Life is a funny thing. You know what else is funny? Video games. Crafting an enjoyable or edifying gaming experience is challenging enough. But creating a game that manages to be hilarious? That’s a feat of design and writing worthy of admiration.
If you find yourself in need of a good hearty chuckle, we’ve got just the list for you. We’ve pulled together a selection of the best video games that are actually funny. From amnesiac disaster cops to flying suitcases and more, here are 10 games (and series) with the best comedy writing the medium has to offer.
Image: ZA/UM
Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Disco Elysium is considered by many to be one of the best-written RPGs of the past decade, so it’s no surprise that it’s also considered one of the funniest. No matter how the player chooses to customize their starting stats, the protagonist of Disco Elysium is the living human embodiment of a train wreck, bumbling from one perversely embarrassing encounter to the next in his existential mission to not only uncover the culprit behind a murder, but settle on an ideological framework by which to judge that murder. More often than not, you can’t stop your character from putting his whole foot (or worse) in his mouth. All you can do is try to roll with the punches and laugh your way through it. —Toussaint Egan
Image: IO Interactive
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
The Homing Briefcase alone would be enough to earn the Hitman series’ spot on this list. But that’s just one example of the many ways IO Interactive’s immersive assassination simulator allows players to toy with the game’s impressively crafted stages. Rather than attempting to make massive open-world environments, the games instead function more like the best city block simulators you’ve ever played, each with their own intricate series of patterns, pathways, and ridiculous characters. The games’ winking tone, silly weapons, and penchant for hijinks means every attempt at a level is a chance for something hilarious to happen. —Pete Volk
Image: Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital
Where to play: Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Starting with The Secret of Monkey Island in 1990 and running all the way to Return to Monkey Island in 2022 (which landed at No. 16 on Polygon’s list of the top 50 best games of the year), this series has been a standard-bearer for comedy in point-and-click adventure games. That’s to the credit of Ron Gilbert, a master of puns and interactive story design, who headed up each game in the series. Very few games have made me laugh out loud while playing them, but all six Monkey Island games have. You do need to like puns, though. —Maddy Myers
Image: Inkle
Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
In Overboard!, you are not motivated by righteousness — unless you think pushing your husband off a cruise ship because he’s holding you back in life is righteous. This point-and-click murder mystery starts out with a grisly killing like any other, but in this colorful take, you’re not trying to solve it — you’re trying to get away with it. It has to be funny by nature, otherwise it’d be morally depraved, and the game succeeds there. The main character is sultry and witty, and you might find yourself commanding her to seduce the captain by complimenting his hat or smother a nasty old woman who knows too much. Whether you end up in jail or not, when each 20-minute playthrough ends, you can start over with your new information and a few new objectives in tow. —Zoë Hannah
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo
Nintendo’s writers like to cut loose when it comes to the humor and real-world references in the Paper Mario series. The entire franchise is varying degrees of funny, but the series may have peaked with 2016’s Paper Mario: Color Splash for Wii U — a game that’s unfortunately still stuck on that platform.
Paper Mario: Color Splash sends Mario to Prism Island, after the heroic plumber receives a letter in the mail — which actually turns out to be a paper Toad who has been drained of its color, having met that fate thanks to paint-slurping, straw-wielding Shy Guys. At Prism Island, they meet Huey, a sentient can of paint who delivers much of the game’s jokes and meta-commentary. Color Splash is also packed with wise-cracking Toads — this game has SO many Toads — and Bowser’s minions who riff on anything and everything. There are great paper-based sight gags, fourth-wall-breaking jabs at the Mario franchise, cleverly disguised gun-control jokes, and even jokes about the Watergate scandal. Some of the game’s real-world references may have even gotten a little too hot for Nintendo’s tastes.
If you don’t have a Wii U handy, hope that Nintendo sees fit to bring Color Splash forward to the Switch. But Switch owners have another great option in Paper Mario: The Origami King, which is also very funny — just not as consistently funny as Color Splash. —Michael McWhertor
Image: Valve
Where to play: Android, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Xbox 360
The first Portal is a standout for puzzle design, an irrepressible gem that remains on almost every critic’s personal best-of-all-time video game list for good reason. But the other reason it’s a standout is its dialogue. You play as Chell, a silent protagonist stuck in a maze-like series of puzzle rooms that turn out to be a testing center run by a sentient robot named GLaDOS. For whatever reason, this robot has been programmed to be a master shit-talker, and she will be making you chuckle even as you question what the hell is going on throughout every single puzzle room. She keeps up the shtick in Portal 2, but her jokes get a lot meaner and (in my opinion) less funny; the original Portal has the perfect balance. —Maddy Myers
Thank Goodness You’re Here!
Image: Coal Supper/Panic
Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC
Do you enjoy Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, or That Mitchell and Webb Look? If yes, have I got the game for you. If no, consider this an introduction (or indoctrination) to the world of absurdist British humor. Developed by Coal Supper and published by Panic Inc. (the latter best known for Untitled Goose Game), Thank Goodness You’re Here is a comedic adventure game about a small fellow running errands for the locals of Barnsworth, a fictional small town in Northern England. You interact with everything — and I mean everything — by punching, which proves to be an exceptionally effective strategy. The writing is brisk and cheeky, supported by an exceptional cast of actors that includes What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry. —Chris Plante
The Yakuza/Like a Dragon series
Image: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega via Polygon
Where to play: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Wii U, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Think of the Yakuza series (recently rebranded Like a Dragon in Western markets) as a collision of The Godfather and The Simpsons. Each entry tells a life-or-death story of an ex-Yakuza member navigating the gray space between crime, law enforcement, and civilian life. But these dramatic narrative threads get entwined with hundreds of side characters and their comedic, heartfelt ambitions. Take for example the most recent release, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The protagonist’s desire to save Hawaii from a megalomaniacal cult leader gets put on ice as he helps a struggling musician rediscover his passion for environmentalist death metal. For nearly two decades, the game’s designers have chosen joy above all else, whether that’s a parody of Pokémon in which you collect local perverts, an Animal Crossing clone set on an island of trash, or a boss battle in which the squad fends off construction vehicles with a collection of pristine office furniture. —CP
There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
Image: Draw Me A Pixel
Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
I’m remiss to say anything about how There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension plays, because watching the confounding narrative unfold with each chapter is the joy in itself. It feels distinctly inspired by the point-and-click browser games of old like World’s Hardest Game, where the game itself is plotting against the player. This version is animated and aged up for the current moment, filled with decisions and puzzles that’ll confuse you into putting the game down, but motivate you to pick it up again a few minutes later. This game is not fair, but it is supremely funny — the perfect antidote to the current moment, which also feels like the wrong dimension. —ZH
Image: Holy Wow Studios
Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
Trombone Champ could have been a one-note joke, that note being the flatulent tooting of a trombone. The rhythm parody game could have effectively mocked the genre with nothing more than its out-of-tune, fart-adjacent impersonation of the instrument. An ironic selection of public domain hits like “The Blue Danube” and “The Old Gray Mare” would have sealed the deal as an instant hit on Twitch streams. But the more you play Trombone Champ, the funnier it gets, as you uncover bizarre “Tromboner” cards and inexplicable baboon-related deep lore. The community has made hundreds of custom tracks if you want to trombone your way through the fire and flames. But if that’s all too much satire for you, it’s still ultimately a game about making fart sounds, and that will always be funny. Perfecto! —Clayton Ashley
