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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Sam and Max Telltale Retrospective: Save the World: Situation: Comedy (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy frelance police and welcome back to my monthly look at Sam and Max's telltale adventures. Last month we delt with annoying child stars who i'm apparently stuck with every chapter for the next. TWO. GAMES, less annoying child star mind control schemes, David Lynch esque dream sequences, and comitting some police brutality. What could top that? Well a lot of things, as this time we deal with a talk show host holding her staff hostage and the only way to stop her? 15 minutes of fame and a mild electrocution of course! So join me as Sam and Max use questionable cakes, game rigging and feces to make their way to stardom under the cut

So first off just a heads up for those reading this all at once as I intend to put out a post with links to every one of the reviews once this game is finished in june, the format's changed a bit. Culture Shock was my first game review, and an adventure game at that and I overfocused on my play experince as was like a text let's play, when it makes more sense for my format to do it like my other reviews; I.e. a plot summary. I'll still interject my personal experinces and what not, the review wouldn't be nearly as fun without it, this will just make it more orderly and only really means events won't be in the EXACT order I did them sometimes, as it's often easier to just cover all of a section at once instead of come back to it when you can sovle the puzzle as intended. z Our heroes get their usual call from the Chief and I was delighted to find that the "I got it gag" is back baby! I thought they just werne't doing it but it was simply absent from episode one since getting the phone back was the tutorial poster. In this case Sam just shoots Max with the salad spinner.

Our case this time is Myra, a popular daytime tv host, has been holding her audience hostage.I'm not entirely sure who she's parodying. I get it's part Opra as the funniest part of this is she keeps giving her audience more and more stuff Oprah style for hours on end, but I can't tell where the motherly no nonsense part of it comes from as Oprah seemed less confrentational and didn't relaly seem to get into "old woman yells at cloud rants". And unlike the former child star explotation boom of the 2000's, this is something you really need to specifically know what hteir talking about.

That's a theme with Situation: Comedy as the parodies are a bit more direct, it's just the other ones, which we'll get to, I have a better frame of refrence for, and even years on long after things like American Idol and Who Wants To Be A Millionare stopped being relevant, the jokes themselves are strong enough to carry it like Myra.

Before we can go get her, our team has to check in on our recurring cast. Sybil is running a weekly world news type deal, naturally important for later, and Bosco is.. british. This is the start of a running gag with Bosco taking on a new gimmick each episode to escape whoever he thinks is following him this week. While we'll have to buy his voice modulator later, we find out for once his paranoia is justified as Jimmy Two Teeth and a friend have been pretending to be "Skinbodies".. .i..e shaving themselves and stealing shaving cream to continue this brutal cycle

The resulting chase is.. frustrating as the puzzle's solution is maddingely hard to figure out and once again it was my old friend guide that had the solution: you have to guide the skinboddies to the middle of the street and let them fall down a manhole.. a manhole you can't see clearly and is only marked by a construction sign. Now this may just be playing on switch: the smaller screen may of hid it.. but given once I was told it was a manhole I looked for it closely and coudln't find it till I was told about the sign, I somehow doubt it. Either way we get the shaving cream.

This comes in handy at the studio, as we meet the Director, the mvp of this chapter, a very tired woman whose frustrated by most of her crew being held hostage and does most of the work. To get in we have to do an audition of old yeller and i'm proud for relalizing the solution: simply get the shaving cream, use it to pretend to be rabid and get shot by max

With that gunshot wound, the duo's audtion is succesful and they land a part on Midtown Cowboys, a sitcom about two cowboys trying to make it in new york city. it sounds like a sitcom you could find now for free on crackle. Turns out this is one of three things our hero need to do to get to Myra: She requires a recording contract, a tv show and a scandal, which sounds like a LOT , but the 2000's were a wild west of people hungry for fame kids and getting those three things was way easier back then. I mean they gave Kevin Federline all of those things. And if you don't know who that is.. good your a happier human being than I.

