Video Games and Comedy

Description

Video Games and Comedy is the first edited volume to explore the intersections between comedy and video games. This pioneering book collects chapters from a diverse group of scholars, covering a wide range of approaches and examining the relationship between video games, humour, and comedy from many different angles. The first section of the book includes chapters that engage with theories of comedy and humour, adapting them to the specifics of the video game medium. The second section explores humour in the contexts, cultures, and communities that give rise to and spring up around video games, focusing on phenomena such as in-jokes, player self-reflexivity, and player/fan creativity. The third section offers case studies of individual games or game series, exploring the use of irony as well as sexual and racial humour in video games. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Ludo-Comedic Consonance: An Introduction to Video Games and Comedy Play and the Comic Video Games and the Culture of Laughter The Incredible Machines of Video Game Humour Anticipating Punchlines: Chapter Introductions References Scaffolding and How to Fall Off It: Theories and Concepts Comedy and the Dual Position of the Player The Comic in Philosophy The Comic in Digital Gameplay The Player as Laughing Subject and Comic Object The Failing Player The Failing Game Mischievous and Self-Mocking Players Self-Mocking Games Conclusion References Press X to Punch(line): The Design and Cognition of Interactive Gags The Setup Defining Interactive Gags Take Your Time (but Do as You’re Told) Mind: Your Own Business The Payoff References The Rubber Chicken’s Ergodicity: On Puzzle Punchlines in The Secret of Monkey Island Introduction Adventure Games, Puzzling Aporia, Epiphany, and Bisociation Puzzle Punchlines Analyses Underwater Garden-Paths How the Chicken Crossed the Cable Red Lights for Cut-Scenes Conclusion References On Nintendo’s Visual Humour: Slapstick Cinema and Comic Theatre in Super Smash Bros Comedy as a Possibility: Nintendo’s Mix of Humour and Surprise Playing Like Comedians: From Predetermined Improvisation to Established Clichés References Benign Trials, Vexing Violations: Reading Humour in Puzzle Games Introduction BVT and Video Games Platforming Epiphanies and Communicative Frailties BVT and Sense-Making Cognitions in Braid BVT and Cartoon Violence in Limbo Future Directions References Clowning Around: Contexts, Cultures, and Communities The Illuminatus Space Game: From an April Fools’ Joke to Digital Cultural Heritage Introduction MikroBitti and Humoristic Computer Hobbyist Journalism Cultural Background of Illuminatus as a Space Game and the Plausibility of the Prank Illuminatus as Mediated Prank Performance The Legacy of the Prank: Traditionalising Illuminatus Conclusion: Becoming Parodic Heritage Object and the Touch of Intangible References Red Comrades Save the Galaxy: Early Russian Adventure Games and the Tradition of Anecdote What Is a Russian Anecdote? The Tale of Chapayev Chapayev’s Post-Soviet Afterlife Playing with Humour and Taking it Apart Conclusion and Discussion References “Sorry, You Had Won”: Satirical French Digital Games Responding to National Sociopolitical Crisis (1984–1986) Introduction Towards Understanding Satire Materials and Methods Paranoïak as an Existentialist Satire Infernal Runner as an Absurdist Satire Hawaii as a Political Satire Conclusion References Making Fun of Tetris: Humour in Parodies of a Computer Game Classic Introduction Theory of Bisociation Analysis of Tetris Parodies “Tetris (Super Easy Mode)”—Erasing the Challenge “Hell” (Alteration of Space) “Heaven” Portal Tetris (Excluding the Player) Not Tetris—Negative Media Theory and Metagames References Ridiculing the Player: Live-Action Visualisations of Game Experience in YouTube Parody Videos as an Ambivalent Strategy of Self-Fashioning Fashioning a Group Identity Games, Bodies and YouTube: Ridicule Materialised Breaking the Frames Colliding with the Code Facing the Joke Acceptance and Anticipation References Emergence and Ephemerality of Humour During Live Coverage of Large-Scale eSports Events The Physical Dimension of the (Non)digital Spectacle Commentators: Televised Laughter Audience: Humour as a Means of Communication Players: Humour and Corporeal Work Conclusion References Five Ways to Spoil a Joke: Case Studies Cybernetic Irony: Racial Humour from Mecha-Hitler to Nuclear Gandhi Introduction Racial Humour and Games Racial Humour in Games Race and Humour in Game Culture Sharpened Reality Sly Civilisation Conclusion: Nuclear Gandhi as ‘Cybernetic Irony’ References “Mark Matthews Stars in ‘Anatomy is Hard!’ A Struggling Student Tries to Make the Grade with His Professor”: Sexual Humour and Queer Space in Coming Out on Top Theoretical Framework and Methods Playing with Genre Conventions Sexual Humour and Incongruity in Coming Out on Top Conclusion References “A Tool of Efficiency and Consumption to Destroy Man”: Irony and Sincerity in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Introduction Sincerely Ironic—Definition and Attribution Travis Touchdown—“also known as king of the gamers” The Death Drive Mk. II—Parodic Essence of the Past Dr Juvenile—“Development = Struggle” Conclusion References Humour in Pornographic Browser Games: From Undertale to Uddertale, a Case Study Introduction: Making a Case A Brief Methodological Note on Humour and Close Reading Under/Udder: What’s in a Title? Fucking the Pie: Double Parody in Uddertale Conclusion References That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman and Gamer Humour(lessness) Introduction Playful Pleasures The Killing Joker Comic Comparisons Conclusion: The Old Ones Are the Best? References Author Index Subject Index