Did you not play the first game? Did you not see any videos for this one? I don't understand why there's this backlash with the game's sense of humor (other than because yo the internet is the internet). If you don't like it that's your thing, but where did all of these unrealistic expectations come from? All of this complaining just makes me think of stereotypical wine and gourmet food snobs. Cheeseburgers are good too, damn it.

Edit from a later post that will get buried: As for the whole memes and internet jokes, they're a tiny fraction of the game. The blowback is disproportionate, but that's how it is on the internet I guess. I see why lots of people wouldn't be into that, but I just find the amount of hate super silly.

It's because Jeff mentioned it. People regurgitate what they are told. It then spreads. It's how sheep.... I mean people's brains work. 
 
For the record I've never been a fan of how borderlands is written or ever found it funny. I think it's good for other reasons and that's ok.  
Not all games need to home run the story aspect. I feel the same about Diablo. Always have.

Yes, but the Quick Look had as many instances of that eye-rollingly stupid humor as the entire first game did. One can ignore such jokes if they only happen occasionally, but when that kind of humor pervades the entire thing, and you don't like that humor, it could get annoying.

I haven't played the game, so I don't know, but that^ ought to be pretty obvious. It's also why I only liked Saints Row the Third, didn't love it.

Loved Portal 1 and 2, though. That's some good humor. Why can't we have less "butt stallions" and more "slow claps from a potato while in the middle of an impossible fall?"

Well, personally, I'm loving the game's humour. But yeah, it's not like the humour is exactly much different from BL1...

My reason for hating most of the humor in both games is where it is coming from. There are a lot of times when I just want to explore and I have this douche spouting their awfully written catch-phrases that are supposed to be funny, but aren't. Whats the point of creating a game where you are encouraged to explore (one of the main ways of finding iridium in the beginning of the game) and yet the characters around you are doing everything possible to annoy you into saying "fuck it, I'm either quitting or running through the main story."

Plus, Claptrap sucks. I don't have any idea why people care about this character so much.

I still haven't played the game and didn't read much on people's opinions of it, but I think the problem most people have with it is the fact that it relies too much on references, internet based ones mostly. But I could be wrong.

I have to admit though, outside of the humour discussion, I'm think games need to let go of Minecraft references.

@believer258: Humor is subjected like in all cases. Personally, I didn't find Portal 2 to be funny, just really enjoyed the puzzles. Though I enjoyed the stupid antics of Saint Rows: The Third.

May be there is some one out there that really likes the comedy of the Borderlands 2; heck, I don't know. But to say one is right and the other is wrong...is well...kinda wrong in itself. :/

Not that you said it! I have just seen so many posts commending those who like the game's comedy is all.

I still haven't played the game and didn't read much on people's opinions of it, but I think the problem most people have with it is the fact that it relies too much on references, internet based ones mostly. But I could be wrong.

@OneKillWonder_: That is quite possible, I guess I'll see for myself in a few days.

Also, your response was your 666th post. I feel I have been cursed.

Borderlands 1 wasn't funny, Borderlands 2 wasn't funny... it's not why I play them though. I come for the loot.

Why has caring about what others think about Borderlands' comedy become a big deal? Some of the responses I have seen here on Giant Bomb have been intense or emotional, and I find that surprising.

While the 2 games share the same style of humor, they definitely play on some different strings. It's probably something inherent with this style of comedy though, as already with Borderlands there was a major split regarding clap-trap (which I personally find funny at times). In Borderlands 2 the big divider seems to be Tiny Tina (which I just completely despised). I'm no proffesional comedian or anything, but I bet someone who actually knew their stuff could properly articulate what makes this comedy so hit/miss. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with it being very referential, and therefore very dependant on your relationship to what it refers to.

Dude, shit's pretty funny. It's layered thicker than the first, but still pretty funny. ^_^

"The first game wasn't funny so you shouldn't complain that the second game is even less funny!"

This is a terrible argument.

@believer258 said:

Yes, but the Quick Look had as many instances of that eye-rollingly stupid humor as the entire first game did. One can ignore such jokes if they only happen occasionally, but when that kind of humor pervades the entire thing, and you don't like that humor, it could get annoying.

I haven't played the game, so I don't know, but that^ ought to be pretty obvious. It's also why I only liked Saints Row the Third, didn't love it.

Loved Portal 1 and 2, though. That's some good humor. Why can't we have less "butt stallions" and more "slow claps from a potato while in the middle of an impossible fall?"

The tone of Borderlands and Portal are different animals, though. I wouldn't want Borderlands to be like Portal. My sense of humor skews toward Portal, but I can get with crude humor if it's done smartly, like say the South Park movie. Hearing "bonerfarts" and the like from BL2 doesn't exactly have me rolling, but how detrimental are a few lame jokes to the overall experience? Not much, I'd reckon.

I thought the problem was less the overall humour and more with the internet meme humour.

lol bacon!!!

Hey guys shut up your opinion on this game is totally wrong mine is right and you should all listen to me because fuck you that's why. If you don't agree with me it's because you're a SHEEP.

It's less witty and more stupid, which is fine for some and not fine for others. I really don't care either way.

