The latest Idle Thumbs podcast for March 15th 2010 features Sean Vanaman of Telltale Games. You may remember him from such GDC panels as that one on comedy from the other day.
In the podcast, from about the 46 minute point, they discuss that very panel and Sean has some quite interesting things to say about writing for Guybrush.
Have a listen up there, or directly here.
Source: Idle Thumbs
In its best moments, Monkey Island's not beat-by-beat funny, but maybe when the games are exploring somewhat serious elements like finding love or trust (which I totally called before Vanaman did), and then the jokes grow out of that. Attempting to be consistently hilarious is probably a mistake, unless you're Tim Schafer and Erik Wolpaw together in a room with 2 years of development time.
It's interesting that so many people take Monkey seriously, very much at face value. This is especially true of the first game, which is played straight-up with absurdities the characters don't seem aware of. A lot of the jokes just come out of nowhere ("I could use some breath mints" "You're telling me") or some twist in humor ("Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see us?"), but they never come across as being forced or insincere, and the characters rarely acknowledge they're being funny. It's like early Simpsons or Spinal Tap with pirates - or like Steve Gaynor on the podcast saying "It was a car with physics".
The same's true with Monkey 2. Again, a lot of the jokes are played straight-up when they're absurd. I mean, there's a definite feeling they're aware they being funny, but the lines are strong enough that most of it works. (I think a line that was forced and maybe not as funny as the writers wanted is "It's a bucket o' mud! And it's mine! All mine!".) A lot of is sarcastic and absurd, and sometimes with a little twist ("Dynamite! Just like it says on the side!" is something I've never been sure about; is he serious, or being "duh" sarcastic? I think the ambiguity works). Again, though, the story itself is serious, but maybe in a cartoony or even satirical way (it's worth nothing that the climactic scene is a, uh, serious parody (?) of Return of the Jedi).
That leads into something like Curse. The humor goes from being about Duck Island, which you'll either find very funny or very inappropriate, to characters like Wally very seriously saying absurd things (for example, Wally optimistically says his hook'll be genuine soon - when LeChuck has free time to cut off his hand). A lot of it is puns (in response to LeChuck saying a toaster fell into Rapp Scallion's bathtub: "Shocking"). But again: everything is directly related to Guybrush wanting to take things with Elaine to the next level, and any interactions with side characters are grown out of your relationship with them.
That may have been part of Escape's problem, which is trying to dance around and be funny all the time. What IS Escape about? I don't know.
It finally brings us to Tales, which was a lot more plot-driven than its predecessors. It's interesting: the serious plot forces some subtle or more serious jokes, but you do get silliness like Winslow's map. The game very intentionally explores things which people deal with on a daily basis, but manages to crack jokes about it - which, I think, is the best kind of humor. I mean, there's a lot of out-of-nowhere jokes that work really well ("This'll be a snap", "SEA BISCUIT!", "A golden wrench thingie!", Noogie's "Second base!", Guybrush imitating D'Oro's dance, and Morgan thinking the salty earwax's smell was Guybrush's), plus a lot of really subtle puns ("Give me the skinny on the cochlea", "All the ichor you can stomach"), but I like seeing sad and happy mixed-up, and not necessarily in a dark way either (i.e.: not necessarily with a hair-dresser going through chemotherapy and being bald, and yes I'm a horrible person).
Anyways I've written way too much and said too little, so I'll shut up.
Well, because most of it is ham-fisted, talks a lot, says little and is maybe a little too subjective. But again, thanks for the compliment.
Also, "it's worth noting", not "worth nothing". I should proofread more often.
Downloading as we speak.