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“Mark Matthews Stars in ‘Anatomy is Hard!’ A Struggling Student Tries to Make the Grade with His Professor”: Sexual Humour and Queer Space in Coming Out on Top

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Video Games and Comedy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comedy ((PSCOM))

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Abstract

Despite an increase over the years in the number of video games with queer content, queer characters in most games continue to be tragically framed. Coming Out on Top (COOT hereafter; 2014), a gay-themed visual novel and dating simulator, contrasts with these games for its comic and fun depiction of the life of gay men. While the game has been criticised for reinforcing the idea of consumable gay male bodies, a quick look at player review figures on Steam reveals that most players enjoyed the game. This research uses the tools of netnography and close reading to analyse sexual humour in COOT and aims to create a dialogue between my own gayming experience, the experience of other players, and previous scholarship on humour. I ultimately argue that COOT leaves a positive impression on queer players because it offers them something relatively new in the world of video games: the possibility to laugh and imagine their lives in a positive and fun way.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Talking about a “bury your queers” trope might actually be more appropriate.

  2. 2.

    That being said, the great majority of these comments were written in English.

  3. 3.

    However, it would be a mistake to assume that this is representative of the experience of all players. A few players strongly disliked the game because of its hedonistic and escapist story, its emphasis on sex, and the presence of certain tropes.

  4. 4.

    See also Karhulahti and Bonello Rutter Giappone (2021) for a similar observation on the Leisure Suit Larry series.

  5. 5.

    While Ian is in an on-again, off-again relationship with Zoe, the player later finds out that Ian has had a crush on Mark for a long time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Samuel Poirier-Poulin

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  1. Samuel Poirier-Poulin
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Correspondence to Samuel Poirier-Poulin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone

  2. Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

    Tomasz Z. Majkowski

  3. Department of Media Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

    Jaroslav Švelch

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Poirier-Poulin, S. (2022). “Mark Matthews Stars in ‘Anatomy is Hard!’ A Struggling Student Tries to Make the Grade with His Professor”: Sexual Humour and Queer Space in Coming Out on Top. In: Bonello Rutter Giappone, K., Majkowski, T.Z., Švelch, J. (eds) Video Games and Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88338-6_14

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