Humor In Video Games

[@asdfjkl227]

I can just picture Tim running excitedly through the house looking for one of the boxes he knew had a shirt because he was ready to record a video.

[@coolen]

Disco Elysium feels effortlessly funny in so many places and it never undermines the story or the atmosphere. Just mindblowing, incredibly versatile writing all around

[@alexanderabramov2719]

NO to repeating shirts! Go shirtless!

[@meh.7539]

I think you're looking for a *very* different channel, my friend.

[@Ms.Pronounced_Name]

But since lack of shirt is a shirt option he can't repeat it

[@meh.7539]

@@Ms.Pronounced_Name Oooh. So technically correct it should be wrong... But it feels so right...

[@vansdan.]

​@@meh.7539no, its this channel 🥰

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

​@@Ms.Pronounced_Name lol! then it'll turn into a hangout for gay bears

[@Deenyoro]

I would love to hear more about the story of how Troika got a source engine license and all the drama that led to vampire having to be released on the same day as HL2

[@alexfrank5331]

My headcanon is: Sierra schedules the release HL2 Activision: "Hey. Don't we have a game using that engine? We need to release it on the same day! Bad idea? I'm the business/marketing expert. Do as I say."

[@BearOldcastle]

I too think if he could talk about it would be interesting to hear about. Vampire the masquerade is such a flawed masterpiece it was so close to greatness and it was rushed to its doom.

[@kavinskysmith4094]

Not gonna lie that is a good question, although given I remember ross scott talking about it as the Tower Of Ductape, where its really the quake gold engine just constantly upgraded and upgraded till Valve forgot how to game in 2013, there was probably some cause that allowed them to do that, plus Bloodlines isnt garry's mod compatable so they must have changed quite a few things in addition to that

[@stm7810]

It's not just the relative darkness, it's that humor makes things feel real, and that's how you can empathise and feel the sadness and desolation. Same as in world art, humor makes it feel like a place with people, even in the apocalypse people will make new pictures and music, they will tell jokes and sometimes things play out unexpectedly which is a big part of what's funny.

[@lrinfi]

Beutifully put.

[@artoodiitoo]

Yeah, when I see war movies or such where everyone is super serious all the time makes them seem unrealistic, especially in tough situation people tend to joke to lighten up the mood. Actually that reminds me of Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick thought the idea of a global nuclear war is so absurd he thought the best type to make the movie into was comedy (I´m not as good to explain it, but check it out xD)

[@stm7810]

​@@artoodiitoo Yeah, Soldier Boy was sadder than any other book or poem I read on WW1 because of jarring moments of the humor and joy in tossing canned food and smokes back and forth between trenches or playing cricket to tossing grenades, these were real people with full emotional ranges. I would like to watch it some time and yeah, especially in the apocalypse, there may be shooting but there will also be laughing. mods that add funny radio stations or joking characters, or base game wild wasteland and in the original the natural wierdness like finding the alien ship make it more real and I don't want to say human since that excludes both the fictional ghouls and such as well as IRL otherkin but you get the idea.

[@blckdrgn813]

It’s kind of crazy to see how many people fall into the “funny = good” trap without really taking stock of how jokes or humor can affect the setting or characters that surround it. I know of a game or two that have been so heavy handed on jokes and referential humor that it’s actually genuinely difficult to take the setting seriously let alone the story. It’s frustrating because there are times I absolutely would LOVE a serious moment but the people I play with are looking for the next pop culture joke or “hidden” reference rather than engaging on any other level.

[@georgeweissmann9095]

I felt this way about The Outer Worlds, unfortunately. I struggled to become immersed in the setting because it rarely took itself seriously for very long, which made me feel like I shouldn't take it seriously either.

[@Owl90]

@@georgeweissmann9095 Same. I wonder how much involvement Tim had with that aspect of the writing. I'm guessing not much.

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

I've been doing "dumb" run of your games since Fallout and I want to thank you for that. Nobody else does that... My roleplay of (Futurama) Fry in The Outer Worlds probably was the funniest.

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

some of my best gaming memories were being surprised by original Fallout's dumb dialogue options.

[@bagthebag8049]

@@BlackMasterRoshi I remember using psycho thinking it was the best thing ever, and suddenly all the dialogue was just mindless grunts, and i thought i had ruined my character forever, prompting me to restart the game! lol

[@FluffySylveonBoi]

Yes, also low luck is great, especially jinxed. Not many games do it this way.

