Quotes / Rule of Fun

Film — Live-Action

To lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, loves of unadulterated entertainment, loves of the ridiculous and the bizarre — to funlovers everywhere...this picture is respectfully dedicated.

(If we overlooked any sizable groups of funlovers, we apologize.)

—Batman: The Movie, opening dedication

Literature

"Some critics have wondered why Tsuburaya employed a puppet of a horse for the scene [in Toho's 1965 kaiju film Frankenstein Conquers the World] where Baragon raids a small ranch. Koichi Takano, who would later direct special effects for many of Tsuburaya Productions' programs, said that when Tsuburaya was asked why he didn't use a composite of a real horse or use a rear-screen process to create something more realistic, he had replied, 'Because using a model horse was more fun!' This story perhaps best captures Tsuburaya's approach to special visual effects, especially those of his monster films, which seem to have mystified non-Japanese (especially Western) critics."

—August Ragone's Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, Ch. 5, p. 94

Video Games

Neku: I’m not complaining, but... why let us shop at all? The Reapers want us erased, don't they? Why help us?

Joshua: Does it really matter? Shopping is fun. The Game's better this way.

—The World Ends with You

Web Animation

"...a strange health system which doesn't remove losses all at once, but ticks down at a steady pace, and if you receive mortal damage but can end the battle before the counter reaches 0, then the game just forgets about it. It's like playing D&D with an Alzheimer's patient. But that's not the only unique game mechanic: If you are so over-leveled for the current crop of wildlife that it isn't funny, then the moment you enter battle, the game says 'Bollocks to it!', and you just win. Why don't more games do that?"

—Zero Punctuation on EarthBound (1994)

"You know how in The Sims you could get a job as a mailroom clerk? You remember how you had to go into the office, every single in-game day, and play a little minigame where you fling envelopes into pidgeonholes? Of course not! Because it would have been really fucking boring! Yes, alright, Peter, it's more realistic than dead monsters dropping pocket change, but you know what else is realistic? Working a desk job for fifty years in a cloying mire of tedium and self-hatred before dying of a disfiguring facial cancer, alone and unloved, forgotten within a decade, but you won't see many games about that, at least not until I finish the design document."

—Zero Punctuation on Fable II.

Luigi: You make us look so stupid and dense!
None of what we do makes any sense!
Shroomy: So what? It's about having tonnes of fun!
Your neutral special can be a gun!

— SMG4, "War of the Fat Italians 2022"

Web Original

Adam West’s Batman is just a big kid...The Years Where Batman Had Fun. The fact is, I think most modern Batman writers love this movie as much as we do. Grant Morrison certainly does, and this movie (and its accompanying TV show) is incredibly influential on his run.

—Chris Sims and David Uzumeri on Batman: The Movie

Joe: I remember what you were like with The Sarah Jane Adventures. You started off a bit resistant and saying things like ‘its alright for a kids show’ but come series four you were lapping it up!
Simon: It wore me down with its charms. It was very kiddie friendly but I thought it was very good.
Joe: What about K.9?
Simon: I love K.9!
Joe: A lot of people don’t.
Simon: Oh let me guess…the fans.
Joe: Some of them…they find him too childish.
Simon: That’s because they don’t have any souls.

—Joe Ford

There was so much sheer madness in this week's episode that it became difficult for my rational brain to keep up...Was it fun? Indisputably more so than any episode for the last month.Was it intensely stupid and completely resistant to logical analysis? Oh dear me, yes.

—Julian Finn on Smallville, "Abandoned"

Web Video

'Name one game that would still be fun if it was realistic.'

—Anthony Padilla, "If Video Games Were Real"

Real Life

Iwata: Cat Mario is a new power up that appears this time, isn't this a bit against the rules? He can climb walls, scratch-attacks enemies, and can climb the goal pole! I'm worried something as all-powerful as that could destroy the game balance of Super Mario. How about that?

Miyamoto: This has been a theme ever since we were making Super Mario 3D Land, but we figure it's okay if it's fun, and we make a lot with that as a priority.

—Iwata Asks on Super Mario 3D World

"The game is fun. The game is a battle. If it's not fun, why bother? If it's not a battle, where's the fun?"

—Reggie Fils-Aimé introducing the Nintendo Switch

"Of course it's not realistic...who cares, you know? That's the thing that I think a whole lot of people are missing right now in the driving game environment...they're trying to go for reality. Well, I drive enough. Thank you, but no thank you. I don't want reality. I want fun."

—Xion Cooper, artist for Cruis'n World.

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