There's a difference between witty but offensive, and just offensive for offensive sake. Just being offensive is juvenile humor, and isn't all that funny. I can watch some comedians stand on stage and say a bunch of things that make me think, 'I can't believe he just said that', but I'll be laughing the entire time. Or I can watch a movie that just plays one poop joke after another and not laugh once. His review sounds like he thinks the game is the latter. I don't see how you can extropolate from that to 'the reviewer has no sense of humor'.
What gives me the impression of "humourlessness" is that he condemns jokes based on what they're about rather than whether they're funny.
For instance, he tells us that Duke blows up some pregnant women and then makes a joke about abortion. And I agree, that's pretty darn offensive. But is it funny? We don't know, the reviewer doesn't tell us the punchline.
I've watched a couple of videos and it looks like there's a few funny bits. Heck, even Duke signing a copy of his book "Why I'm So Great" to get extra health seems like it could be chuckle-worthy.
Maybe I don't 'Get' this game either, but the examples he cites just don't sound funny. The label on a carton of cigarettes is 'faggs'? That's not funny, it's not original, and it's not creative.
Sure, that is an offensive word, but that's not my problem with it. I was practically in tears laughing at a Tosh.0 skit the other night that was basically a 5 minute long gay joke. But it was witty and original. Just saying the word hasn't been edgy or made me laugh since about the 6th grade.
I'm not saying we should ban this game. But I do think there is a very big difference between the reviewer not liking this kind of comedy and the reviewer being humorless. I love comedy, I pay to see live standup all the time, practically the only things on my DVR are comedy, but I would never buy this game. Their 'funny' and my 'funny' are two entirely different things.
Well said. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have mastered this offensive-yet-witty thing (this last season of South Park, notwithstanding). They should've taken a cue from those two on how to put together the humor.
