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I am sure many of you are already with me on this one. But just in case you aren’t, or you are like me and you want to talk/hear/think about it as much as possible, I will go into some detail.
Grand Theft Auto V was the absolute definition of a smash hit. It broke numerous sales records, won Game of the Year at the recent VGX awards and on numerous online publications (I have to admit I voted for Infinite for my site’s) and is already starting to flow over into other areas of pop culture. I was one of the many who picked the game up at a midnight release, and the first few hours went by pretty quickly. I thought it was a great but not spectacular game, and then HE made his entrance.
I knew a little about Trevor Philips from all of the character videos and gameplay sneak peaks leading up to the release, and I figured he would be my favorite of the 3 playable characters. As you can imagine, that turned out to be a massive understatement. He delivers a sizable portion of the game’s ample humor, offers the trickiest missions and also allows for the most mayhem by FAR. Those are pretty much the 3 main reasons I play the Grand Theft Auto series, so I wasn’t shocked when switching over to Trevor yielded one of the funniest moments I had ever seen in a video game:
My friends and I absolutely lost it over this fun little Easter egg. GTA has always produced some stellar Easter eggs and random jokes over the years. This is by no means the only time I laughed while playing Grand Theft Auto V, but the scooter brothers moment just tickled me in all the right ways. I thought to myself “wow, what a perfect example of Rockstar’s clever writing. It makes absolutely no sense, and yet it perfectly explains the character. It is hilarious to the player because he or she has been given so much context as to who Trevor Philips is and just how believable this type of behavior is for him.’
Then I went on the internet, and, as is so often the case, my blissful ignorance/innocence was lost. I found out that this was not a beautifully crafted window into Trevor’s soul, but rather an homage of sorts to a GTA 4 video made by a steaming personality named Brad. Here is the link to what I believe to be the original:
I watched the video and read the lengthy description. Turns out Brad was doing an impersonation of Christian Slater in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I do vaguely remember him drifting in and out of some sort of British-like accent in that movie.
Anyway, now I had to completely rethink my view of the situation. Was Trevor’s version still funny? Yes, but it had been diminished. It also could have lost its luster for me because I watched it a hundred times; I don’t know, I am not a doctor. While Rockstar did lose some ground in my book for not being the originator of such a randomly hilarious gag, it still deserves some credit for paying tribute to a user-generated video in their super mega triple A release. The developers definitely chose the right character to give the gag to. I do find it interesting that Rockstar allegedly gave the Youtube poster a cease and desist letter, then copied the content verbatim in its own game. But who cares? It is funny.
So where does that leave me? Even though Bioshock: Infinte’s ending gave it some very stiff competition, I can still look back at my first scooter brother moment and know it was my favorite of the year. It does do Trevor’s character some justice, even if it wasn’t specifically designed for him. Speaking of that character, I can’t help but think of Trevor in the same light as Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. They are both complete d$%^s. They are both totally hilarious and utterly insane. Many gamers embraced these characters with open arms, and I am certainly one of them. I sometimes think about what great friends they would be, and this scenario comes to mind:
Picture Jack and Trevor walking through a shopping mall (JUST GO WITH IT OKAY?!). They pass by a super fancy men’s store, and Jack wants to go in and buy a suit. Trevor is of course like no, f@#$ that, but Jack insists, so Trevor is just sitting on those chairs they keep near the fitting rooms. The snooty employee is helping Jack, and it starting to take forever, so Trevor is beginning to fidget angrily in the chair.
They finally come out and Jack asks “well Trevor, what do you think?”
Trevor responds “it’s fine. Great. Whatever. Lets get out of here”
Then the snooty employee asks “Well sir, wouldn’t you like to try it in brown as well?”
Jack responds “Why, yes, I think I would!”
Trevor flips out and bludgeons the employee with the chair he was sitting on, which splashes blood all over the suit Handsome Jack had just picked out. Jack looks at him angrily at first, then begins to laugh and gives Trevor that face that says “oh, you!” Then they lock arms, “Happy Together” by the Turtles begins to play, and they proceed to murder every person in that store.
Can you see it? If I was talented I would draw it or something, but this is the best I can do.