I’m catching up on my DVRing, and finally got to watch last week’s premiere of Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, a fantasy show satire on Comedy Central.
I was unsure if it would be decent going in, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t hilarious, but it was funnier than all the usual Scary Movie etc. satire movies and I got a laugh out of a lot of the dialogue; the slapstick was weaker. The fight scenes were even better than the standard Hercules/Xena/various knockoff trash (nice effect when he sticks his flaming sword through an assassin and withdraws it!). And the pole dance from the female lead sealed the deal.
And boy, they left no sexual stone unturned for the jokes. Homosexuality, gangbangs, bestiality, rape… Only necrophilia and watersports are left for the rest of the series!
I guess that’s my real concern – the premiere was good enough, but I wonder how they’re going to carry the gag for a whole series. We’ll see – I didn’t expect the live action Tick to be any good either and I was surprised.
It was notable for its poking fun at all the generic tropes – the bad guy who kills everyone around at the drop of a hat, the hero who always jacks it up whenever he’s doing something badass, the worthless henchman. Would it hurt to run a real game like this sometime? Frankly, some of our campaigns sounds like an episode of Krod Mandoon at the table; we try to keep the joking “out of character” but it might be fun to play a parody from time to time. Humor in gaming’s hard to carry out though. Toon and Paranoia always delivered, but efforts at D&D style humor often sucked – WG7 Castle Greyhawk, I’m looking at you.
So if nothing else, it’s a good laugh for those who find themselves in similar situations to Krod frequently – you know, fighting an oppressive empire, liberating slaves, and hacking evil minions. And don’t we all?
Geek Related 
Hmmm, the second episode was less funny, as I feared. They did fit in the necrophilia though (can I call it or what?).
Although the bad guy’s expletive “Daggers!” is growing on me. I am tempted to start using it as an in-character curse in our D&D games.
“Humor in gaming’s hard to carry out though.”
I’ve never found that. Especially in D&D.
(Thief: (to Cleric) Traps? Oh yeah, I’m GREAT at finding and disabling traps. Watch this.
(To Barbarian): Ok, so we’re going down this hallway, but don’t just run ahead, we need to come up with a plan – what are you doing?! I said DON’T run ahead! Come back –
*BOOM!!*
(To Cleric): See? Found one.)
@Kitten – incidental humor from the characters, sure. Trying to GM a game as specifically comedic in tone is a lot harder.