stop to think about it, but playing it wasn't what made you laugh.

I think the gameplay needs to be physical comedy, Chaplin and so on. I remember games like Earthworm Jim being loved and laughed at back when I was in school. I didn't play them and don't think I would have enjoyed it that much (fart jokes, bodily fluids etc) but it still qualifies as physical comedy.

 

[Marley]

Surgeon Simulator anyone? After all the entire games is basically a big joke about simulators.

 

[Annihilist]

For what it's worth, the Halo series has a few witty moments. Very subtle ones that you have to look for, mind, but Bungie do have quite an interesting sense of humour on that front. I'm thinking the descriptions in the multiplayer settings in CE; the doomsayer grunt in Halo 3, the occasional one-liners you find here and there. It's sparse, but it's well married to the story, even thought it's irrelevant to the gameplay and far from a central mechanic.

 

[Annihilist]

I wonder what blurting out a love of cock would do to Tony Abbott's election chances...

It would do wonders for it, I think. It would go down in history as being the greatest election campaign in history.

 

[RicoADF]

Sandbox and physics are a large open-end for humor. I had a demo of Unreal Tournament 2k4 and we didn't have internet for a while. My roomates and I would take turns in the single demo level devoid of bots leaping into an instakill pit that had bars throughout it. The game we played was to see how spectacular a death we could before the respawn timer kicked in. We even had a Tony Hawk-ish style where we named certain "moves" and attributed a points system to it.
But the unintended consequence was the humor factor. Each death seemed to be funnier than the last. Watching the character bounce from pole to pole, only to hang from one then slide down slowly seemed to be the epitome of humor.
Its little things like that, the unforseen consequences (HL3 confirmed) that make games funny to play.

This 100% this ^^

I can't count the amount of times a serious session of ArmA series has turned into nothing but laughter after some random rocket hits a player from out of nowhere and sends him flying off into the distance, usually from one of the recoiless rifle technicals that we nick named "rocket snipers" for good reason. They always find a way to get you....
Or ofcourse running around a corner to see a tank, freaking out and running back where you come from, seein an enemy then running back to the tank's side again (forgetting about the tank in the heat of the moment) and pissing yourself laughing apon your demise to the main gun of said tank with a comment along the line of "oh right the tank"

 

[SandroTheMaster]

Sacrifice was very funny, but the humor came mostly from the five gods bickering among themselves (how in the nine hells did they get access to Tim Curry?). Units could be funny mostly by how pathetic most of them look.

Evil Genius works better. There were lots of some-or-other simulation games in the 90s that were pretty funny, like Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius was a callback to all that good stuff. But even a very funny game like Dungeon Keeper had most of its jokes being only funny the first time around. Unless you count being evil inherently funny (torture, starvation, slaping your minions to make them work harder... can all be funny in its ironic way). At least Sacrifice required several iterations working for each of the five gods to get all the jokes, and there were plenty.

Now that I think about it, one of the funniest first-person games I've ever played was Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. The game wasn't even particularly aimed at comedy, but it just gave you the right tools. Using telekinesis to throw stuff at your enemies, leaving a spot of the ground frozen so that a pursuing enemy slips and falls (possibly into an abyss), kicking goblins around so you can feel like a supreme jerk, setting off environmental kills.

Finally, there's Magicka, which was already mentioned (a lot). The several ways to off yourself while trying to cast can be pretty funny, especially in multiplayer. I wish, though, that some enemies weren't just immune to most effects you can throw at them.

 

[Ben Halstead]

There was also Giants: Citizen Kabuto, which had some great dialogue, but also managed to hit the mark with it's art direction, and the casual abuse of (and by) the local inhabitants during gameplay worked off the story. The three different gameplay modes for the three story arcs kept things fresh as well. Mostly it was the combination of many little comedy moments, slightly surreal setting, and fun and varied mechanics that left a positive impression.

 

[Oskuro]

My vote goes to the minigames in Saints Row 2, particularly the Insurance Fraud minigame.

They offer fun mechanics, and are short and to the point, only to be repeated if the player wishes, which helps them not overstay their welcome.

As for the Insurance Fraud minigame, throwing myself at traffic and chaining multiple hits on different vehicles as my limp flailing body is bounced around town never stops being funny. Specially in the rather manic way you end up looking to be hurt as the timer reaches completion.

 

[Joshroom]

Probably the original Worms games for the pc would be a good example. Had some truly hilarious weapons and death animations; mixed with turned based gameplay and simple play mechanics that lent itself well to the original humour.

