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Why is most gamer humor actually fucking unfunny as hell

Sometimes the humor hits at the right or wrong time. I remember having to just stop Uncharted 4 for a while just to laugh at "there's a guy above you/below you". Still manages to make me smile now.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I just feel like comedy and humor has been in a weird place for awhile now. So many things reference memes, or meme-like humor, and it just never hits. When it feels forced, it doesn't feel good, and it almost always never lands.
 

Krathoon

Member
Sometimes, you have a funny game company, like Double Fine, Planet Moon, or the guys that made Gunstringer.

Bioware games have a sense of humor.
 
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twerkouting

Banned
Serious answer: Gaming as a whole, is relatively new medium. It's audience is growing up slowly but the bulk of it's community skews on the younger side because that's where the money always is.

Serious not serious but yeah, kind serious answer: socially inept nerds that gravitate towards things where they don't have to directly interact with other human beings face to face because of fear of being rejected. But the internet exists so unlike the stone age they then find people like them online and don't expand their social circle outside gamer culture which just further reinforces that culture, scraping the bottom of their little culturally incestuous barrel until they become big brains that only laugh at weird shit that nobody but them likes and/or then Steve Bannon radicalizes them.
 

Barakov

Member
See this thread for some great examples.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/why-is-all-gaming-humour-terrible.961897/
iWFA3TE_d.webp
This shit was cringe even 12 years ago.

Also, this quote sums up the current state of the so-called gaming community :
kqpCcSu.jpg


zoomers this is all on you.
 

twerkouting

Banned
I only like gamer humor when it's mean, I don't know why. I guess I am a jerkface.

My favorite gamer comic panel is unpostable because it's extremely misogynistic. And while I recognize its problems, I still see it as funny as fuck, poking fun at both gamers and a developer alike. But all the lame Reddit-level amateur airline-food-quality comic panels made by tame wannabes looking for a patreon fanbase just don't do it for me.
Genuinely curious, not judging: you recognize that the humor you like is mean, problematic, and ostensibly, would make others uncomfortable in a way that might make you seem threatening to them. Why do you think you like this kind of humor? How's everything going outside your gaming interests?
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
The true answer is a boring one
Humor is subjective. Things can objectively be MADE with the intent of being humorous, but whether you actually find it funny is purely subjective.

Games appeal to the widest net they can, therefore, you utilize the lowest common denominator humor, so that as many people might enjoy a joke as possible. Not every game is going to be Blackadder
 

Krathoon

Member
There are games that are intentionally campy, like NFS: Most Wanted (2005) and NFS:Carbon.
ID Software games tend to be campy.
That is a form of humor. It is more subtle.
 
Gsmer humor is led by the people who still find pepe funny in 2022...its lead by the trolls. I think some creators are funny. Persona 5 , Red dead 2, psychonauts 2 had genuinely funny moments.
 
All the comics flooding /r/funny are terrible imo. None of it is funny.

The video game stuff I've found funny are weird things happening in a Yakuza or Deadly Premonition type game. The only other video game stuff I've found funny are some comments from podcasters or video game songs on youtube.
 

Surf Ninja

Member
Still not sure what you're exactly referring to but Mega64 is basically peak game humor. Taking game concepts and applying them to real life. A lot of it is humor from the awkward situation (fair point) but it's also because it sorts of points out how stupid (or rather unrealistic) the original games were.

Two great examples from Mega64 are the Assassin's Creed one (where he starts touching people's shoulders as he walks past them, just like in the game)


and the Shenmue one (where he is super awkward, just like the game's protagonist)


The other funny people I can think of are GameGrumps but most of their funny content has nothing to do with games per se. It's usually them doing some stupid/funny skit (or telling a funny story) while happening to be playing video games.

I feel like Mega64 should be bigger.
 

Jennings

Member
Genuinely curious, not judging: you recognize that the humor you like is mean, problematic, and ostensibly, would make others uncomfortable in a way that might make you seem threatening to them. Why do you think you like this kind of humor? How's everything going outside your gaming interests?
Everything is fine, thanks for your interest. Just because something isn't worth sharing in mixed company doesn't mean it can't be funny. Some stuff is just so edgy, on the nose, or in poor taste that the depiction itself drowns out whatever punchline or point the comic might be trying to make, regardless if it resonates with you or not. And this is one of those instances, the comic in question riffs on some (potential mis-)perceptions that were widespread at the time, but does so in a way that seeks to insult people on two sides of a (potentially non-)issue as much as anything else.

Drug addicts might chafe at the Jack Black character in Tropic Thunder, but that doesn't keep millions of other people laughing at his utter misery and desperation no matter how addiction is depicted there. So while an NA meeting might not be the best place to laugh at his problems, it shouldn't stop others from doing so. Not all humor appeals to all people, and I'm capable of sussing out which platforms certain brands of humor may or may not be appreciated.

