Comedy is hard. Honestly, it’s way harder than horror or action because if a jump scare misses, you still have the tension, but if a joke lands flat in a game, you’re just left staring at a digital puppet in a silent room. Most people searching for funny video games to play end up with a list of "wacky" physics simulators that lose their charm after ten minutes. That's not real humor. Real humor comes from timing, subverting your expectations, and sometimes, just absolute mechanical chaos that feels like the developers are in on the joke with you.
I’ve spent thousands of hours at a desk, controller in hand, waiting for a game to actually make me bark out loud. It doesn't happen often. You’ve got the heavy hitters like Portal 2, sure, but the landscape of gaming comedy has shifted toward something weirder and more self-aware lately.
The Mechanics of a Good Laugh
When we talk about funny video games to play, we usually split them into two buckets. There is "scripted humor," where the writing does the heavy lifting, and "emergent humor," where the game systems collide in ways that make you look like an idiot.
Take Untitled Goose Game. On paper, you’re just a bird. In practice, the comedic timing is built into the controls. The way the goose bends its neck or the specific, indignant honk it lets out after stealing a gardener’s keys is high-tier physical comedy. House House, the developers, understood that the funniest thing in the world isn't a pun; it's being a minor inconvenience to a stranger. It works because it taps into a universal human desire to be a bit of a jerk without the real-world consequences.
Why Writing Often Fails in Games
The "Borderlands Effect" is a real thing. It’s that cringey, forced humor that tries way too hard to be "random." You know the type. Screaming characters, constant pop-culture references that age like milk, and a desperate need to be liked. It’s exhausting.
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Compare that to something like Disco Elysium. It’s technically a grim, depressing RPG about a failed police officer, but it is easily one of the funniest video games to play because it treats the protagonist's failures as a cosmic joke. When you try to punch a child and fail so miserably that you have a heart attack and die, that is peak comedy. It’s dark, sure, but it’s honest. It reflects the absurdity of life.
The Best Funny Video Games to Play Right Now
If you want a laugh that stays with you, you have to look past the Steam "Comedy" tag which is currently flooded with cheap asset flips. You need games with soul.
- West of Loathing: This game is basically stick figures in the Wild West. It looks like something drawn on a napkin during a boring math class. But the writing? It’s genius. It uses "silly walking" as a literal game mechanic. You can find a "spittoon" in almost every building, and the flavor text for searching them is some of the most consistent, dry wit ever put into code.
- High On Life: Look, Justin Roiland’s brand of humor is polarizing. You either love the stuttering, improvisational dialogue or you want to mute the TV. But you can't deny that a gun screaming at you while you shoot aliens is a bold choice. It’s loud, it’s gross, and it’s unashamedly weird.
- Jazzpunk: This is a fever dream. It’s a cold-war spy thriller if the spies were all made of cardboard and the gadgets were things like "mechanical fly swatters." It’s built on non-sequiturs. You don't play it for the plot; you play it to see what happens if you poke the NPC standing on the corner.
The Rise of the "Anti-Game" Comedy
There is a specific sub-genre of funny video games to play that I like to call the "System Mockery" genre. These games know they are games, and they hate you for playing them.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is the king here. It’s a game about a man named Stanley, but it’s actually a game about the relationship between a player and a narrator. The Narrator, voiced by Kevan Brighting, is a masterpiece of voice acting. He is pompous, fragile, and hilariously condescending. When you defy his instructions, he doesn't just give you a "Game Over." He gets annoyed. He tries to rewrite the game around you. It’s a meta-commentary on the illusion of choice, but told through the lens of a frustrated middle-manager.
Then there’s Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. This is a different kind of funny. It’s "schadenfreude" humor. Watching a man in a pot try to climb a mountain of trash with a sledgehammer is funny. Watching a streamer lose two hours of progress and have a total meltdown is hilarious. It’s a comedy of frustration.
Short Bursts vs. Long Campaigns
Not everyone has forty hours to give to a comedic RPG. Sometimes you just want a quick hit of dopamine before bed.
Donut County is perfect for this. You play as a hole in the ground. The more things you swallow, the bigger the hole gets. It’s satisfying in a primal way, but the "Trashopedia" descriptions written by a sarcastic raccoon are where the real gold is. It’s a game that can be finished in a single sitting, leaving you feeling lighter.
On the other hand, Yakuza: Like a Dragon (and the broader Like a Dragon series) is a massive investment. It’s a serious crime drama about the Japanese underworld. But then, in the middle of a tense political standoff, you might find yourself in a side quest helping a grown man in a diaper find his lost formula. Or fighting a giant roomba. The tonal whiplash is the joke. The game plays these moments with such a straight face that it becomes impossible not to laugh. It’s the "Leslie Nielsen" approach to game design—be absolutely serious about the most ridiculous thing possible.
What Most People Get Wrong About Gaming Comedy
Many people think a game needs to be "easy" to be funny.
Wrong.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch is incredibly difficult to control. That is the entire point. Trying to pour a cup of coffee when your limbs are literal tentacles is a nightmare, and the resulting mess is where the comedy lives. If it were easy to move Octodad, the game wouldn't be funny; it would just be a mediocre stealth game. The friction is the fun.
The same applies to Helldivers 2. Is it a comedy? Technically, it’s a co-op shooter. But the "accidental" friendly fire and the satirical, over-the-top "Managed Democracy" propaganda make it one of the funniest video games to play with friends. Screaming "For Liberty!" while being crushed by your own supply pod is a core gameplay loop. It’s a satire of military industrial complexes that doesn't need a single cutscene to tell its joke.
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Finding Your Specific Flavor
Humor is subjective. What makes me wheeze might make you roll your eyes.
If you like dry, British wit, you should look at Thank Goodness You're Here!. It’s a "slap-former" set in a fictional Northern English town. It’s absurd, it’s colorful, and it’s deeply weird. If you prefer slapstick and chaos, Human: Fall Flat or Gang Beasts are your best bets, especially if you have friends to play with.
The reality is that the best funny video games to play are the ones that respect your intelligence. They don't just point at a thing and say "look, a joke!" They build a world where the joke is a natural consequence of the rules.
Actionable Next Steps for the Bored Gamer
- Check your library for "The Stanley Parable." If you haven't played the Ultra Deluxe version, you’re missing out on several hours of new, even more self-referential content.
- Look for "Psychonauts 2." It’s a brilliant mix of platforming and mental health exploration, but Tim Schafer’s writing remains some of the sharpest in the industry. The "aspiration" level alone is a comedic masterclass.
- Invite a friend over for "Who's Your Daddy?!" It’s a low-budget, janky game where one person plays a baby trying to kill themselves and the other plays a dad trying to baby-proof the house. It’s horrifying, buggy, and absolutely hysterical in a group setting.
- Stop playing "funny" games alone. Comedy is a social lubricant. Even a mediocre game becomes a riot when you’re laughing at the glitches with someone else.
Don't settle for games that try to be funny. Play games that are funny because they couldn't be anything else. The best humor isn't a coat of paint; it's the foundation. Start with Untitled Goose Game if you want simple joy, or dive into Disco Elysium if you want to laugh at the void. Either way, you're doing better than playing another gritty military shooter.