Thanks to “Joystiq”:http://www.joystiq.org, it’s just come to my attention that some of my favourite comedians from Melbourne, “Tripod”:http://www.3pod.com.au/podhome/, are videogamers!
Tripod are, rather than stand-up comedians, a band that sings comic songs. In the past, I’ve been a fan of such gems as the “Xmas Song” and the “Ikea song”. I also had the great honor of serving Gatesy, one of the band members, at the supermarket I used to work at in Toorak. Tripod’s songs on videogames, which I’ve just discovered, are not only funny, but also capture a lot of the emotion of videogaming life.
This video of the group performing “Make You Happy Tonight” plays out the story of a man being cajoled by his significant other to come to bed for some “sweet, sweet love.” While he evidently has every intention of making it to the bedroom, he never quite gets there, staying on at the console in search of the next save point.
Having been in similar positions myself, in the numerous death throes of my previous relationship, I’m inclined to say that this fictional guy probably has some deeper relationship problems behind his apparent preferral of videogames to sex.
The next videogame-related song I discovered by Tripod is “King of the Video Arcade”, about a guy who drew in the ladies with his prowess at _Pac-Man_ during the 1980s, but now finds himself left behind in a world that has no appreciation for his public displays of skill at 20-year-old arcade games. The song evokes a nostalgia for the era of arcade gaming, something which I remember from my childhood and early teens, but which has now almost completely disappeared in Australia. I strongly suspect that there are few women in this world who’ve ever been entranced by expert _Pac-Man_ play, but it’s nice to think back and dream…
Australian Gamer also has “this interview”:http://www.australiangamer.com/feature.php?id=55 with Scod, the band’s geekiest member (in a good way), in which he reminisces about videogaming on the “C64”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64, one of the great gaming computers of the 1980s. The piece is fairly banal, but another nice Tripod/videogaming interesection nonetheless.
Don’t forget to check out the two songs!
“Make You Happy Tonight” (streaming video)
“King of the Video Arcade” (mp3, skip past the talk)