So we have to shoot it and I love a new addition to the cast for this: Philo Pennyworth, a british classically trained actor.. who is essentially playign Don Knotts on camera. THe contrast is just great. The bit itself is fantastic as you have to figure out what to do to make the scene, the cowboys hiding the cow in thei rapartment work and the responses are gold, as usual. The only frustrating part is the chain is LONG, and has no conversational checkpoints so you have ot take it from the top EVERY time. Eventually I went to the guide not because I coudln't figure out the puzzle entirely but just because it was so freaking long. And in fairness "feed the cow's feces to your landlord" is not a solution I would've pegged. Maybe three's company had John Ritter trick Don Knotts into eating shit once an episode. I do'nt know. The take works, you get the video and it's on to another tv show that while not helping the demo reel, wil lhelp later.. and it's easily the best part of this chapter: Cookin Without Looking, a bachelor cooking show.. which is really an excuse for Sam and Max to put any amoutn of ungodly things my faviorites being roofing shingles, sulfiric acid, uranium pellets, abestos pellets and dried dingo kidneys. It's pure chaos and you'd better belivie I went thorugh every ingredient avaliable and while my messy recipie meant the cake ended up crazy, I still had a cake.

Next is who is never going to be a millionare? With the host trapped inside the Director brought in a sub: totally not elron hubbard stand in hugh bliss, who can change his color at will

He can be blue, red, or even green, the last we need for the tabolids so our heroes snap a pick. As for who this weirdo is , picture if pops from regular show founded sceientogy and you have him pegged. I was proud to figure out both the Hugh puzzles myself: I used an earlier hint ot make sure he was green, and figured out I just needed to swap his cue card son the show with impossibly hard questions with Peepers lyrics to his songs, giving us the easy question of "Am I blue?" which naturally dpeends on what Hue you have Hugh, but is still a softball. IT's a fun puzzle and with that we have the million dollars for the voice modulator.. if in foodstamps since the last guy who didit also got the million and their a tad short…

Which Bosco is forced to take as he didn't ask for it in american dollars.

So with that we have our final challenge: Embarassing Idol. Can't imagine what their making fun of but Max becomes a judge, as he was desgined for so Sam needs to win. The judges are… Specs.. and Whizzer. Okay not too bad.. so who are we competting against?

YUP THIS MUMMY'S CURSE IS BACK. The good news is he apparently isn't in the next episode.. the bad news is he SINGS HERE. Something a certain SOMEONE paying for this review didn't warn me about

I have to wow the judges. Specs once again proves himself to be the only one I don't hate as he's fair, he just wants a high note. Whizzer.. somehow out annoys a singing peepers. Which medically shoudn't be popular but he refuses to budge his vote, and it took looking at the guide to realize I needed to get rid of him. The good news is that means I can punish him for his hubris, so Sam feeds him the cake.. and since that does nothing to him, we have to slather it in ketchup, so he has a violent allergy attack

So with that annoyance peepers looses on national television, Whizzer is trapped in the bathroom, and i'm at peace having once again gotten my vengance on the little shits.

With that there's one test left: Myra herself. This puzzle takes some doing but the interview itself is a lot of fun, so it's not too frustrating and it's ismple once you knwo it: get her to spil lher water, then invite over bessie the cow, accusing her of being part of your hugh bliss polycule, and when moira pulls the mic to her

She's freed, her audience is freed and our work here is done. The lingering part though is WHY she was brainwashed, which we don't know.. we only know something called the toy mafia did it, which we'll see next month

Situation Comedy is a massive step up. The Soda Poppers are used better, the puzzles are more intuitive, and the writing is at it's best. Cooking without Looking would be worth it alone. The first chapter wasn't bad but this one's far better paced, with it's mostly open ended nature fitting better than the more linear with one or two paths first chapter, but working better where it is: the first chapter eases you into how this kind of game works if you haven' tplayed a ton of adventure games. This chapter lets you look. A really good time and while I recommended buying the game already on the strength of chapter one it bears repeating: if you haven't played this game do and then meet me back here next month as our heroes deal with the mole the mob and the meatball.

#sam and max #telltale games #skunkape games #sam #max #sybil panemik #bosco #it's me bosco #myra #video games #adventure games

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