Recently it has come to our attention that many sections of the forum are engaged in a contest of punsmanship, however lesser humour, unlike many lesser forms of creative or technical endeavours which are encouraged for bandwidth is cheap and filtered information is valuable, is not always a valuable addition and it should be noted many face what can only be described as masters of the art (see also "bringing a knife to a gunfight"). Now would be contenders in the great game of punsmanship have long faced world class competition (a former site administrator once earning the widely recognised title "Ace Punman" and all) should they attempt to try it out on GBAtemp but with an abundance of those trying their hand at the gig in recent times it could be something of a net negative.
Now this is not to say puns are a lesser form of humour, indeed that label has been applied to various types of humour over the years (see also "sarcasm is the lowest form of humour") and the concept is probably worthless as a result, but they are one of the first forms of humour people learn and as such are very hard to do well in the first place. To make analogy it is very hard to make a bowl of cereal that will impress me*, but it is not that hard to make acake pie that will.
*it has been noted in times past that if you feed me American sugar cereal for a month or so I will slit my own cat's throat for some weetabix or malt wheats.
Of course bitching about something rarely achieves much so a sharing of knowledge is in order. The following will be a short (very incomplete) list of potential suggestions for other noted types of humour with minor discussion on each point. We love humour and if a thread can say a lot but still be largely composed of humorous devices then the thread can be considered a success, any and all that wish for threads to be impassive "unbiased"* conveyances of information are invited to peruse newswires and press release feeds instead; being a humourless bastard is one thing and being a bastard is one thing but being straight up humourless is grounds for instant eviction from hotel GBAtemp (indeed some have even been evicted for a sense of humour failure).
*sparing a short discussion on the nature of bias it should be noted that we are starting from the idea that computer games have an inherent worth where much of the rest of the world could quite casually dismiss them from consideration on most occasions.
Limericks
Very quickly summarised as five line poems in which lines 1,2 and 5 rhyme with each other as do lines 3 and 4 with most considering a true limerick to have a measure of obscenity (overt or possible as a double entendre).
Limericks are not necessarily the easiest to make and there are other types of short poem and beyond that there are narrative devices such as iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets and haiku.
Humorous juxtaposition, absurdism and uncanny resemblance (even if forced)
Being a site that creates much culture around computer games has left you in a prime position; where many fields will have to work hard to generate content here it has been noted in the past that one can generate considerable humour simply by applying the logic of computer games to an ostensibly equivalent real life situation. Beyond that the incredibly malleable nature of the pixel driven art coupled with the ease at which it allows for what is known in games themselves as a sense of immersion make things even easier- many times you will not even have to use an airbrush.
Pictures are readily available all over the internet and assuming this is at least your third time on the modern internet you have probably seen a few. Popular themes include merging computer game characters into iconic or noted pictures, merging computer game characters into real life situations where their powers might be a hindrance and pointing out shortcomings traits of characters (your highly trained gun wielder being barely able to do a 100m sprint being a good example).
http://tubedubber.com/ is an underused resource in the pursuit of humour around here at present. Does a new gamesteal borrow draw inspiration from another title with a well known soundtrack? What could have been an easily ignored "hurr/meh looks like ?" post is now something considerably less likely to be overlooked.
Variations on this theme include great works like this and slightly easier to pull off things like Benny Hillifying a video.
Double entendre
Quite frequently a component of a well crafted pun, limerick or greater work of humour.
Here a line, phrase or work taken out of context would suggest something vulgar, counter to the original intent of the work by virtue of words having multiple meanings. If you do wish to make an effort at humour and a pun is your method of choice then make it spectacular or, in the likely event that is unable to be achieved, then make sure it is a double entendre at the same time.
You know who else likes double entendres- James Bond. By forgoing puns you too could one day be as cool as James Bond.
Non pun wordplay
Not all wordplay is necessarily a pun. Following on from the puns being an early form of humour learned another form of language used as a test of early knowledge (and sometimes later knowledge) is a test on plurals; a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese and a wunch of bankers being three prime examples.
