Summary
Joke characters are a common feature of gaming. As the name implies, these characters are often not taken too seriously in one way or another. Fascinatingly, joke characters can often become beloved by fans and/or developers, and consequentially, be given a more serious or dignified role in future installments on account of this popularity. Yet, it goes both ways. Sometimes, a relatively more serious or grounded character can evolve into a butt-monkey.
This does not have to be purely the result of popularity on either end of the spectrum.Flanderization (the exaggeration of a character’s most common traits over the duration of a series)is also a frequent culprit, which itself can stem from limited ideas for a character’s next set of actions in a story. For one reason or another, these characters were taken less seriously after their debut appearances.
Fighting games commonly flanderize their characters over time. This is due to consistent efforts to both add fresh characters to the roster and retrieve old fan favorites. The result is plenty of characters that have nothing to do with the main story and, consequently, less to fall back on in terms of developing a narrative. Ganryu, a Japanese sumo wrestler fromtheTekkenseries, is one such example.
Although never a major character within the narrative, he was given a level of respect as the youngest sumo wrestler to win the rank of Ozeki. However, certain aspects of his immoral nature stifled his opportunity to ascend to the rank of Yokozuna. Nonetheless, he is recognized by Kazuya Mishima for his power and is employed as his subordinate. He is given the objective of stealing an amulet from Michelle Chang, a Native American woman with a father from Hong Kong. However, Ganryu fails to obtain the amulet and develops an unrequited crush on Michelle.
He is absent from theTekkenseries after this point, until5,where he develops an identical infatuation with Julia, Michelle’s adopted daughter. While he has interests and goals other than chasing noticeably younger women, his stories have shifted focus away from his prestige as a sumo wrestler and more exclusively around his vices, often in a fairly comical manner. His most recent appearance inTekken 7does not give him an in-game story at all, but his profiles on the game’s official websites in English and Japanese clarify that he was motivated to become an influencer and join the tournament due to accidentally donating the entirety of the funds needed to keep his restaurant afloat to Julia.
Johnny Klebitz was a supporting character inGrand Theft Auto 4, even becoming the protagonist of one of its expansion packs,The Lost and Damned, which received rave reviews upon release. Johnny is the Vice President of The Lost Motorcycle Club, who has to deal with conflicts pertaining to the group, typically involving other criminal organizations or otherwise focused on internal struggles. His relationship with his girlfriend, Ashley Butler, is also strained, largely due to her drug addiction and the many actions she will take to satisfy it. Eventually, Johnny ends up putting his life of crime on pause and breaking up with Ashley, at least until theGrand Theft Auto 5storyline rolls around.
Around the time of5, Johnny is back with Ashley and the Lost and has become a drug addict himself. His girlfriend regularly cheats on him with the new series protagonist, Trevor Phillips, and eventually, Johnny gains the courage to confront him about this. Unfortunately, this coincides with Trevor learning that his estranged ex-partner in crime, Michael Townley (now known as Michael De Santa), is still alive, which infuriates him enough to the point where he murders Johnny with a beer bottle.
Although Johnny does not exactly become a joke character in the traditional sense, his return to everything he tried to escape, followed by his untimely demise, fit with the dark comedy stylings of the Grand Theft Auto series, making him much more of a butt-monkey than he was in the process.
Hsu Hao is a cyborg of Chinese and Mongolian descent, who was a member of the Red Dragon Clan, a rival organization to Kano’s Black Dragon Clan. He infiltrated the Special Forces on behalf of Mavado, his superior within the group. His cybernetic heart enhances his physical strength. Jax Briggs, another cyborg within the Special Forces, kills Hsu Hao by ripping out this cybernetic heart in his own ending.
This death was meant to be canon, restricting his playable appearances beyondDeadly Alliance. Hao was inexplicablyunpopular with the developers, such as Ed Boon and John Vogel. Aside fromTournament Edition(itself a port ofDeadly Alliance) andArmageddon(a game that necessarily included him by virtue of having every playable character up to that point), Hao has never been playable in anotherMortal Kombatgame. Reasons for this likely include his similarity to the much more popular character Kano and design elements many argue have been derived from racist depictions of Asians.
Yet this absence as a playable character has not stopped the barrage of in-game jokes at his expense. He was quickly killed by Scorpion in the prequel comic series toMortal Kombat 10and had a similarly unflattering cameo as a corpse hauled by Erron Black in one of his intro sequences inMortal Kombat 11. It remains to be seen if Hsu Hao will be attached to the timeline ofMortal Kombat 1, but any appearance will likely be similarly abbreviated.