What's wrong with immature and juveline humor? I much prefer to laugh like a fucking idiot at dick jokes than chuckling like a gentleman at fart jokes.

Decade old 4chan memes and bacon 'humor'. Was it written by Randy Pitchford's father after discovering the web?

I find the game to be pretty damn hilarious. Basically everything Claptrap says gets at least a chuckle out of me.

I'm wondering if you played the first game. While the humor was very similar it wasn't near as frequent as in this game. Not that it bothers me that much since I'm still really enjoying the game. I don't play videogames for a laugh anyways so it's hard for me to expect much.

They somehow managed to make a game less funny than the first Borderlands, and it's astonishing.

I'm always down for dumb humor. The game isn't in Scary Movie territory or anything, so it's good.

@CornBREDX said:

It's because Jeff mentioned it. People regurgitate what they are told. It then spreads. It's how sheep.... I mean people's brains work. For the record I've never been a fan of how borderlands is written or ever found it funny. I think it's good for other reasons and that's ok. Not all games need to home run the story aspect. I feel the same about Diablo. Always have.

I was thinking the same thing. Some (not most) users always seem to simply follow what the staff says as if they were the words of Christ Himself. When explaining the reasons they say what they heard. Think for yourselves peeps.

I'm confused as to why everybody brings up the (single) bacon joke and the memes. It's 1% of the game's writing.

Anyhoo, you're never going to convince somebody to change their mind on humor, or vice versa. It's a pretty hardwired sense. It's a shame that people are avoiding the game completely because of a tiny blip in the corner that occasionally mentions a meme (and I think you can turn that off, can't you?), but oh well.

@CornBREDX said:

It's because Jeff mentioned it. People regurgitate what they are told. It then spreads. It's how sheep.... I mean people's brains work. For the record I've never been a fan of how borderlands is written or ever found it funny. I think it's good for other reasons and that's ok. Not all games need to home run the story aspect. I feel the same about Diablo. Always have.

Right because the game doesn't just objectively have any flaws. It's obviously all just one man influencing everyone else. Sounds about right.

I cringe a lot at Zero's lines when he uses his skills. Everything else seems to be hit or miss for me. Actually kinda interesting to see how it works out like that.

I don't find the humor very good in this game. I think one of the reasons people are so disappointed was that they messaged they fixed the writing by bringing this guy from destructiod that now does this web series to clean it up. But it was a swing and a miss. The damning part you can see in the quick look is when Jeff points out an internet meme, then brad asked if one in particular is in the game, and Jeff finds it in the menu seconds later. So, a swing and a miss. Comedy is hard in games.

That is not why you come to Borderlands though, and I did not find it so distracting as to end my fun with the game. In full disclosure, I only played it for a few hours at a friends house who told me "You have to play this game, dude". I did enjoy the time I spent with it despite the humor. While it was off putting, it was not game breaking like Duke Nukems. That is if Duke Nukem was not broken before the humor struck.

All of you people taking shit so seriously is why we'll never have sufficient imagination to achieve things like space exploration or advanced civilization. It'll be like Equilibrium and yo, I don't want that.

It gets a few giggles out of me here and there (I agree with Jeff that weirdly enough a lot of the incidental, side-line humour makes for some of the funniest stuff), but then I never found original Borderlands all that funny, either. It was light-hearted and silly, but then even if I didn't laugh along with the game, I still appreciated the style. It's all very laid-back and sets the mood for some gleeful bandit slaughter. The Zombie Island and General Knoxx DLC I do remember finding to be consistently funny, though. General Knoxx himself is easily the series best character at that.

I haven't played the game so I can't really say one way or the other, but from what I saw on the TNT and the QL it seemed really lazy. I'm down for dumb humor on occasion, but don't be lazy about it.

You see the problem is the memes weren't as old as they are now back in 2009

To everyone that doesn't find the game funny and is expressing that by being a dick in this thread: I hope you're proud of yourself.

As for the whole memes and internet jokes, they're a tiny fraction of the game. The blowback is disproportionate, but that's how it is on the internet I guess. I see why lots of people wouldn't be into that, but I just find the amount of hate super silly.

@GoranP said:

To everyone that doesn't find the game funny and is expressing that by being a dick in this thread: I hope you're proud of yourself.

As for the whole memes and internet jokes, they're a tiny fraction of the game. The blowback is disproportionate, but that's how it is on the internet I guess. I see why lots of people wouldn't be into that, but I just find the amount of hate super silly.

You hate people that hate stuff?

@SomeDeliCook: Dude, what? In my previous 2 posts I was simply expressing a) my bewilderment at the disproportionate backlash and b) my distaste for the couple of dicks in this thread.