[@StavrosNikolaou]

I find humor exceptionally difficult to land in games, movies and books but I have to admit you have nailed the humor in your games. Especially outer worlds. Thank you for the many gems of laughter you've added throughout your work!!

[@gilgamecha]

Have to say I don't think the jokes in Outer Worlds were good. They were cringe and they undermined any serious aspect to the story. I agree with Patrician's review. As Tim says, it's hard.

[@exxyplaysandplays]

Even Tyranny, a game about being evil, had some really good jokes in it. One of your companions is a soldier who is permanently stuck inside a full suit of armor, and it's established pretty early on that not only is he unable to bathe, he is by necessity constantly soiling himself. The lack of handwaving around his situation was very funny to me.

[@alexfrank5331]

how would stealth work? everyone would smell him from a mile away. how does your PC or your other less-kind, less-patient companions put up with it? all hand-waved.

[@exxyplaysandplays]

@@alexfrank5331 The other companions DON'T put up with it. They complain all the time. All I was trying to say was that I found it funny that the design team chose to trap someone in a suit of armor, and instead of just not saying anything about the fact that this person would obviously stink, not to mention issues with going to the bathroom, the writers chose to incorporate those elements into their writing, and it was a really cool effect. Your reaction was pointless and unhelpful - you know like when Tim talks about unhelpful criticism? That's you. You contributed nothing to the discussion while pretending to annihilate an argument I wasn't making, just so you could feel better about "being right". Thank you so much.

[@leonardoferrari4852]

​@@exxyplaysandplaysstop, he is already dead!

[@ZTriggerGaming]

I think small amounts of humor are necessary for narrative based games. For many people, humor is the most endearing trait and building attachment to characters without it sounds nearly impossible.

[@LordHengun]

I love someone acknowledging that humor is difficult. It does feel like a lot of people kind of realize this but instead of taking a step back and thinking about how they can improve, they make a joke out of the writing itself. I'm SO tired of people going for self-aware meta humor and meme references, especially in the indie space. Self-aware bad writing doesn't become good writing just because you're the first to point it out.

[@alexfrank5331]

b-movie charm?

[@JustGrowingUp84]

Man, I loved doing a Malkavian playthrough in Bloodlines! Whoever wrote that: great job!

[@alexfrank5331]

Brian Mitsoda stayed up all night to write Malkavian dialogues. You will not be surprised to learn that in real-life medicine, sleep deprivation strongly contributes to mental illnesses.

[@FluffySylveonBoi]

I don't even know if it is a reference or not, but my most favourite joke in Fallout is: "What do you want?" "A donut." Made me laugh so much xD

[@realbillyb]

I absolutely agree with the points made in this video. I also feel in regards to the “monorail vs rollercoaster” philosophy, being comedic too much can also fall flat. For example, the Grand Theft Auto games are great, but many of them rely too much on obvious parodies in their world and characters to a point where it can instead feel dull and instead detracts from its world, even if the world is meant to be a parody itself.

[@glr]

Wait a minute! Red Ryder BB Gun was obviously from the movie, but more importantly is a reference to Red Ryder Rifle in Wasteland (also from the movie), right?

[@Ms.Pronounced_Name]

9:50 "Make a game fun before making it balanced" Me: *thinks back on Fallout, remembers the many times my character ended up with NEGATIVE 300hp* Me: yup, story checks out

[@artoodiitoo]

SMG: rattattattat my character: aaAAAAAAHHHHHH

[@FluffySylveonBoi]

@@artoodiitoo bloodied body falls *slap slap*

[@xyhmo]

Make a game balance before making it funned.

[@dino3262]

I think you just described my main issue with the Bethesda Fallout series. They just feels a bit monotonous without having the humour of the first 2

[@lrinfi]

Some have argued, and I think it's true, that Bethesda either never really got the humor of the original Fallouts or tried to mainstream it to the point that it became a formulaic 'zany, silly and bizarre=funny'. Todd Howard described it as the "get under your desk if the bomb comes and everything will be fine" humor we poke at those naive 50's propaganda flicks about nuclear armageddon. If only it were ironic humor all the time. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it goes for just plain silly and I get the sense that all kinds of different developers are just throwing in whatever crosses their minds, thinking as long as it's a joke, it fits the tone of Fallout. Tone is also terribly difficult to get right in any kind of media. Maybe Tim can do a talk about maintaining the tone of a project over the course of its development.

