After playing Street Fighter 4 for a couple months and seeing a lot of the cutscenes and victory lines, I’ve come to a realization. It’s a comedy. Not the funniest one around, but there’s a fair amount of ridiculous in the game. Just look at Dan. If you’ve played him at all, you can see that he serves a dual purpose. Firstly, he’s a handicapped character for those people who are really good with Ken/Ryu/Akuma/Sagat/Sakura. Secondly, he is comic relief. The way he yells when he throws an EX-fireball, the way he poses after winning, and the insane air taunts and supertaunts he’s got are all stupid silly. In his cutscenes, it becomes clear that Dan is an impoverished mooch who runs a martial arts studio that he claims to be the best, yet he can’t generally win battles against anyone. His throw animation is the icing on the cake: Dan tries to throw his opponent over his shoulder, but stumbles and fails, then tries again and executes the throw. It all happens in about two seconds, but it’s one of the funniest parts of Street Fighter 4. Dan’s intro and ending movies are also funny – at the end, he’s running in terror from a wall of flames, and when Sakura and Ryu save him, he pretends that he saved them.

Then there are the storylines for the various characters in the game. Some are straightforward. Ken, Ryu, Guile, Chun Li, and Rose are after Shadaloo. M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, and Sagat are working for Shadaloo. Abel’s trying to find out who he is, and Sakura’s looking for Ryu. After that, it gets a little weird. Dhalsim is trying to get water for his village. Okay, not too weird. E.Honda wants to show the world how powerful Sumo is. A bit odder, but not bizarre. Zangief also has something to prove about professional wrestling, primarily to prove himself to a group of kids. At the end, he comes back with Seth’s head as a trophy to show the kids. Just a bit sick.

Then we’ve got Blanka, who left for the tournament out of concern that he was embarrassing his mama. At the end, she finds him in Hong Kong and tells him to come home to Brazil. Not exactly clear how that problem has been solved. And El Fuerte decides to travel the world collecting recipes. He’ll also fight in the tournament, fight the strongest fighters, and figure out what they eat – at the end, there’s a great scene where he disgusts E.Honda and Zangief with his cooking.

Here are some more instances of humor in the game’s various victory lines:

• Ken to Dhalsim: No matter how many times I see it, your limbs really freak me out, man!
• Dhalsim to Rufus: I am no alien!
• Zangief to Akuma: Once you get used to that face, you´re kinda cute. Like a pug. Or like me!
• Rufus to Honda: I hear that you sumo dudes eat nothing but sushi and stew and tofu and stuff like 24 hours a day, man. There´s this sushi place near my house, but there´s all these rumors goin´ around that they serve spoiled fish! One bite, an´ you´ll be on the toilet all day!
• Sakura to Dhalsim: I bet those arms come in handy when you run out of toilet paper in the washroom!
• Rufus to Vega: So, I finally found you, Ken Masters! How does it feel to lose to me, Masters? Are you filled with regret? Rage? How about rue? I bet you´re filled to the brim with rue, ain´t ya? What? You´re not Ken Masters? C´mon, man! It´ll take more than a mask to fool me!

…and my absolute favorite

• Blanka to Gen: You´re old, but you put up a fight. I hate you!

Lastly, I should mention my favorite cutscene in the game, where Rufus and Dhalsim meet up.

Rufus: What the-? Wha- wha- wha- wha-? Are you floating? How you doin’ that? What? ESP? Plasma? Magnets?
Dhalsim: This… is Yoga.
Rufus: What, are you an alien or somethin’? Because I’m not sure if you know this but there are all sorts of aliens, Martians for instance...