Did you like V's social commentary?

[Racecarlock]

Everyone's pointing out GTA IV's commentary like it was good, but the only programs that really stood out to me were Just Or Unjust and that one healthcare discussion on PLR.

 

People say that rockstar is going too far. I say it's not going too far enough.

 

Like, remember when on Just Or Unjust two people got fed to god damn lions? That was just plain absurd and funny and it worked.

 

Remember VCPR? Pressing Issues with Maurice Chavez? Remember the morality discussion with a nudist, a soccer mom who teaches her kids to hunt in the suburbs, and a rocket church pastor? Remember the positive thinking discussion consisting of a goth dude, some chick hopped up on antidepressants, and a guy trying to sell motivational tapes?

 

That sh*t was funny because it was so incredibly insane, but so relevant to the 1980s.

 

In GTA V, Jimmy is a pot smoking gamer who is terrible because he plays modern warfare and smokes pot I guess. He even teabags a guy in one cutscene. It wasn't funny. It really wasn't funny. It wasn't played over the top enough, it was just a thrown in stereotype. Jimmy as a whole is a thrown in stereotype.

 

The liberal radio has some school teacher liberal who talks down to people because she's liberal and sh*t. The conservative radio has mitt romney combined with either steven seagal or arnold schwarzenegger. Which MIGHT HAVE BEEN FUNNY if they had tried to have the guy at least do a bad imitation of arnold's accent. That would have gotten a chuckle out of me at least. Instead we get a man who wants to invade france because french people suck at arm wrestling or something. Still not funny. I mean, as a liberal myself, I should have found one funny conservative humor piece to laugh at, and I just didn't. I do find some talk radio programs on both channels vaguely listenable, but that's about it.

 

Oh and there's lifeinvader. It data mines, that's the joke, laugh! That's it. That's the whole joke. I'm not even sure it is a joke as much as it is just pointing out that facebook does that. Do they do anything funny? No, following is just replaced with stalking and that's it. I think whoever wrote that lifeinvader stuff must have done it in about 5 seconds.

 

All of these jokes could have been so much better. And they weren't. I mean, how funny is the line "I don't want to hear about politics! I'm a housewife! I want to listen to four women prattle on about women's issues while passively aggressively criticizing each other!". Seriously, is there supposed to be a joke there? I can't see one. Even the fernando show which could have been funny considering it had a female producer instead served as some writer's platform to complain about how feminism has censored dashing spanish men from seducing and f*cking women on the air or some sh*t like that. That's how it came across to me. I mean, the last time fernando was in GTA, he seduced a female radio host with cologne and then the program cuts out before they start f*cking. I found that ending to that program endlessly adorable. Now? Now fernando is struggling in the modern world because feminism is horrible and sh*t. I guess one of the writing staff was a men's rights activist.

 

Even lazlow's co host is not funny. All she's there to do is berate lazlow about how he hates women. Another stupid stereotype of feminism. Because one just wasn't god damn enough for these people. I get it, some feminists are too sensitive. That doesn't make the whole cause crazy. Lazlow himself is going through a midlife crisis. Is it funny? No. Bafflingly, it's played completely straight. Either that, or I couldn't detect the f*cking jokes. He mentions being a womanizer on mars. Even that wasn't funny. Apparently, being a womanizer playboy on mars just wasn't filled with enough joke opportunities. Listening to a guy have a midlife crisis isn't fun. I mean, aren't we supposed to take michael's therapy sessions seriously? The only difference between the two is that one guy is named lazlow. Other than that it's the same. Am I supposed to find a man having a tear filled breakdown while his female co host berates him because that's all she's there to do funny? I don;t. I'd be willing to bet most people don't.

 

The conservative radio is just Paula Deen, Alex Jones, and some guy who likes football and animal breeding. I don't know who they're making fun of with beyond insemination. Beyond insemination was my favorite radio program though. I don't know why. Maybe it had some funny callers? I don't remember.

 

Speaking of alex jones, how could you not make this guy funny? I mean, look at him!

 

 

 

Especially that "Scanning ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" thing in the middle of the video. How do you not make that funny? Instead it's one of trevor's fan club spouting off about anunnaki and illuminati. And something about memory foam and twins. Again, this was a perfect opportunity to have the voice actor for ron just go completely over the top insanity nuts and go "ADNIAOSWFJAOEMJFOANEFEJEDFMJ" or something. Some kind of crazy scream? Instead it seems like the writers just copied and pasted some sh*t from the internet and called it a day. Ronald is in fact less crazy and over the top than the real god damn alex jones. That's not fun!

 

All of the commentary in this game reeks of laziness and half hearted non-effort. It's just crazy enough to use insulting stereotypes for everything under the sun, but not nearly "Lion pit in a courtroom" crazy enough to be even slightly funny.

 

And that's just a little bit sad.