[@gilgamecha]

The humour, such as it is, is mostly in the sarcastic dialog options.

[@lrinfi]

​@@gilgamecha It's actually in the art style and everything else in the originals and not as much in the dialogue options, which are generally more serious by comparison with the exception of the "dumb" dialogue. That's why I say that Bethesda is essentially selling icongraphy stripped of all its original meaning. I've played the modern Fallouts myself and enjoyed what there is to enjoy about them, but they honestly feel like they've literally been stripped of Fallout's heart and soul; sanitized in a way that will make the modern games more palatable to an indiscriminate audience that just wants to forget the real world exists and go have "fun" for a while. They're utterly divorced from the real world, iow. I agree with Noah Caldwell-Gervais when he says that Fallout never has been so much about "fun" for him as a trip to that "transcendent place" within his own imagination. It's in that "transcendent place" where the true dialogue -- that between creator/developer and player -- occurs.

[@johnharter7553]

Tim you got more shirts than I’ve had clothes in my entire life lmaoo

[@jimnms]

The Wild Wasteland perk in Fallout: New Vegas is a good example of this. For those that don't know, the perk adds extra encounters like pop culture references/jokes, etc. Whenever you encounter one, an icon appears at the top left of the screen and a sound plays. When I played it with that perk, there were several times when the perk notification went off and I didn't get the "joke." I would pause the game to go find out what the reference was, which disrupted my experience with the game. Without that notification, I would not have known I was missing some reference and gone about playing without the interruption. There are mods now that do just that, remove the notification so you can play uninterrupted, as well as allow you to enable it without having to take it as a perk.

[@Anubis1101]

I totally understand the similarities between references and humor in game design and writing, and a big problem I see today is the fast pace of internet cultures and subcultures. If you've ever seen a company try to use contemporary memes in a commercial or promotion, you know the physical cringe that happens when a joke or reference has aged poorly. If I look back at some of my early writings, I've got outdated memes and cultural references that either don't hold up today, or the context has completely changed, ruining whatever information or experience I was trying to convey. I see that more now, now that 'meme culture' is so pervasive. It's important to keep your primary storyline largely clean of references, and light on humor, so that it isn't ruined by the passage of time. I've had to tell fellow modmakers this on a few occasions when they put overt references sometimes in the mod page itself, causing a lot of people to pass it over. It's hard to develop that sort of objective cultural awareness, but I think it's important for any writer or designer to learn.

[@moistlama4047]

I agree, but what you're talking about is mainly referencial humor which usually ages like milk with any change in culture and it's not necessarily preferable as a part of the audience might feel left out for not getting the joke, especially if the joke is very on the nose. Going for a more character oriented approach or good old physical humor is usually more preferred as there is less of a barrier of entry for the audience and it tends to age way better. There is a reason there is literature from ages ago with jokes we can still laugh at today, while in some works we just simply do not get the joke from a todays point of view. Lastly I don't necessarily think referencial humor is bad, but there is a time and place for everything and I personally think it's heavily overused these days.

[@Anubis1101]

@@moistlama4047 youre absolutely right, however when youre in that mindset, its impossible to tell the difference. you might think your joke will never pass, or you might not think about it at all. it used to be a rarer thing, or perhaps it just wasnt put on display, but the rise of meme culture means people are encouraged to go all-in on the latest comedic trends, and burn them out as fast as possible. people who arent aware enough of that cultural process often dont realize it until its too late.

[@Quimbyrbg]

Spot on analysis. Games that try to be funny like a comedy show are fighting an uphill battle. Very few can consistently pull it off, and those that miss do themselves harm. Too many games have made me read paragraphs of 'hilarious' text that was painful to slog through when they could have just played it straight and saved the jokes for the right moments. Discworld did a great job as it used dry humour to fill the same space as a normal description would have; All the jokes are subtle or a function of the world/puzzle.

