A Public Plea: Bring on the Comedy

[unmerged(17581)]

Whatever happened to the fine tradition of Comedy AARs? Was it so long ago when Nerfix was unleashing his LSD-induced screenshots of mirth upon us? When the all-mighty and all-powerful Peter Ebbesen was simultaneously splitting our sides with his wit and dropping our jaws with his skills? Why is it that my own Secrets of the AARk stands alone in HOI2, a comedy AAR island in some sort of sea of seriousness and melodrama? (Well, alone in all the AARs updated within the past two months) Why is it that the last comedy AAR to be updated in Vicky seems to be my own Fear Russia!, which has been lying dead for half a year? Why is it that comedy seems to be restricted to the EU2 AAR forums these days?

So to all of you authAARs starting AARs anew: Please try comedy. Please indulge us in your most absurdist creations. Poke fun at the game engine. Parody famous movies and TV shows. Insult your readers, repeatedly. Those suckers will always come back for more. Kick small children and laugh about it afterwards. Crank-call various world leaders and tell them Germany declared war on their nations. They'll believe you. Just try comedy. You may even end up being good at it. That's what happened to me. For the sake of everyone. We could all use a good laugh.

 

[J. Passepartout]

Well, I don't know how funny I am, but I attempt comedy in most or all of my AARs.

 

[unmerged(17581)]

Yes, but that's EUI/II. I already noticed that the EUII AAR forums had a good amount of humourous activity going on. It was Vicky and to a lesser extent HOI2 that was suffering from the dearth.

 

[Sir Humphrey]

Probably because comedy AARs were walking a fine line, that eventually most crossed into repetition and dullness. Many "comedy" AARs got boring realy quick, and hence died off. Also many "comedy" went for the "duh duh ho hum" humour, with few going for the wit or black humour, which in the end was always better and lasted far longer. I could always restart my "Carry On Up Ethiopia" AAR if you were desperate.

 

[unmerged(17581)]

Maybe we should start yet another AARland Feature: Wet Blanket of the Week. The first winner is you, Sir Humphrey.

Truly, what is wrong with such encouragement? Surely the more 'common' AARlander, being debase in their status and intellectual capacity, will be forced by their tragic mental state (or lack thereof) to resort to the lower forms of humour for their 'jollies' (forgive the vulgar expression), namely absurdity, vulgarity, and SNL. Thus, they will be able to enjoy immensely this "duh duh ho hum" humour, and might even begin writing some of their own, and reading such pieces written by others like them. Hopefully this system will develop into a sort of primitive language that would enable the aforementioned common AARlander to communicate for the first time, albeit crudely, with their more cultured superiors, i.e. us, and we will have a grand old time correcting their heinous grammatical errors while referring to obscure rulings and procedures concerning the field of punctuation and using words that are clearly fictional to explain them.

 

[The Yogi]

Now, without wanting to become second winner of the wet blanket of AARland award, I think Sir Humphrey might have a point. The fact is that comedy is darn HARD to write! Most of what I've read of a comic vein around here was simply not very fun, especially not after a number of posts. Lacking your undeniable comic genious anonymous4401, I would never dare to embark on a purely humorous AAR, although I'm not shy to crack the ocasional feeble joke in my dramatic AARs (Fu Manchu, mostly).

Maybe most writers around here simply know their limitations?

 

[coz1]

This may be better conversation for the SolAARium perhaps, but I think SH has a point. If one cannot sustain a high level of comedy over time, that is unique and exceptional, then people grow bored with it quickly. Thus, as Yogi suggests, people may just know their limitations. I mean, I think I'm a pretty funny guy in RL, but I could not write a sustained comedic AAR to save my life. It would be a real challenge. But there are some who can and when it's done right...well, it's very fun. Perhaps these things just go in cycles and our latest comedic genius has yet to show up.

 

[lordofthemark]

Whatever happened to the fine tradition of Comedy AARs? Was it so long ago when Nerfix was unleashing his LSD-induced screenshots of mirth upon us? When the all-mighty and all-powerful Peter Ebbesen was simultaneously splitting our sides with his wit and dropping our jaws with his skills? Why is it that my own Secrets of the AARk stands alone in HOI2, a comedy AAR island in some sort of sea of seriousness and melodrama? (Well, alone in all the AARs updated within the past two months) Why is it that the last comedy AAR to be updated in Vicky seems to be my own Fear Russia!, which has been lying dead for half a year? Why is it that comedy seems to be restricted to the EU2 AAR forums these days?

So to all of you authAARs starting AARs anew: Please try comedy. Please indulge us in your most absurdist creations. Poke fun at the game engine. Parody famous movies and TV shows. Insult your readers, repeatedly. Those suckers will always come back for more. Kick small children and laugh about it afterwards. Crank-call various world leaders and tell them Germany declared war on their nations. They'll believe you. Just try comedy. You may even end up being good at it. That's what happened to me. For the sake of everyone. We could all use a good laugh.

