As we open another year at Concordia, and TAG, we also open a new year for the TAG Critical Watch series.

In our final episode of the season we speak with Rob Gallager about his chapter “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Or Is It?): On Hitman and Gamer Humour(lessness).” We chat about Hitman as a comedy of contingency, the wonders of Sapienza, and contemplate the moral implications of Hitman’s victims.

On this episode we speak with Caroline Bem about their chapter “Humour in Pornographic Browser Games: From Undertale to Uddertale, a Case Study.” We chat about approaching game studies from the outside, sexuality in video games, and the link between games, sexuality, and humour.

On this episode we speak with Rory Summerley about his chapter “A Tool of Efficiency and Consumption to Destroy Man”: Irony and Sincerity in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.” We chat about floundering when trying to make jokes during academic conferences, the difference between irony and parody, and the concept of abusive game design.

On this episode we speak with Samuel Poirier-Poulin about his chapter “Mark Matthews Stars in ‘Anatomy is Hard!’ A Struggling Student Tries to Make the Grade with His Professor”: Sexual Humour and Queer Space in Coming Out on Top.” We chat about queer humour in contrast to trends of queer trauma in games, and the positive public reception to Coming Out on Top, and tendentious jokes.

On this episode we speak with Darshana Jayemanne and Cameron Kunzelman on their chapter “Cybernetic Irony: Racial Humour from Mecha-Hitler to Nuclear Gandhi.” We chat about different cultural approaches to game humour, cybernetic irony, and the colonial roots of racialized humour in games.

On this episode we speak with Mateusz Felczak on his chapter “Emergence and Ephemerality of Humour During Live Coverage of Large-Scale eSports Events.” We talk about the difference between narrative game humour and live esports broadcasts, and how audience engagement changes the shape of humour.

On this episode we speak with Agata Zarzycka on her chapter “Ridiculing the Player: Live-Action Visualisations of Game Experience in YouTube Parody Videos as an Ambivalent Strategy of Self-Fashioning.” We talk about the humorous contrast between casual and serious play, remediated game humour, and clashes between mechanical and social play elements. 

On this episode we speak with Sebastian Möring about his chapter “Making Fun of Tetris: Humour in Parodies of a Computer Game Classic.” We talk about paradoxes, processing the strange, and the evocative power of parody in game design.

In this episode we speak with Filip Jankowski on his chapter “Sorry, You Had Won: Satirical French Digital Games Responding to National Sociopolitical Crisis (1984 - 1986). " We talk about the history of French digital games, arcades, and personal computers in France, and the relationship between satire and social politics.

In this episode we speak with Alesha Serada. We look at the history of post-soviet humour, the long lost format of the anecdote, and how they stack up to memes and NFTs as a new basis for humour in games.

It’s surreal to think back on this first year of TAG Critical Watch, given how many offhand discussions Marc and I have had over the years of programming a slate like this. Before we ever committed to this, there were smaller viewing parties around campus, and at folks homes, and one recurring tension that popped up was how cinephiles felt about game movies, and conversely how players felt about movie adaptations of their favorite games. It seemed like the discussions would always come back to why. Why adapt this game, when it works better as a game? Why this director, or this year, or this genre?

In this episode we’re joined by Wyatt Moss-Wellington and learn about benign violation theory and the role of psychological distance in creating humour out of tragedy and puzzles.

A little over a decade ago, indie developer Dennaton Games released the world’s most unlikely “reality simulator,” Hotline Miami.  A visually striking pixelated bloodbath set to hypnotic, pulsing Synthwave music, the game quickly ignited public fears about the connection between violent games and acts of violence. Concern about the games resurfaced with its sequel, Hotline Miami: Wrong Number, banned in Australia in 2015.In 2024, the game’s re-release on the Sony Playstation Network was quickly withdrawn from the Australian market. Yet after a decade of global availablity, Hotline Miami has yet to inspire a single documented act of copycat violence. Decades of longitudinal research studies have credibly shown no conclusive link between video games and violence. Why do these fears persist?

On this episode, Manuel Garin speaks to us about his book chapter “On Nintendo’s Visual Humour: Slapstick Cinema and Comic Theatre in Super Smash Bros.” We chat about sight gags across film and games, slapstick, and consider the relationship between Buster Keaton and Mario.

 “On this episode of the podcast we talk with Daniel Hessler about the relationship between puzzles, jokes, and humour’s role in narrative design. Plus you get to learn the answer to the age-old Finnish riddle “One pig, two snouts: what is it?” 

Revisiting the Mass Effect trilogy (BioWare, 2007-2012) provides a glimpse into the starry-eyed cultural liberalism of the early 2010s. It is a space opera molded into the shape of an action-RPG, depicting a multicultural galaxy resisting against annihilation by making peace across species and cultures. Since its release, a lot of scholarly attention has been paid to the worldbuilding of the trilogy, which is the basis of its representations of multiculturalism.

”On this episode of the podcast we sit down with Dooley Murphy and discuss humour in VR experiences, and how the cycle of suspense, curiosity, and surprise works across dramatic, action, and comedic gameplay through the concept of the ‘interactive gag’.

“Gags in games work for me because there’s no one there laughing at you, but it’s the game developer laughing with you.” - Dooley Murphy

This article explores the development of x-ode, an experimental online game inspired by Craigslist’s Missed Connections—a game that acts as a "time machine," allowing players to engage with past moments of serendipitous urban encounters.