discussion Personal Take on Comedy in H-Game

[Roland_The_3rd]

In my opinion and kinda a hot take from me but comedy doesn't belong in h-game. The jokes often unfunny and I barely laugh.

The comedic scene is dog water and kinda lame..

I know the dev and the team writing on the game probably think it's funny and all but it's not.

Sometimes the joke was miss the point or they just throw a random thing hoping it will stick to the wall.

We (as the player) was confused on what the dev want, Do they want us to become horny or they wanted us to laugh?

Those two emotion can't mix together. At least I can't

 

[cptgrinner]

if the writer is good enough it can be blended flawlessly though

 

[Johngawn61]

If the writing is bad it's just going to be bad regardless of if they're trying to be funny or not. I enjoy a well placed joke every now and then, but humor is subjective and I understand for every joke I think is bad or good, millions of people will have the opposite take. I guess I just don't dwell on it when the jokes don't hit for me.

 

[scrapdragon]

Comedic and Tragedy are hard, ask the Ancient Greeks. Inserted humor are not comedic and even that most "humor" are cringe.
for most games here, just by adding cheap canned laughter can actually be better, no joke.

 

[TheMC]

As with almost all features, it depends on if it is done well and fits the story and setting. Or whether it feels forced.

 

[Vidilo]

As with almost all features, it depends on if it is done well and fits the story and setting. Or whether it feels forced.

You said it.

 

[goons]

It works out as long as the game has good pacing and is actually funny, most of the games with jokes in them don’t even get a nose flair from me, doesn’t help that they might be poorly translated or just come with bad writing.
I know someone from the Middle East that would always have some poetry, it really didn’t work in English. Just pointing out that you can’t translate 1:1 and get the same effect, meaning is lost in translation.

 

[User_150284]

It's much more difficult to get a laugh than it is to get a hard-on. So I'd say if you can write really funny comedy and porn, yeah. Don't hesitate.

 

[User_111574]

Although English is not my native language, that didn't stop me from enjoying Douglas Adams' books, for example. Yes, they have great humor. But the games... No, not funny. The main reason, in my opinion, is that the developers pay very little attention to the story (i.e. the literary component). For the last 7 years I have not yet encountered a game, while playing which I smiled at least once.

 

[bdogvn25]

I like the happy stories so comedy works for me even bad jokes.

 

[Kernist]

Probably the first successful sex oriented game was a comedy, and I mean Larry obviously. And some may argue it was not really a h-game etc, but still if it worked then it can work now. Another example is BoneTown, a very old game (2008) that later released on Steam and to this day is getting new DLCs and people love it. I won't even mention multiple japanese VNs who are going for comedy style. It all comes to the writing.

 

[Freveiss]

Quite a number of comedy in h-games is badly written, though this may be due to language issues sometimes.
If the comedy fits the game, or the character, i quite like it, but as i stated quite often this is not done well

 

[Geshtar]

I'm not often a fan of games that are purely comedy. They need to strike a balance. Fourth-wall-breaking comedy especially risks ruining that balance unless used very sparingly or cleverly.

That said, if you're going for realism in your writing, then comedy is a necessity. People joke all the time, and the jokes aren't always funny or appropriate. I've heard more jokes at funerals than I have at weddings.

Take some relatively recent, popular examples from television: Breaking Bad, Dexter, Game of Thrones. All three were filled with comedy despite the quite serious subject matter, and the moments of levity create the contrast that makes the drama so much more effective.
Now, should the same rules apply to porn? I would argue in the affirmative, at least in the case of visual novels. After all, you're more likely to pick up girls with jokes than you are by being surly. Once you've got her in bed, though, it's probably best to cool it with the one-liners.

Perhaps I've considered this too thoughtfully. If the intent of the OP was just to say "The comedy in porn usually sucks, doesn't it?" then my answer would simply be: Yes. Yes, it does.

 

[otraos]

It depends on the type of story and the quality of the writing.

 

[rocketsheep]

As everywhere else, so in porn games: Comedy is good when done well, and bad when not. This can be subjective, though. While I find some commercial movies intolerable for their poor humor, I rarely have this problem with porn games, and especially not with otherwise good ones.

Solvalley School is an AVN sitcom, and I absolutely love it. Not just for the quality of the porn and the humongous amount of material (the game's version number 4.0.0 is not misleading!), but also for its humorous voice.

Ecchi Sensei tried something similar but with less success. Still, even though I don't find its humor particularly funny, I don't mind it, either.

Eternum is perfect in many ways, and one of them is how well its humor is integrated with its porn scenes. The humor is not of the in-your-face type, so some people may actually miss it. But go through the bathtub scene with the Elf queen, or the abduction by a sadistic woman in the Egyptian-themed temple, and tell me these aren't funny in addition to extremely erotic. Eternum's predecessor Once in a Lifetime is less carefully balanced, but has some extremely funny material in it. Stabby Mike is legendary for a reason.

 

[Boberson1234]

If the writing is good hell yeah

 

[maestromancer]

I don't mind comedy in my VNs but its definitely tricky to pull off. I imagine that its easier to write some simple erotic dialogue and have it do its job than it is to write funny dialogue and have it land.

Power Vacuum is one of the few games where I'm consistently amused by the writing. The tone overall in that one is pretty light and cartoonish, so it simply enhances that "flavor" that its going for.

I've also recently played through Tropicali for the first time and enjoyed the humor in that as well. It even manages to shift between funny, erotic, and somber pretty well, so that was especially impressive.

 

[AffirmDream]

I’m good with comedy thrown in, if its funny of course, unless it’s fourth wall or immersion breaking. But games that are focused on comedy don't really do it for me either.

 

[jabamz]

In my opinion and kinda a hot take from me but comedy doesn't belong in h-game. The jokes often unfunny and I barely laugh.

The comedic scene is dog water and kinda lame..

I know the dev and the team writing on the game probably think it's funny and all but it's not.

Sometimes the joke was miss the point or they just throw a random thing hoping it will stick to the wall.

We (as the player) was confused on what the dev want, Do they want us to become horny or they wanted us to laugh?

Those two emotion can't mix together. At least I can't

I think it can be great if done properly and is actually funny.

 

[Bone]

In my opinion and kinda a hot take from me but comedy doesn't belong in h-game. The jokes often unfunny and I barely laugh.

The comedic scene is dog water and kinda lame..

I know the dev and the team writing on the game probably think it's funny and all but it's not.

Sometimes the joke was miss the point or they just throw a random thing hoping it will stick to the wall.

We (as the player) was confused on what the dev want, Do they want us to become horny or they wanted us to laugh?

Those two emotion can't mix together. At least I can't

100 except for the last sentence, really depends.