Comedy
Image: Nintendo Life

What does it mean to be funny? Merriam-Webster defines funny as "affording light mirth and laughter", and in these dark times, don't we all need a little bit of Light Mirth?

Well, do we have the mirth-inducing games for you! From witty writing to pants-wettingly chaotic co-op games, this list has every kind of light mirth that you could ever want. Not all games are made equal, so your mileage may vary when it comes to what makes you laugh — if you're amused by people getting their legs sawn off or whatever, nothing short of professional help can reach you now — but hopefully you'll find something to make you lol, lmao, or even roflmao (do so with caution, please).

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube771k
Watch on YouTube

So, grab your clown noses and your spare pair of trousers, and get ready for our rundown of the games most likely to make you cry with laughter (and light mirth!) on the Nintendo Switch...

Return to Monkey Island (Switch eShop)

The jokes and pervading silly-seriousness in Return to Monkey Island are fresher than they have ever been since 1991, picking the right moments to call back the classic lines, but not making them the main attraction. The new art style speaks for itself and is magnificent in motion – and, of course, is also harvested for metafictional jokes.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

Return to Monkey Island
Return to Monkey Island

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (Switch eShop)

A thoroughly enjoyable expansion of an already classic game treated with love, care, and most importantly a meta awareness that pays tribute to everything that made the original so beloved. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe may leave a small few questioning more than they’d like, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Later Alligator (Switch eShop)

Later Alligator is a big, long goof of a game that'll make you smile like a crocodile. Every minute of this game is crafted with love, attention to detail, and a sense of humour that could even cause you to wee yourself a little bit. And somehow, despite being a noir story about helping out a paranoid alligator by playing a bunch of minigames, it's surprisingly relatable. Who among us has not jumped to conclusions about whether or not our weird Mafia family are plotting to kill us?

Thimbleweed Park (Switch eShop)

Thimbleweed Park initially manifests a kind of Twin Peaks-meets-The X-Files aesthetic and atmosphere. It feels spooked, not quite of this plane of existence, long before you get to play as an Actual Ghost. Soon enough, though, factoring in the silliness and highly self-referential nature of proceedings, the game’s tone becomes more Eerie, Indiana than anything where the stakes are rather more raised, its gentle drama underpinned by sharp funnies. And its keenness to let the player know it’s both a video game and part of a very specific lineage of them, where fourth-wall breaking is often part of the package, is always endearing.

Lair of the Clockwork God (Switch eShop)

Lair of the Clockwork God is a self-referential loving tribute and knowing parody of point-and-click games, starring the two developers — Ben and Dan — as adventure game versions of themselves. It's very funny and very British, and extremely silly: Early in the game, for example, adventurer Ben encounters a minuscule raised step and refuses to climb it, as doing so would be the actions of a platforming hero – not a wannabe Guybrush Threepwood like him. How do you get Ben over this impassable step? Well, it involves the discovery of an entirely new type of gravity, desecrating the corpse of a clown and, er, urinating.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Switch)

Ubisoft San Francisco’s superhero-aping sequel has a confidence worthy of South Park’s own ballsy residents. And while it’s no great leap from the original, the end result is a laugh-out loud romp that riffs and enhances in all the right places. If you’re easily offended, this might not be the game for you, but it’s an irreverent humour that’s consistently self-aware while it lashes the zeitgeist with its barbed tongue.

South Park: The Fractured but Whole
South Park: The Fractured but Whole

Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

Paper Mario: The Origami King tries to do something different with its combat system and, to be honest, we aren't feeling it. That doesn't mean the rest of the game isn't thoroughly entertaining, however, and while the puzzle-based battles aren't quite what a new Paper Mario game needed, they aren't so awful that everything else shouldn't be experienced as a result. It's one of the funniest games in the series and it's got a truly likeable companion character, and while the combat is far from ideal the fact that we still thoroughly recommend the game regardless speaks volumes about every other aspect of it.

Paper Mario: The Origami King
Paper Mario: The Origami King
Paper Mario: The Origami King
Paper Mario: The Origami King

Tux and Fanny (Switch eShop)

Tux and Fanny is an extremely bizarre, absurdist game that begins as two friends needing to re-inflate their football, and quickly descends into a bunch of unexpected twists that will hopefully, eventually lead to the football being re-inflated. Segments include playing as a worm stuck in a horse's gut, a massive boss battle with a giant fly, and the sad story of a flea who seeks a land where his friends aren't all dead. It's a specific type of humour, but if absurdity is your jam, you'll love it.

Overcooked! All You Can Eat (Switch)

Overcooked's humour is more about the player chaos than the scenarios — a good Overcooked player will presumably have a very normal, not-very-funny time. But most of us are not good Overcooked players, so the game is more of a "what could go wrong" simulator that will have you rolling in the aisles while trying to rescue a burger that's on fire. Play it with the right people, and you'll have a whale of a time.

Overcooked! All You Can Eat
Overcooked! All You Can Eat

West of Loathing (Switch eShop)

Every instance of West of Loathing is packed full of so much irreverent and dry humour to the point that it’s totally and utterly inescapable; if you’re not a fan of laughing, you’d better steer well clear. Various moments even caused us to laugh quite literally out loud, despite being totally alone and with the windows open, disturbing passers-by. Whether it’s a grotesquely detailed description of you plunging your hand into a rotten spittoon or receiving a boost to your armour skill called ‘Mostly Scabs’ because you’ve walked into too many cacti, you’d have to be dead inside not to enjoy the humour this game throws at you.

It's a fine game, although it should be noted that the controversy surrounding the designer, which includes historical allegations of abuse, may sour your opinion and influence a purchase decision. As always, it's up to individuals to determine if they still wish to support a game, developer, publisher, or platform holder given the available information and wider context.