Board Game Movies
I love you Liam Neesan, but unless a more compelling trailer comes out for Battleship I won’t be able to watch your movie. Maybe if the trailer had worked in the line “you sunk my battleship.” That’s a self-deprecating freakshow. I watch that shit. The current trailer implies you’re serious and that makes me a little sad. But a Hungry Hungry Hippos movie? You couldn’t keep me away.
I remember Hungry Hungry Hippos well. It was a fun, noisy-as-fuck game my friends and I played growing up. For those who missed it you basically launch marbles into the middle of a board and have hippos with extendible necks and mouths controlled by a lever. Press the lever and the hippo’s head extends forward and his maw opens to grab an errant marble. The player with the most marbles wins. Here: Marketing explains quickly.
There’s a reason all those kids in the commercial are little. After a certain age kids get bad ideas. The last game of Hungry Hungry Hippos I played my two friends broke all rules carefully thought out and set forth by Mr. Milton Bradley. Instead of loading the marbles onto the board one at a time they grabbed a big handful of marbles and showered them in the middle of the board. Then when that stopped being fun, they ripped off the hippo’s mouth and shoved the marbles down the throat with their hands. I never played Hungry Hungry Hippos again.
Sopes was not one of those friends, but he may have been there to witness the horror. Maybe that’s what inspired him to make a horror-themed poster. Feel free to download a large version of the poster here. It’s my current desktop.
“This summer, prepare for the blockbuster movie that will knock you over. Keanu Reeves and Scarlett Johansson in … Jenga, the movie.”
Oh shit. I would watch that. Imagine the Hip Hop soundtrack remix of the theme
Coming this fall to HBO, Ryan Reynolds in his creepiest role yet in “Candymanland”
To be fair, Real Steel is based off the 1964 Twilight Zone episode “Steel” about boxing robots. But they’re probably going to milk the rock ’em sock ’em jokes too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_(The_Twilight_Zone)
You caught us. After script approval I checked to see Real Steel was indeed based on Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em and found that it was merely widely discussed as such. It seemed like an OK fib to help roll out a better funny.
Coming next spring. LIFE, where Ken and Barbie win at Life but lose their Monopoly by playing Sorry! with Bop’s IT department. Suddenly Ken disappears and they Probe several Clues to find out what type of Aggravation has befallen Ken. While searching for Ken they escape from a Twister and discover some Hungry Hungry Hippos have eaten Ken. Simon enters the picture and Connects Four Dots that brings Mr. Potato Head out as a witness that The Cabbage Patch Dolls were jealous of Barbie’s success and killed Ken to frame Barbie!
Here’s to Hollywood turning board games into movies… maybe they’ll pick up one of the games we’ve ported!
FYI: 2D, your nephew got HHH (triple-H) for his birthday. It’s still noisy-as-fuck, and the “throw all the marbles in the middle” flagrant rule violation abounds. About the only differences are the now-pastel colour scheme and the fact that the plastic is even cheaper than it used to be..
I may have given a few noisy gifts in my day, but that gift is unkind because it is so long lasting. I will pray for you.
Get this: Group of survivors gets trapped in the middle of a frozen lake suspended over a canyon. Each survivor tries to make it out… but watch out! Don’t Break the Ice!
This summer… your worst fears come true. Ants In Your Pants. Your junk just got stung.
LOL. That’s a comic right there. You’re a champ
this is fun
NYTimes calls it “pseudisodomous!” The Village Voice says it’s “trophaeal!” Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Connery in the summer’s most delightfully madcap adventure!
(cue connery voice) BALDERDASH!
lol. Balderdash indeed.
Hippos are legitimately terrifying -especially if some mad genius finds a way to make them wear tiny hats. That really baits the trap.
Anyway, recently discovered your comic and I’ve really been enjoying it. Great work.
thanks. i hope you keep reading it. we’ve got some good ones comin’ up.
i just found this, i think it’s related.
This summer … a race against time against a madman. You have but 20 questions to puzzle the identity of this sinister villian before his evil plan destroys the city zoo.
Can you … Guess Who?
LOL
Have seen this exact joke before…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPYu2KJgowQ
lol. Yes, the difference is that their joke was better. The idea of Nicholas Cage being in Hungry Hungry Hippos is just too good.
I tried to find the link to a Penny Arcade post Gabe wrote once, where several people reported some comedian / show stole a Penny Arcade joke, but I couldn’t find it. In the post Gabe said something like, “I’m sure they didn’t intend to steal our joke. In the world of comedy people just tend to arrive to the same joke sometimes.”
During the time when Battleship was coming out, a lot of people were probably making similar jokes. Hungry Hungry Hippos is simply the silliest, well-known board game title. I suspect that this joke exists in several places: conversations, talk shows, etc. And it is likely that in each of those situations the similarity was unintentional, as it was here.
I predict you will see this exact joke again the next time a board game movie comes out. Provided the generation that played the game isn’t already dead …