Take a look at whither Spain. While it is not principally a comedic AAR, it has what I thought were some humoros moments, including two references to contemporary celebs

 

[unmerged(15561)]

I have to agree. Rusticans approach was quite good, but why come here for comedy? HoI2 is just going to have less problems than HoI to poke fun at! And after 300 odd updates of my comic book aar, the limited amount of fun that I managed to put in, generally got to a point where I was reusing it. Not that Id call it proper humour!

Fact is, Im not against anyone writing humourous AARs but trying to cater for a multi-ethnic/language/national/age audience is something I dont even see the best comdians attempting!

If someone can do it, then good luck to em, seems they have a chance to make a career for themselves!

 

[Rensslaer]

I was just checking to see if it would qualify for a nomination, but this particular AAR seems to have been started and finished within a couple days at the end of May.

But what about Prussian Blue: A Chemical AAR? It was short, and bizarre.

But I -- who am not usually turned on by comedy AARs -- found it rather amusing.

Renss

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

Writing a comedy AAR is kinda hard I think. For example on my comedy AAR The Hungarian Adventure! I really started to run out of ideas by the end and when I started up the sequal I had no idea what to do after about one update. Anyway try reading the first one there and see if you like it. (I dont remember if you ever posted in it anonymous4401, so I guess you might have already)

You might also want to check out "Death of the Uncivillized World", my Vicky AAR which I tried to make as funny as possible although I never finished it due to me deleating my save game (or maybe I just never saved, I cant remember). Myabe I ought to try that one again in the future.

 

[unmerged(17581)]

All good points. But it seems strange to me that all of the humourous AARs seem to be concentrated in EUII. Why don't HOI2 and Vicky get their share? That's what bothers me.

And 2Coats, the operating number there is 300. That is a lot! I doubt very much that any mortal man can stay funny while keeping in the same medium for that long period of time!

Also, I'm no comedic genius! Why does everyone keep saying that?

 

[unmerged(34884)]

All good points. But it seems strange to me that all of the humourous AARs seem to be concentrated in EUII. Why don't HOI2 and Vicky get their share? That's what bothers me.

And 2Coats, the operating number there is 300. That is a lot! I doubt very much that any mortal man can stay funny while keeping in the same medium for that long period of time!

Also, I'm no comedic genius! Why does everyone keep saying that?

You are so good because some posts of you i read i dont even get what the hell you are saying but still im laughing my ass off. And you made some legendary comments, which were just damn funny.

 

[unmerged(35685)]

But it seems strange to me that all of the humourous AARs seem to be concentrated in EUII. Why don't HOI2 and Vicky get their share? That's what bothers me.

I think the best forum to get comedy AAR is CK's forum.

Anyway I agree it is very difficult to write good comedy AAR. Great talent is needed but I am sure some of you out there possess such talent!!!

 

[Sir Humphrey]

I'm am only trying to be a realist here, but it is next to impossible to write consistantly good and funny comedy AARs (in whatever style and there are a few exceptions to his rule of thumb as noted), however your terms for comedy seem to be very broad. I mean do we lump surreal or abstract into the mix? Laughably bad attempts at writing, even though it tried to be serious? Yes, get out there and write comedy no end. Some people have got the talent to write comedy, some don't. I couldn't write funny to save myself. And of course what is rib crackingly funny to person A, might be pure pap to person B.

Maybe we should start yet another AARland Feature: Wet Blanket of the Week. The first winner is you, Sir Humphrey.

I shall add that to my signiture. Another burden to add. oh and "...yeah, well boo sucks to you and the takers of an easy route to surreal creativity."

 

[unmerged(17581)]

I shall add that to my signiture. Another burden to add. oh and "...yeah, well boo sucks to you and the takers of an easy route to surreal creativity."

Oh yeah? Well...well...you suck!

Also, I would really like to see this 'Carry On Up Ethiopia' AAR

 

[unmerged(45526)]

I'll try something funny, but I need lots and lots of suggestions! See "AAR Suggestion Thread" by Nameless.

Nameless

 

[Sir Humphrey]

*Gets out old violin* It was a rainy day, when I started, all that time ago, back when times and people were differ..... Enough with that old trollop, heres an abridged version That AAR that turned out to be shithouse. It was crap, rubbish, awfuil, but well that was a awhile ago.

 

[unmerged(17581)]

*Gets out old violin* It was a rainy day, when I started, all that time ago, back when times and people were differ..... Enough with that old trollop, heres an abridged version That AAR that turned out to be shithouse. It was crap, rubbish, awfuil, but well that was a awhile ago.

April, 2005 is a while ago?

Also, I'm getting a sense of deja-vu. (Bloody French and their accented letters) Did I post in that thread before?

And I suppose you're right. To the greatness of your other AARs this does not compare. But to the average AAR-writer, it's pretty good, historical inaccuracies aside!

All the same, in keeping with the theme of this thread, you should have made your reflection upon the past humourous, as I have, in my own style, here. Let's see some of that legendary Sir Humphrey wit!

 

[Sir Humphrey]

If you want funny and down right silly, read Rise of the Establishment. That ought to provide some subtle and silly laughes.