I'm pretty okay with the humor. If I'm going to say, arbitrarily align myself to any of Jeff's comments (which is a concept I believe he has no respect for), handsome Jack does seem a touch off, but not always. A couple of his comments I did like so far, long ways to go. Here I have different expectations than I do some intense ideation about the humor because Borderlands did some of it's NPC's character dev. pretty darn well. Colonel Knox? Moxie, Tannis, others, they got them down. Scooter this time around also sounds a little too slow and spun(so far) As a character model for him probably unjustifiably I always think of the Left for Dead's southern dude..a motormouth sure and a bit spun...but not slow. I'd like to think actually good native intelligence, but his life was cars girls and tripping on his cousin or whoever who was more like Scooter on a crazy day.... Roland also don't seem like Roland. The sniper in the ql came off fine, and I am looking forward to the siren. Does Brick now talk...really?

I'm also surprised they dragged that pretty woman who appears in the sky back into this second game. She is nice looking but she seemed such the contrivance for a supposed story in the first game. Just thought it was weak, she didn't fit in but I liked her........she actually has said in Borderlands 2 a few decent lines this time around come to think. One was funny and made ridiculously good sense.

Overall though, I'm fine with the humor in this game, I even smile or such at times...those heavy set overcoat guys could smarten up a bit too..... Back and forth....

@CornBREDX said:

It's because Jeff mentioned it. People regurgitate what they are told. It then spreads. It's how sheep.... I mean people's brains work. For the record I've never been a fan of how borderlands is written or ever found it funny. I think it's good for other reasons and that's ok. Not all games need to home run the story aspect. I feel the same about Diablo. Always have.

Why did you feel the need to berate the people who don't like the humor of the the game? I agree with you that the humor of Borderlands 1 and maybe 2 (I'm not sure. I haven't played it.} leaves much to to desired, but the "game" is pretty awesome. I feel that most of humor complainers feel the same way you and I do. I cant understand your logic.

Be careful about calling people sheep. True those people exist, but you have now real way of knowing how people are motivated. For all you know, those same people always disliked the game's humor and Jeff only reminded them of their original thoughts. Sure, you could be right and those people really are sheep. But, if you are wrong, you just kind of sound like a dick.

No one is complaining about the overall humor man. It's the memes that suck.

ALSO THIS:

@iAmJohn said:

Hey guys shut up your opinion on this game is totally wrong mine is right and you should all listen to me because fuck you that's why. If you don't agree with me it's because you're a SHEEP.

@CornBREDX said:

@iAmJohn: That wasn't my point, and since i'm the one who brought up sheep it has made me assume I have offended you. I apologize but I stand by my sheep statement about regurgitating comments. People do it on the internet all the time. Someone popular says something then it becomes a big deal- when it didn't matter before. It's not a fact, though, just my perception. People are free to disagree and that actually makes them the opposite of sheep if they do so out of their own volition and not swayed by popular opinion.

What?

I didn't like the humor in Borderlands 1 either, so weeeee.

There are still shotguns that shoot rockets, so I could not give a shit how good/bad the humor is.

@Klei said:

What's wrong with immature and juveline humor? I much prefer to laugh like a fucking idiot at dick jokes than chuckling like a gentleman at fart jokes.

Even though I'd love to see a group of gentlemen in suits chuckling at fart jokes in a theater.

I've never actually paid attention to any of this stuff. I did see the Top Gun reference and that was quite funny. 
 
And since there's so many grumpy people in this and the other thread here's a great mashup to cheer people up 

I never played the first game and haven't heard Jeff's thoughts on it. I rented it from Redbox at like 9am the day it came out and I hadn't heard or read a single thing about it [well, other than Weekend Confirmed where Garnett Lee dick rode the writer and was gushing about how amazing it was... but the fact that Garnett, who probably thinks "fart knocker" is the most brilliant term ever coined, liked it should have been a red flag] but as soon as Claptrap showed up I got the feeling that this was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't.

The whole thing is like... like in high school when everyone is in the lunchroom and a joke or something is getting passed around and everyone is adding in their funny bit to it. There's always that one kid that adds in something super lame and kills it dead. This game seems like it was written by that one kid and that trying too hard to be funny ethos was literally applied to every character and every line I've heard in the game so far.

The only exception so far has been my character, Zero. He sounds like Eminem doing the Ken Kaniff voice while saying ME2 Harbinger style one liners. He's cheesy but in a good way. Everything else I've heard is just cheesy.

as soon as Claptrap showed up I got the feeling that this was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't.

This game seems like it was written by that one kid and that trying too hard to be funny ethos was literally applied to every character and every line I've heard in the game so far.

I never really found the first game to be particularly funny. I don't think I've actually laughed at any of the jokes or the writing, from what I remember anyway. I guess I was just more interested in the combat and the loot.

@Klei said:

What's wrong with immature and juveline humor? I much prefer to laugh like a fucking idiot at dick jokes than chuckling like a gentleman at fart jokes.

Even the most sophisticated connoisseur of comedic craftsmanship who enjoys jokes filled with layers of social commentary can laugh at a simple dick joke. I'm pretty sure literally everyone who criticizes humor in anything prefaces their opinion by saying "now I'm not looking for sophisticated humor, but..." Immature and juvenile humor can be hilarious, but it can also be painfully unfunny. See those shitty movies made by those two Scary Movie hacks.

Not making a judgement on Borderlands 2, mind you. Just pointing out that there is such a thing as bad humor and "bad" does not relate to the maturity of the joke.