Art of Fightingwas one of many fighting game series launched by SNK. It starred the likes of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, two martial artists whose fighting style, Kyokugen-ryu, was heavily derived fromthe “Shotokan” style(retroactively identified as the Anastsuken) associated withStreet Fighter. This led to the creation of the fan-favorite joke character, Dan Hibiki, who takes elements from both Ryo and Robert. Another notable character associated with the series was Mr. Karate.
Mr. Karate was the final boss of the first game, a mighty practitioner of Kyokugen-ryu who was unwillingly roped into crime and wore a tengu mask to obscure his identity. He was eventually revealed to be Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo’s father, who fought to protect his daughter, Yuri Sakazaki. Takuma appears in the sequel unmasked but is no longer a fighter in the series' third game, which has thus far been its final installment.
Since this installment, the most prominent characters from the series have appeared in other titles, most notablyKing of Fighters, a team-based fighting game that takes place in a separate timeline fromArt of Fighting. An unmasked Takuma has had sporadic appearances due to other characters from the series, such as Yuri and King, taking the spot he would have in the team under certain circumstances. In the endings for theArt of Fightingteam, where he is unplayable, he may instead appear as Mr. Karate, with the team wise to his true identity, despite his desire to conceal it.
However, Mr. Karate was able to partially shirk his joke status, albeit in a somewhat non-canon capacity, inSNK vs. Capcom: SVC ChaosandKing of Fighters 13. Both of these games introduce the persona of Serious Mr. Karate, a much more intense fighter, in line with the great strength and skill Takuma possesses. To distinguish himself from the original character, he wears a black gi, rather than the white ones Takuma seems to prefer. Ryo himself has since claimed the title of Mr. Karate in various games, due to Takuma’s retirement, but seems to have little interest in the theatrics of it. SNK revealed that anotherArt of Fightinggame was in development at Evo 2024. How, or even if, it implements the Mr. Karate moniker remains to be seen.
Joke characters themselves can be flanderized and are arguably the most susceptible to it. This results in subjected characters being taken less seriously with each subsequent installment. A notable example of this is Larry Butz fromtheAce Attorneyseries. Butz was a childhood friend of both Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, arguably bringing the pair together when he stole Edgeworth’s lunch money and assisted him in defending Wright, who was accused of stealing it.
Butz is introduced as Wright’s defendant in his first ever case as a lawyer in the originalAce Attorney, when he is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Cindy Stone. Wright is able to unveil witness Frank Sawhit as the culprit, exonerating Butz of murder. He reappears as a hot dog vendor in the game’s fourth chapter, where his testimony helps determine Edgeworth’s innocence in the murder of Robert Hammond. He also reveals the truth behind Edgeworth’s missing lunch money and repays him $38, though Edgeworth had deduced the truth already.
Wright’s frustration at being left in the dark on this matter has seemingly changed his opinion of Larry, and with it, how he is presented in the series. He is frequently dumped by his girlfriends and flirts with practically anyone of the opposite sex. InTrials and Tribulations, his second appearance in the series, he expressed a creepy level of openness to flirting with and dating people of the opposite sex, regardless of whether they are married, noticeably younger than him, or, even in one particularly disturbing instance, prepubescent. He is, from this point onward, consistently portrayed as a lecherous, irresponsible slacker who can’t keep a steady job or girlfriend. He is berated for his loose morals and frequent failings, most often by the likes of Wright and Edgeworth. He is a repeat witness throughout the series, with his tendency to lie yet capture crucial evidence, making his testimonies a chore to unravel.
His appearance in theSpirit of JusticeDLC,Turnabout Time Traveler, chronologically the final chapter in the series to date, notes that he has achieved an apparent level of success as an artist, albeit somewhat minimized as a “one-hit-wonder.” That said, Butz is re-affirmed to be arguably even dumber than he was prior, aggressively flirting with Ellen Wyatt, a woman who is in the process of getting married, and directly making a bomb threat to the police. His butt-monkey status is kept intact when he is chased by the likes of Maya Fey, Ema Skye, and Athena Sykes for catching the bouquet at the do-over wedding of Ellen Wyatt, the aforementioned bride-to-be, who was also Wright’s most recent defendant.
