I’ve been replaying the Monster Prom games recently, and I’ve been trying to decipher why I find the meta-humor in those games funny, even charming. Normally meta-humor is one of the biggest turn-offs for a show or game for me. It’s one of the main reasons I stopped watching Rick and Morty after season 3. But, after some thought, I think I’ve finally figured it out.
With the Monster Prom games, the Meta-Humor never seems to come off as the characters hating their genre. Rather, they revel in it. Polly cracks jokes about you having to choose between two equally insane options instead of doing what any rational being would do in that situation. Aaravi gleefully enjoys being an RPG Protagonist in a Dating Sim. You can romance the fucking Narrator. And all of this is enjoyable because, while the characters are aware of the fact that they’re in a video-game, they act in good-humor and enjoy their lives all the same.
Most meta-humor seems to come from the characters resenting the genre they’re in. They joke about how much they hate the dumb story and how contrived it is. It’s always an eye-roll at the camera and it just gets tiresome. Rick and Morty feels like a slog to get through because the characters hate the story itself as well as each other. It just gets fucking tiring.
Deadpool makes jokes about how silly a superhero universe is, but he’s also giddy when he sees Juggernaut and eagerly points out superhero tropes that he enjoys. West of Loathing’s meta-jokes and arguments between player and narrator are charming and part of the fun. Because they all come from a place of genuinely enjoying the genre they’re a part of.
I dunno, just something I wanted to talk about. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go date Vera again.
Dick- Blue Kirby (kirby is a funky little fella and dick loves the ability to steal his siblings’ abilities and use it against them)
Babs- Samus (specifically the black and yellow suit, that looks like batman. also samus is a badass female role model in a post apocalyptic type world. badass.)
Jason- King Dedede (he likes playing the big character with the bigass hammer and makes it his mission every single time he and dick play to knock dick off first)(steph pokes fun at him for picking the pink and purple one but jason can still kick ass even with the pink character)
Tim- Dark Pit (he’s an emo little bitch and absolutely has cosplayed as dark pit at least once for halloween. also winged characters are niceeee)
Steph- Bayonetta (woman. also playing a very pretty adult character and taking out tim is very fun)(she wishes there was a purple costume one but this is fine enough and she likes the finishing move where legs stomp on enemies)(also. gun shoes! gun shoes! gun shoes!)
Cass- Pikachu Libre (shes the only female pikachu option and shes also adorable. luchador pikachu is the best pikachu option in the game, and shes just so cute)
Duke- Isabella (shes adorable and yellow, and unassuming. he absolutely decimates his siblings. he has a longstanding truce with jason that they will not attack each other unless they are the last two in the game and will work together to take out their other siblings)
Damian- Greninja (damian plays pokemon games as a part of his learning to be a normal child. maps introduced him and collin to them and they play them together. greninja is his favorite of the pokemon in ssb ultimate and he has such a cool design)
Bruce- Luigi (calls him mario. cannot be corrected.)(enjoys messing with his kids)
So there's this dinosaur park that's a thinly veiled Jurassic Park knock-off (call it Cretaceous Island), and it's a bit of a toy story situation, in that the dinosaurs can talk and communicate when the humans aren't looking, mostly at night.
The dinos don't really want to break out since they like their cushy zoo lives and five-star treatment from the staff, so they're willing to get oggled by a bunch of twelve year olds to keep the food coming.
Out main characters are a T-Rex, two raptor sisters, and a wise old triceratops. The raptors are bored with their lives and long for adventure, the triceratops is a wise-old mentor figure, and the T-Rex is lonely since the park won't engineer any other T-Rex's for safety reasons.
Through magical shenanigans they get sent back to the actual Cretaceous period.
Now these pampered genetically engineered dinos have to survive in the savage dinosaur era. To underscore the differences between them, the future dinos are animated as pretty standard cartoon dinosaurs, a la Land Before Time, while the dinosaurs from the past are animated to be as scientifically accurate as possible.
The dinos go through shenanigans, amke friends in the past, evade predators, and eventually make their way home through magic portal stuff, except for the T-Rex who elects to stay behind since he's fallen for a female T-Rex he met in the past. His friends are sad to leave him behind, but go to the present anyway.
Back in the present, the dinos think nothing has really changed, but they find that the exhibit in the visitor's center, previously a single roaring T-Rex skeleton, has been replaced with two T-Rex's, famous for being found fossilized together called "The Deadly Lovers", and its their friend and the mate he found in the past. It ends on the bittersweet note.
So I was bored and recorded myself reading various Galeem/Dharkon quotes from @incorrectsmashbrosquotes. It’s not long, but I hope it will elicit at least a brief chuckle.