Now we like games and we see the value of employing certain rewards, knowing this and seeing that the pointless timewaster known asmedals likes achievements are somehow desirable and being frugal bastards by nature we are presenting internet points to those that attempt other forms of humour*.
*internet points are added invisibly and silently to your internet points balance, any attendant increase in size of e-penises is unrelated although covered by our pending patent (or more likely one of Apple's).
Now this is not to say puns are a lesser form of humour, indeed that label has been applied to various types of humour over the years (see also "sarcasm is the lowest form of humour") and the concept is probably worthless as a result, but they are one of the first forms of humour people learn and as such are very hard to do well in the first place. To make analogy it is very hard to make a bowl of cereal that will impress me*, but it is not that hard to make a
*it has been noted in times past that if you feed me American sugar cereal for a month or so I will slit my own cat's throat for some weetabix or malt wheats.
Of course bitching about something rarely achieves much so a sharing of knowledge is in order. The following will be a short (very incomplete) list of potential suggestions for other noted types of humour with minor discussion on each point. We love humour and if a thread can say a lot but still be largely composed of humorous devices then the thread can be considered a success, any and all that wish for threads to be impassive "unbiased"* conveyances of information are invited to peruse newswires and press release feeds instead; being a humourless bastard is one thing and being a bastard is one thing but being straight up humourless is grounds for instant eviction from hotel GBAtemp (indeed some have even been evicted for a sense of humour failure).
*sparing a short discussion on the nature of bias it should be noted that we are starting from the idea that computer games have an inherent worth where much of the rest of the world could quite casually dismiss them from consideration on most occasions.
Limericks
Very quickly summarised as five line poems in which lines 1,2 and 5 rhyme with each other as do lines 3 and 4 with most considering a true limerick to have a measure of obscenity (overt or possible as a double entendre).
Limericks are not necessarily the easiest to make and there are other types of short poem and beyond that there are narrative devices such as iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets and haiku.
Humorous juxtaposition, absurdism and uncanny resemblance (even if forced)
Being a site that creates much culture around computer games has left you in a prime position; where many fields will have to work hard to generate content here it has been noted in the past that one can generate considerable humour simply by applying the logic of computer games to an ostensibly equivalent real life situation. Beyond that the incredibly malleable nature of the pixel driven art coupled with the ease at which it allows for what is known in games themselves as a sense of immersion make things even easier- many times you will not even have to use an airbrush.
Pictures are readily available all over the internet and assuming this is at least your third time on the modern internet you have probably seen a few. Popular themes include merging computer game characters into iconic or noted pictures, merging computer game characters into real life situations where their powers might be a hindrance and pointing out shortcomings traits of characters (your highly trained gun wielder being barely able to do a 100m sprint being a good example).
http://tubedubber.com/ is an underused resource in the pursuit of humour around here at present. Does a new game
Variations on this theme include great works like this and slightly easier to pull off things like Benny Hillifying a video.
Double entendre
Quite frequently a component of a well crafted pun, limerick or greater work of humour.
Here a line, phrase or work taken out of context would suggest something vulgar, counter to the original intent of the work by virtue of words having multiple meanings. If you do wish to make an effort at humour and a pun is your method of choice then make it spectacular or, in the likely event that is unable to be achieved, then make sure it is a double entendre at the same time.
You know who else likes double entendres- James Bond. By forgoing puns you too could one day be as cool as James Bond.
Non pun wordplay
Not all wordplay is necessarily a pun. Following on from the puns being an early form of humour learned another form of language used as a test of early knowledge (and sometimes later knowledge) is a test on plurals; a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese and a wunch of bankers being three prime examples.
Now we like games and we see the value of employing certain rewards, knowing this and seeing that the pointless timewaster known as
*internet points are added invisibly and silently to your internet points balance, any attendant increase in size of e-penises is unrelated although covered by our pending patent (or more likely one of Apple's).