I just have a soft spot for dark humor, and a lot of dark humor can feel pretty unsettling, or mean, to some. I'm okay with that, and I won't rub it in their face.
 

Krathoon

Member
Yeah. Mega 64 does a great job at showing how niche gamer culture really is.

They go around acting like video game characters and few people actually get it.
The Kojima skit was comedy gold.


It is a pretty old skit now.
 

Shifty

Member
When you can tell it's a 64bitmodels thread from the title alone :messenger_smirking:

Unfunny attempts at humor are in fact unfunny, and appreciated by a shockingly large number of similarly unfunny people.
A quick glance at Pinterest or the front page of any modern image macro / meme site will tell you that much.

Hell, open GAF's built-in GIF picker and you'll probably see at least one that makes you question the humor deficit that prompted its creation.
 
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OOGABOOGA

Banned
If it'th not a thitty meme that feelth like it came from 2012 making real life pathrallels to a vitheo thame, or a crappy webcomic from the 2000s (cough cough CTRL Alt thel cough cough penny athcade), Then it'th either thome 'edthy' meme that taketh real life conthquences and applieth them to vitheo gameth (ignothing the fact that they're almotht alwayth not orithinal and are harthly funny, there are extheptions though) or thtupid referenthes. I just don't understanth what's tho funny about it, it eventhually becomth ethtremely crinthy after theeing it tho many timth.
60f.png
 
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Surf Ninja

Member
The reason gamer humor is lame is the reason everything online is lame: the barrier to entry is insignificant so anyone can start up a webcomic, or meme sharing account, or more to the modern era, a YouTube channel where punchlines can be replaced with extreme close-ups or jump cuts, and being clever is like 864th on the "list of important things for YouTubers/Streamers."
 

Krathoon

Member
Comedy games are kinda rare. I am sure there are some humorous indie games out there. Castle Crashers comes to mind.
 
I have no idea what this thread is about...?

Is the OP bitching about the humour in games trying to be funny? Or silly gamer memes that get posted on web forums, or something else?

If you wanna start a collective bitching thread, OP, at least make it clear what we're all here to bitch about.

Otherwise, I'm just gonna co-opt this thread to use it to bitch about the fact that baked cheesecakes are just not fucking cheesecakes. I don't care what fucking heathen Michellin-starred motherfucker you think you are. Once you put a cheesecake in an oven, it automatically defaults to a pie. Congrats, you made a fucking cheese flavour pie. Just don't call it a cheesecake.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Yea, some of those old point and clink Lucasarts games had good comedy.

The only modern games I can think of that genuinely made me laugh are the Rachet and Clank series, specifically a Crack in Time. Dr. Nefarious in that game is legit funny and so are Captain Slag and Rusty Pete as the pirate radio DJs. The R&C remake was a total step backwards though. Haven't played Rift Apart yet.

Suda 51 is the worst offender for me. Not a fan of his games or story skills. I just feel embarrassed for him. "Taste my big boner!!"
Angry American Idol GIF
 

Krathoon

Member
Borderlands is in the backlog. They made a huge amount of content.
Suda 51 games have a certain charm to them. There is a silliness to them.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
If it'th not a thitty meme that feelth like it came from 2012 making real life pathrallels to a vitheo thame, or a crappy webcomic from the 2000s (cough cough CTRL Alt thel cough cough penny athcade), Then it'th either thome 'edthy' meme that taketh real life conthquences and applieth them to vitheo gameth (ignothing the fact that they're almotht alwayth not orithinal and are harthly funny, there are extheptions though) or thtupid referenthes. I just don't understanth what's tho funny about it, it eventhually becomth ethtremely crinthy after theeing it tho many timth.
60f.png
look man if you think stuff like dorkly is funny you need help my dude
 
There are funny gamers but they definitely don't exist in great numbers on Neogaf lol almost everyone here fundamentally doesn't understand anything but the most direct, basic kinds of humour. Anything even remotely oblique confuses them. It's the same anywhere. Personally I think the government should do something about these people but whatever...
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
You say this and yet you are the one who made entire thread about how dont like humor in games/gamers.

Humor is subjective, each person find different things funny, simple as that.
fair enough, still though i just think a lot of it can be outdated or not very inventive.
 
gta4's radio was funny.

You know who's making the most money throughout history? The men. Who have been the great leaders? Men. Maybe you have Cleopatra but, Egyptians live in triangles, tetrahedrons and shit--a triangle is not manly! (audience claps) Who fought the best wars? Men. Who make the best murderers? Men. Who invented the plague? Men. We got it all, bitch. We run this show, and I don't give a fuck who knows it.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
fair enough, still though i just think a lot of it can be outdated or not very inventive.
Here is the thing, WHO CARES? I find anything Marvel and Star Wars related cringy as fuck but I'm not gonna go complain about why other people like them.

People like what they like.
 
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