[OMGmyFACE]

Even the fernando show which could have been funny considering it had a female producer instead served as some writer's platform to complain about how feminism has censored dashing spanish men from seducing and f*cking women on the air or some sh*t like that. That's how it came across to me. I mean, the last time fernando was in GTA, he seduced a female radio host with cologne and then the program cuts out before they start f*cking. I found that ending to that program endlessly adorable. Now? Now fernando is struggling in the modern world because feminism is horrible and sh*t. I guess one of the writing staff was a men's rights activist.

 

I'm probably the only one here who thought The Fernando Show was the only good piece of contemporary social commentary and it's due to the very last thing you wrote about it: "I guess one of the writing staff was a men's rights activist." That kind of thing is never addressed anywhere because of social privilege and the perspective of a guy who's desperately trying to make sense of a new feminist society where he can't do or say anything right was spot-on where I'm at in Portland, where they do have sensitivity councilors all over the place. Having it in the game was probably the bravest thing they wrote in any of their meetings because you just know they were expecting the "that's misogyny!" backlash and decided to go for it anyway. It was exaggerated to a terrible extreme, yeah, but it had something to say when it wasn't in "I took the classes" soliloquy mode. Everything else, though, was just mediocre. The "it's legal!" trial during the torture sequence for when you waterboard Mr. K is another example. They started out ok, forced you to think about something other than farts... and then they explained the joke/message like an SNL sketch going on for too long again.

 

Actually, more of the writing in GTAV could've been better if it weren't for the obligatory monologues in every commercial, speech, talk show, scene with one or more characters, etc...

[Severe]

Actually, more of the writing in GTAV could've been better if it weren't for the obligatory monologues in every commercial, speech, talk show, scene with one or more characters, etc...

 

 

That's actually true, a lot of the jokes are explained too much and made really obvious, really. Like the above quote: "I don't want to hear about politics! I'm a housewife! I want to listen to four women prattle on about women's issues while passively aggressively criticizing each other!"

That would probably have been better if they had just ended it after 'housewife', a little more subtle.

[OMGmyFACE]

 

That's actually true, a lot of the jokes are explained too much and made really obvious, really.

 

 

I always remember two moments that take me completely out of love with the writing in GTAV and it's for that reason - they go on too long and explain everything for no reason.

 

1. Tonya's dialogue to Franklin about JB, a character no one ever sees, and their whole damn history as if Franklin was in an accident and got amnesia. And after 70 seconds of that, he'll say "damn, what happened to you, you used to be a good girl."

2. Trevor's story to Wade about how he met Michael as he's driving to Los Santos. Oh my god, shut up about the damn bridge trolls already.

[Racecarlock]

 

Even the fernando show which could have been funny considering it had a female producer instead served as some writer's platform to complain about how feminism has censored dashing spanish men from seducing and f*cking women on the air or some sh*t like that. That's how it came across to me. I mean, the last time fernando was in GTA, he seduced a female radio host with cologne and then the program cuts out before they start f*cking. I found that ending to that program endlessly adorable. Now? Now fernando is struggling in the modern world because feminism is horrible and sh*t. I guess one of the writing staff was a men's rights activist.

 

I'm probably the only one here who thought The Fernando Show was the only good piece of contemporary social commentary and it's due to the very last thing you wrote about it: "I guess one of the writing staff was a men's rights activist." That kind of thing is never addressed anywhere because of social privilege and the perspective of a guy who's desperately trying to make sense of a new feminist society where he can't do or say anything right was spot-on where I'm at in Portland, where they do have sensitivity councilors all over the place. Having it in the game was probably the bravest thing they wrote in any of their meetings because you just know they were expecting the "that's misogyny!" backlash and decided to go for it anyway. It was exaggerated to a terrible extreme, yeah, but it had something to say when it wasn't in "I took the classes" soliloquy mode. Everything else, though, was just mediocre. The "it's legal!" trial during the torture sequence for when you waterboard Mr. K is another example. They started out ok, forced you to think about something other than farts... and then they explained the joke/message like an SNL sketch going on for too long again.

 

Actually, more of the writing in GTAV could've been better if it weren't for the obligatory monologues in every commercial, speech, talk show, scene with one or more characters, etc...

 

But, mr. face, it could have been done so much better. Like at the end fernando snaps and tries to seduce the producer and it works and then you hear the audience gasping and what sounds like skin rubbing together. I might have at least laughed at that. sh*t, I might have listened to the whole program more than I have if it would have had that.

 

Instead it's toned down so much that it comes off as nothing more than an unfunny stereotype. Like most of the humor in this game.

[killahmatic]

like how the "civil border patrol" is supposed to "commentate" on bigoted "this land is my land" Americans,

 

I didn't mind that, because for some reason it reminded me a lot of older GTAs. Running around with people you hate, doing things your character doesn't want to do.

[WorldWideFM]

No, it's been terrible in all of the HD era games.

 

So bloody obvious, in your face, and they basically spell everything out for you. In III/VC/SA it was amazing, but then something changed.