[@leinadisjourneys]

This is an interesting topic. I think modern games also face an increasing difficulty here because the humor has to be delivered in a much more "visceral way". So, if you have advanced graphics, voiceacting, animations etc etc, all those things will also need to reinforce the humor. I find that this is where some games fall flat because the more tools you have, the more difficult it will be to bring the point across, and the harder it will fall flat on its face if a joke fails due to bad VA, bad animations, bad timing etc etc. For me, this is an aspect where the Outer Worlds kinda failed. I got the ideas of the jokes but I don't feel like the game could quite deliver on it, so a lot of times I felt it was just silly but not funny if that makes sense. I think it it also tried a bit too hard to be funny constantly, which made it miss the mark on the more serious bits. The South Park game is a good example of a more modern game that was actually laugh-out-loud funny for me a lot of the time. Disco Elysium also managed quite well, being so text-based (and reinforced with the odd funny animation here and there). But yes, humor is so difficult, in all mediums.

[@alexfrank5331]

The popularity of hipster humor that purposely try to be cryptic also doesn't help. I think eventually American humor will become like British humor.

[@alexfrank5331]

Thinking about Deb of Night makes me realize that the modern trend of live-streamers and v-tubers are actually just a new expression of an old phenomenon. Radio hosts like Deb were absolutely magnetic though. Maybe there is an untapped segment in modern streaming market.

[@GeomancerHT]

Dear Tim, thanks for your videos. Rest assured some day a wiki of your videos will be done and pages about what shirt was used on what video and stats on most used shirts will eventually exist.

[@Deadener]

10:58 - "Never built an entire game just around humor" Not exactly. But South Park IS a comedy RPG. I'm a little sad you didn't go more into it in this video. It seems like a comedy RPG would be really difficult to pull off, and Stick of Truth was really successful.

[@MaxApocalypticGaming]

Just wanted to say thanks for making these videos. It’s cool to see your perspective on all of these diverse topics.

[@theamazingbatboy]

Humour is hard in general, it's all about context and setup. When speaking a foreign language the single most difficult thing to do is tell a good joke, the build up, the timing, the storytelling grammar, all the shared cultural experience. With something that relies so heavily on context transferring that to a medium which is all about player input/interactivity and control of that context it's a real headache to make humour actually work in video game writing. Lots of games do it but people often don't realise what talented writers those folks actually were.

[@brochampe-se9fq]

Alongside the incredible death animations, fallout's accompanying text descriptions were often really funny. "Raider dances to the rhythm of the lead" is a particular favourite of mine

[@paladinhank1278]

Hey Tim, now that you made a video on Humor in video games, you should make one on Horror (the ocean house hotel in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines comes to mind).

[@alexfrank5331]

guest appearances!

[@kmg9763]

As someone who plays games in 2 languages. Kudos to all the translator who manages to convert a joke and keep it funny.

[@sf3testvids]

Yea I wholeheartedly agree with the "ups and downs" advice with game design... i remember with a game series I played dark souls, where in the orginal game you had fights such as the knight artorias or the ornstein and smough , these humanoid (mostly) knight bosses close to your size that had were a kind of duel with the player... they were some of the best fights in the series but only occured sparingly in the orginal game.... a lot of fans commented that the game would have been better if the boss fights were MORE fights like artorias... Fastforward to Dark Souls 3... a lot of their bosses were 1v1 boss fights with knight or humanoid knight-like enemies... and while they are well designed... Ive seen so many fights like gundyr or abyss watchers or pontiff sulyvan or dragonslayer or dancer of the boreal valley... (all good fights btw) that tbh I wanted to see something new and the artorias fight or the ornstein and smough fight just felt way more impactful and memorable for me because of how they were punctuated scarcely been other huge monster fights More isnt always better

[@vadimk3708]

You see Ed. Ed is dead. The rhyme itself is quite funny. And at the same time, it perfectly captures the horror of that world. Those. Coming out of the shelter, the protagonist sees his dead brother, who was kicked out, who tried to run back and was not allowed (as they do not let you in) and was torn to pieces by creatures ... And all that the main character gave out was this funny rhyme. This is bitter black humor, which is a great metaphor for the tough morals of a dying world. Your brother is dead. And you, with a bitter smile, made a funny, sinister rhyme out of it. A sort of emoticon on a tombstone. Brilliant! Any kinesthetic will immediately begin to take the game as seriously as possible

[@zekun4741]

One joke that was quite bad in Fallout 4 was the vault tec rep at the beginning of the pre-war game showing up post war as a ghoul, wearing the same outfit and still being bitter about being rejected from the vault. It would've been way funnier if he had become a powerful raider warlord, unrecognizable and then when interacting with you, he would remember you, and possibly judge you based on how you treated him

[@Gadzinisko]

I've read in a theoretical book about humour that theoreticians of humour are very serious and boring people. Which also reminded me of the way Fools' Guild in the Discworld series is presented. And on more serious note (haha), while I played FO3 and it was an excellent game, the humour was certainly one part where it was lacking and where it differed from the original games. Pity. This video also makes me want to install Arcanum and try finishing it with a dumb character. I definitely played it this way, but I don't believe I've ever finished it.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

The early Fallout games were more dark satires, but then 3 leaned heavily on parody. Very different audiences for both games, and yes, I'd argue they're really not the same series with how much Bethesda changed it for better and worse.

