Absurdity has always been one of my favorite forms of humor. From bizarre political cartoons to Metal Gear Solid: Crab Battle, I love it all. I thought it would be fun to list here five of my favorite examples of the genre.
A Tim Schafer game from 2005, Psychonauts is one of those games with gameplay that was occasionally frustrating, but with humor good enough that it kept me playing. Over the course of the game, your character would psychically travel into the minds of others. Each mind is a game level. At first, it's your instructors. But later, you travel into the mind of a number of insane people, my favorite of which is The Milkman Conspiracy, and the mind of a giant hulking lungfish named Linda. That level, called Lungfishopolis, is one of my favorite game levels ever.
Psychonauts also has another brilliant moment in which you're asked to undergo the primary quest of the game and given a yes/no prompt to accept or reject the mission. The first time playing through, I said yes without thought. The second time though, I decided to say no and see what happened. It's pretty funny.
A minor entry on this list, it's a movie I think I rented not expecting much and found surprisingly funny. It's main gag is being ridiculously over-the-top. I'd compare it to something like the Jason Statham movie Crank. The movie features things like the hero delivering a baby during a gunfight and killing a man with a carrot. Here's an excellent clip.
I've been a fan of Homestarrunner for a good twenty years. They were an early internet flash cartoon site contemporary with Radiskull and the G.I. Joe PSAa. (all of which are great) Homestar Runner has spawned so many spin-offs: Trogdor, Limozeen, Teen Girl Squad, I can't even count them all.
I've got plastic miniatures from the site, I've got Strong Bad's album, and I've played the Telltale video game.
The whole thing started when the cartoon character Strong Bad started soliciting emailed questions from fans of the site. Then he'd answer them via a cartoon. Hilariously. I still like to go back and watch those sometimes. They're fantastic.
One of the more violent Wii games ever, No More Heroes followed an aspiring assassin by the name of Travis Touchdown. The game isn't just over-the-top. It's kind of insane. Travis sits on a toilet to save the game. He visits a gym to learn new wrestling moves which you can execute during your battles, which he fights using a "beam katana". This beam katana is a laser sword with a battery that often needs to be re-charged mid-battle using an extremely suggestive shake-weight motion. Travis also purchases new skills from a drunk Russian in a bar - he pays the Russian and the guy beats Travis unconscious. Travis then wakes up with the new skill!
So weird.
Of all the beautiful weirdness cited in this post, Kung Fury is probably my favorite. I first posted about it in 2015, and it remains one of my favorites. The whole film is free-to-watch and only a half hour long. It's on Netflix, but you can also watch it here on YouTube.
The main character is stereotypical 80s tough guy cop in a leather jacket. But he has magical kung fu powers. And his partner is a triceratops. It gets much weirder. In the most wonderful way.