Abstract
Focused on Nintendo’s crossover fighting series Super Smash Bros, this chapter explores its relations with previous forms of physical comedy and group humour such as slapstick cinema, Japanese theatre and commedia dell’arte, drawing on interviews with game designers as well as oral testimonies from comedians, filmmakers and art historians. In order to interrogate the specificity of visual humour in game environments, and particularly within Nintendo’s imagery, the text compares classic gags and comedic routines of this franchise with similar formal and aesthetic configurations from other media, going back to historical definitions and theories of physical comedy, thus vindicating a type of humour based on movements, gestures and spatial imbalances instead of words and dialogues. Overall, the chapter argues that the Smash Bros games allow players to perform almost like silent clowns, using adaptability, improvisation and surprise to develop their own comedic styles and share laughs together.
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Garin, M. (2022). On Nintendo’s Visual Humour: Slapstick Cinema and Comic Theatre in Super Smash Bros. In: Bonello Rutter Giappone, K., Majkowski, T.Z., Švelch, J. (eds) Video Games and Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88338-6_5
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