[@Tybron]

I played Fallout years before playing Wasteland (Wasteland came out when I was 5 years old, my dad bought The Bard's Tale instead) and found that Wasteland not only has the Red Ryder BB gun (as a dev-only cheat weapon that does insane damage) but Red Ryder himself can show up as a boss if you massacre children in Highpool. Since you said only a select few of the dev team for Fallout had played Wasteland, I'm going to guess that was just a coincidence and/or parallel thinking with both basically referencing A Christmas Story. Still a great reference and quality early-game sniper rifle.

[@DirkusTurkess]

The only solution is to open a PO box for fans to send shirts to ya Tim.

[@nutherefurlong]

The reference rule is tricky but such a gift. There was a sense that I wasn't getting something sometimes but because it wasn't heavily weighted it wasn't distracting, then if I watched or read the thing referenced later I'd have a nice ah-ha moment. That rifle was so memorable, probably one of my favorite game items of all time. Didn't even know it favored eye shots! That's great

[@boi9842]

"i never built an entire game just around humor" Fallout 2 says hi!

[@Aravanus]

**no new shirts** Fuck it, I'm out. Only reason I came back everyday.

[@malik740]

Hahaha oh my god one of my first comments on your channel was about your choice of exquisite shirts and you even answered me to confirm its a deliberate choice to have a fitting and new shirt for each video theme but I had no idea you talked about this already! But soon, soon I have seen everything you uploaded, then I think I have to make list of all of your shirts and how much they appeared before I can sleep in peace again

[@dwestman62]

It's interesting that the BB gun made it all the way into Fallout 3 but stripped of any humor references. Whomp whomp. Just goes to show, there's nothing quite like the original. Thanks for all the quality humor you add to the games you work on.

[@GohTakeshita]

I never played a high luck character in Fallout, so I never got the random encounter with the BB gun. It would have been hilarious if it was inside a box marked "fragilé". That joke would've also met your criteria.

[@boogyboogyboogy]

I know this is New Vegas, but I think one of the reasons Old World Blues is so great is because it has those tremendous ups and downs. Incredibly funny, but also incredibly dark

[@artoodiitoo]

I´d say one game that does humor really well is My Summer Car, it´s easy to think that it´s just a joke of a game where you build a old datsun in 90´s Finland and die horribly, but it goes far deeper than that. The whole environment and everyday events in the game create their own stories without any scripting, the whole game, including story, is basically made of systems that affect each other. There are also tragic characters and happenings (that you can be causing) that can even end up in someone committing suicide.

[@lukastaylor9544]

I was scared when you said "this is my last..." that this would be the last video

[@IAssassinII]

Tim your work on Fallout and Arcanum shaped my interest in games and other science fiction so much. You probably don't take requests, but I think a video on the origins of the Master as a character would be very intriguing

[@EB-cz4te]

Lukan the witless was priceless.

[@LilxJohn85]

You'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out, ha ha ha!! Such a great reference!!

[@leroygardner8529]

the last shirt, what a priviledge

[@bernkbestgirl]

I think this is a really important topic. A lot of games (maybe especially in the Indie scene) seem to rely on too much on humor as a crutch for proper storytelling. Poking fun at storytelling cliches can be funny, but it can also become a cliche itself, and is no substitute for original storytelling.

[@dmitriysergienko]

I've always liked a chance encounter with a fallen flying saucer and a portrait of Elvis. I now imagine how the aliens abducted him, but something went wrong and only he survived after the fall. And now he walks somewhere in the wasteland. Perhaps he went with information to the brotherhood and became one of them. Can you imagine Elvis in power armor?

[@blind_mel0n]

im glad that we outlasted tim cain's wardrobe.