 

[MrGalactus]

Ratchet and Clank is funny. I've only played the original trilogy and Deadlocked, and I think all four are funny, occasionally hilarious.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

I'm surprised this is considered funny. I've only played regular Far Cry 3, and I can't help but imagine the "funny guy" writer at Ubisoft Montreal to be either some 15 year old, fedora-wearing, MLP loving, "friend-zone" dwelling douche desperately trying to make a topical joke or funny NPC dialogue. It makes me cringe almost every time Far Cry 3 tries to be funny.

 

[MrGalactus]

Thought of another. GTA is always hilarious and well written in a Louis C.K. kind of way. Half juvenile, half satire.

My vote goes to the minigames in Saints Row 2, particularly the Insurance Fraud minigame.

They offer fun mechanics, and are short and to the point, only to be repeated if the player wishes, which helps them not overstay their welcome.

As for the Insurance Fraud minigame, throwing myself at traffic and chaining multiple hits on different vehicles as my limp flailing body is bounced around town never stops being funny. Specially in the rather manic way you end up looking to be hurt as the timer reaches completion.

THIIIIIIIIIIS. I remember having no idea what I was supposed to do for Insurance Fraud in SR1 when I started, then figuring it out and not being able to play because all the blood vessels in my face had burst from laughter. And, not only is it death-inducingly funny, it's also satisfyingly challenging

Probably the original Worms games for the pc would be a good example. Had some truly hilarious weapons and death animations; mixed with turned based gameplay and simple play mechanics that lent itself well to the original humour.

Also, this. Worms is funny, but I would say all of them, rather than just the originals.

 

[GundamSentinel]

For me, I'd say the Katamari games. They're insane on so many levels, and the gameplay certainly not the least of it. The King trying to speak Esperanto never gets old.

 

[djpsykotiko]

In my opinion, Borderlands 2's comedy is incredible. The quips the characters say, while eventually repetitious, are memorable enough and enjoyable enough that (at least with my friends) you'll end up laughing and repeating what they said, even after hearing it for the 5000th time.

I thought Eat Lead was funny as hell. Especially the special "Multiplayer" achievement you get. Comedy gold!

 

[retrochimp]

I'm sure all of these have been brought up previously, but I can't be bothered to check. There are many types of games which contain comedic elements as a major factor. These are my favorites that aren't adventure games. Or Valve products:

1. Silly sports games. Your "NFL Blitz"es, "NBA Jam"s, "Mutant League Football"s, et al. These are (at their best) decent sports simulators (with simplified controls and/or more limited options than your standard EA Sports fare) that are packaged as cartoony, over-the-top expansions on the basic premises of the sport. I'd also include "You Don't Know Jack" in this category. Because I feel like it.

2. Games that let Japanese comedy do its thing to such an extreme that it's glorious. Far too many to name all of them, so I will name some of my favorites with brief taglines: "Katamari Damacy": The Joy Of Scale; "Odama"; Finally The Pinball Game You've Been Waiting For, The Pinball Kills People!; "Killer7": Conventions Are For Suckers; "Chibi-Robo": Sweeping Counts As Gameplay, Right?; "Cho Aniki": Well that's...

3. Reasonably Competent Spoofs. I am a fan of "The Bard's Tale" for Xbox and it genuinely evoked laughs, because a) Cary Elwes is a badass, and b) it picks its moments. As a fantasy RPG-ish actiony kinda game, I find it completely competent. None of it is the best in its field, but it all works together nicely. Why it works is that it routinely doles out the funny bits while avoiding the traps of too-oft-repeated quips, which makes it quite enjoyable. It has pretty good jokes that are set-up well from cut-scene to cutscene and running gags that usually work. Plus it also has one of the best "moral choice" systems, in that it doesn't change the story (just the weapons and skills you get) and instead of "good/evil," the options are "nice/snarky." Much better, at least for this setting. This category also includes "Evil Dead: A Fistful Of Boomstick"

4. Finally, standing (unsteadily) alone is "Stubbs The Zombie In: Rebel Without A Pulse." This bafflingly-unpopular gem is funny, more-or-less, from start to finish, and is the best action/comedy game I've encountered. I think this is because every element has such joy in its absurdity. Every attack, even just melee attacks is simple, fully controlled, and hilarious. Just getting Stubbs to run is enough to make me laugh every time. And man, it never gets old beating a cop to the edge of death with his partner's arm and then eating his brains; and even if it does, you can always just tell your zombie horde to do it while you're rocking around in your hover-truck. Every boss fight is different and creative, some using using the many different skills and weapons you've acquired and some entertainingly out of nowhere, and the story (which is entirely married with the gameplay) is well-developed, satirical, and... you know what? Fuck the rest of this post, I'm gonna go play "Stubbs" right fucking now!