About
RPG Parodies are 8-bit or 16-bit remakes of memorable scenes or episodes from popular films and television shows, typically featuring pixel art graphics and chiptune music that mimic the aesthetics of a 1990s role-playing video game (RPG).
Origin
The American chiptune musician and pixel artist Levi Buffum (a.k.a. Doctor Octoroc)[3] uploaded a video to YouTube featuring an 8-bit game parody of the musical web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on April 5th, 2010 (shown below). Within the next three years, the video received over 580,000 views and 1,100 comments.
Spread
On October 10th, 2010, the Internet humor site College Humor[5] published a video by Buffum, featuring an RPG parody video of the reality television show The Jersey Shore (shown below, left). In the following three years, the video received over 3,300 Facebook likes on College Humor and 1.7 million views on YouTube. On December 23rd, The Fine Bros YouTube channel uploaded an interactive RPG parody video featuring Antoine Dodson from the 2011 “Bed Intruder” news report and set to the Gregory Brothers’ auto-tune song (shown below, right), which accumultated more than 740,000 views and 260 comments in three years.
On June 29th, 2011, College Humor[6] released another video by Buffum, featuring an RPG parody of the show Man Vs. Wild with survivalist Bear Grylls (shown below, left). In the next two years, the video received over 23,000 likes on College Humor and 960,000 views on YouTube. On November 12th, 2012, YouTuber Kristie Lu uploaded an RPG version of the fantasy film Twilight (shown below, right). The following day, the video was posted on the video game news blog Kotaku.[4] In the next three months, the video garnered more than 7,700 views and 20 comments.
On January 29th, 2013, College Humor[2] published an RPG parody of the television drama series Homeland, which included a scene referencing the Claire Danes Cry Face (shown below). Within two weeks, the video received over 4,600 Facebook likes.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
Not available.
External References
[1]College Humor – Breaking Bad RPG
[2]College Humor – Homeland RPG
[3]Wikipedia – Doctor Octoroc
[4]Kotaku – The Twilight RPG Parody is on the Money
[5]College Humor – Jersey Shore RPG
[6]College Humor – Man Vs Wild RPG