[@magikaru]

60 shirts is an impressive collection

[@picawood]

This reminds me when i played strange journey for the first time, like imagine you been passed by a warfield area knowing that 80% of your forces died and having your commander mudered by a demon, have passed by a red district looking place where demons are making experiments on humans and then you beeing asked to do a side quest to unclog the toilet

[@yamchadragonball6983]

That is so strange, i thought Slayer was a reference to Conan due to the perk image.

[@AJordan44-]

Right before you uploaded this i was just wondering how you felt about how vault boy's humor has been throughout the series

[@Ne0ConKiller]

I really resonated with the dark humor of outer worlds and how it it contrasted to the Hope-lessly desperate situation in the colonies. I admit though, I wish the game spoonfed the player a bit more in the opening with explicit details about how its an alternate timeline and how it came to be.

[@notnaiagoaway]

I was wondering when the shirt collection would come to an end.

[@lrinfi]

Glad there was no hard and fast rule like, "Tim's series ends when he runs out of shirts." That would be tragic. :)

[@gallow_]

The Tim Cain original shirt rotation arc is officially over, put that on the history timeline lads

[@artoodiitoo]

Like I said to a friend, "humor needs to be made seriously" It´s hard work, you can´t half-ass it or it´s not funny :D

[@Wref]

All right, you've established a shirt pattern now, Tim. From now on, you must go back to the first shirt you wore within your videos and repeat the cycle! lol

[@BuzzKirill3D]

"But before I do... let me talk about my sponsor" - my ear was ready to hear that, forgetting what channel I was on for a second

[@Ruskad]

It's not the *best* choice, it's Spacer's Choice! Some people may not have found The Outer Worlds humorous, but I certainly did! Maybe the setting hit a little close to home? Who knows. Also, TOW 2 had the best trailer at E3 '21 by a long shot. :D

[@SetTheGoat23]

Love your stories Tim have a great day

[@camraid9]

Jackie Welles in CP2077 made me laugh

[@vnratc6926]

The funniest moment in fallout 2 for me is when you sell Miria to the service allocation centre at Vault City, the person paying you money says something like “we had to shot her with a tranquilizer but it’s ok”))

[@lonneansekishoku8288]

4:28 Yeah... I would probably enjoy the reactions. Hehe.

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

thanks Tim i *did* enjoy that.

[@grappydingus]

I'm disappointed that they took out the ability for the npcs to fight the final boss after being "used..." That is pretty cool!

[@Bullzi009]

I didn’t even realize that you didn’t repeat shirts 😂

[@noddy1973]

Tim if you dont mind me asking, but im curious as to what was your and perhaps BI's opinion on FO Tactics?

[@mickles1975]

Being seen wearing the same thing twice! How embarrassing. LOL

[@rdreeves2332]

Humor is sorely missing in video games today.

[@Letterman0412]

Someone send this man some new shirts!

[@ItsBigIan]

He's a nice guy, isn't he?

[@mercer6323]

Don't tell me comedy school exists, please, it can't...

[@Soumein]

I remember Diablo 3 felt like it was trying to be funny, and it just wasn't. "Thank you, hero, now my men and I can aid in repelling Asmodan's forces back to Hell!" - Siege boulder falls on them once the dialogue is over.- "Please come inside, my wife and I would repay you for saving our farm!" -Wife is a skeleton. "She hasn't been eating well these days."

[@Vladimyrful]

Hey Tim, no worries, you don't have to be witty and funny in every video - we just like it when you share stories :)

[@curtisculp5403]

Was the comedy aspect of fallout always in it or did you start with a more serious tone ??

[@360noscopebogan2]

Hey Tim, have you heard about the conspiracy for the vault boy putting his thumb up

[@MrLarsKoch01]

Lets get Tim new shirts! GoFundMe when !?!

[@cloudzack1090]

Been going through playing fallout again after watching all your videos lol. The one game that comes to mind even though its an mmo, its world of warcraft. I know the game has its "sillyness" but you have this repetitive thing where the quest names and conversations constantly puns, references and what not. know its the theme of the game but it really feels to forced. I guess it fine at the end of the day as long as no one gets offended. Its just how forced it feels sometimes its like hearing the same joke over and over.

[@louistrinh3608]

FO boxer next?

