Sunday Mailbag- Video Game Parodies?

Q: Has the magazine ever considered doing full-length video game spoofs with the same style and look as the Movie/TV Show parodies? If they haven’t done it for a particular reason, what is that reason? For me personally, I would’ve loved to see parodies of games like GTA V, the Call of Duty games, and Bioshock/Bioshock Infinite.

A: This is really a question for the MAD editors, but I thought it was an intriguing idea so I thought I’d post it.

MAD‘s done plenty of material on gaming, including a huge “50 Worth things about Video Games” back in MAD #457, Sept 2005. I know I have done at least one job that dealt with video games: “When Video Games Become Religious” from MAD #471. Those are just gag articles, though. You refer to “spoofs”, meaning I imagine continuity satires like we do with TV shows and films.

These days games like the ones you listed are more like movies or serial TV shows than they are games. They have plots and storylines, and I can see how a film/TV parody format might work for certain games. I have no idea if the editors at MAD have considered doing something like that, and if so why they haven’t done it.

I don’t play video games, so frankly I have no perspective on how much plot or film/TV element material these games would give for a writer to spoof. There aren’t any actors involved (yes, I know voice actors are actors but unless they really do something over the top it’s tough to spoof their performances) so only the story is really ripe for targeting. How much story is really involved? Since the story is only part of the game, how important is it really? Do we make fun of the gameplay? I don’t know.

Personally I have a hard time believing any individual video games have enough to them to make for a funny full length spoof. More likely MAD would spoof the plot/storyline/gameplay genre somehow. I guess time will tell.

Thanks to Harry Thornton for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!