[@NubileReptile]

Have you ever played Undertale? There's a lot of humor in that game, and overall it's very light-hearted. For example, if you eat the 'instant noodles' item to restore your health, it gives you a prolonged series of text messages talking about you preparing the noodles over the course of five minutes. Or abbreviating 'Butterscotch Pie' as 'ButtsPie' in your inventory. There are, however, moments that are meant to be taken seriously, and that kind of joking around would undermine the mood during those moments. During those time, it switches to 'serious' mode. The entire long joke with the instant noodles goes away, replaced with your health being restored instantly, and the 'ButtsPie' is renamed to 'Pie'. I always appreciated both that there was an understanding from Toby Fox about how there were moments when jokes would undermine what he was going for, and also that he went out of his way to create a system to make sure no jokes would show up during those times.

[@ThaetusZain]

Undertale might have not been everything the fanboys make it out to be, but the writing is good with some absolute genius ideas.

[@Shannovian]

Honestly, this is why you (general you, not Tim) should have writers. We understand the balance of gravity and levity in terms of emotional pacing. Or we SHOULD understand, but let's be honest, writers don't have any qualifications, so literally anyone can call themselves that. This is a good description of why you should have comedy in your tragedies and tragedy in your comedies. Otherwise, it becomes emotionally monotonous. However, I would say there is definitely something worse than a joke you know is a joke but don't understand it: a joke you understand perfectly well, but are in disbelief that a person would make. There is nothing worse than a person who is trying hard to be funny. There is nothing less funny than the appearance of effort in comedy. Which sounds like it shouldn't be so, but it is. It completely breaks the connection between the audience and the game/movie/book. I winced at Minsc's dialogue in BG3. It's like someone remembered Minsc and said "me too" without really capturing the spirit of the original.

[@GRNKRBY]

No more shirts. Oh nor!

[@spikykitt]

Do you need more or less shirts in your life, or is it just right?

[@Cawktism]

#sendtimsillyshirts

[@deeRay7292]

Red rider bb gun 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@AdjustableSquelch]

Case in point, didn't buy/play portal 2 as Stephen Merchant to me (and others) is a cringe humour vacuum and the thought of listening to him for the whole bloody game - no thanks. BTW I think that was a mistake, picking on somebody so divisive. The Office and its style is like Martmite - you either love it or hate it.

[@LOC-Ness]

you missed out

[@AdjustableSquelch]

@@LOC-Nessyeah but not listening to that unfunny bellend for a few hours no matter how good the gameplay

[@thebolas000]

Comedy is no laughing matter

[@theystoleitfromus]

Some might consider a lot of the violence in Fallout part of the humour, on account of how over the top and unrealistic it can get. Plinking a super mutant for ages with a 10mm pistol until you get a crit and suddenly blow half of his torso away with that same weapon? Come on, don't tell me you never laughed at anything like that.

[@dyaviz5163]

buy new shirts everytime you want to record a new video (but please do not go bankrupt with them though)

[@TomaZxxZas]

Just restart the shirt cycle again Tim

[@cool06alt]

Humor is fine in game, as long as it's not too distracting so much so I can't take the game seriously. And thus New Vegas is better than Fallout 2, Wasteland 3 is better than Wasteland 2.

[@lrinfi]

It has to be orders of magnitude more difficult to do humor -- period -- than ever before in the history of the world. As much as I dislike the term, post-911, the world's population has become orders of magnitude more sensitive and -- yep -- easily offended than at any other time period in history. Even our most celebrated comedians had not a single joke to crack at a specific point in time not long ago because the world was essentially shocked into a kind of self-reflection and self-inquiry more deep than its most often engaged in otherwise. They recovered pretty quickly, but -- man -- that was like the eeriness of hearing no planes overhead for months after 9-11. We all know what they say, though, "If you can't laugh at yourself...." It's most dangerous of all to take ourselves too seriously. Would you say it's maybe better to stick with humor about all-too-human foibles in general for the time being? Or is that perhaps why so much humor today is coming off as monotonous?

[@OpenedDiscussion]

Unfortunately I think the humor undermined a lot of the story in the outer worlds

[@Lbf5677]

It's lame when you have an old school serious RPG and the designer decides to be funny and put modern day things or silly stuff like clowns. Unless it's done in a very intelligent way like star trek.

[@kavinskysmith4094]

Not to call you a liar but who was the humor director on the outer worlds then as that game did the exact opposite of all of that, like it just tried to be so funny that it wasnt, like did you direct the first expansion and someone else did the main and the second one given what The Outer Worlds | A Pale Imitation video just said of it? as alot of what he said in that video is what I felt of the outer worlds, and honestly after watching that I am half tempted to do that one expansion just to see if it got good.