[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/Much_Concentrate7780]

I am 100% confident that Eric Wolpaw was joking about Hoopy the Hoop. He was being satirical, they never actually thought that would be a meme.

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/Much_Concentrate7780]

"It was Hoopy the hoop. We thought we should have a warehouse full of Hoopy t-shirts and mugs and posters…we would watch that hoop roll by over and over again. That was the part of the game we were most proud of, and nobody cared."

Definitely taking the piss.

[u/Much_Concentrate7780 → u/Lil_Mcgee]

I'm honestly shook that some people actually think he was being serious there

[u/imacatnamedsteve → u/Much_Concentrate7780]

It’s the same people who think all the stories or jokes from a stand up comedian talk about are true and actually happened

[u/stylinchilibeans → u/imacatnamedsteve]

"You shouldn't feed your cat diarrhea..."

[u/StrongExternal8955 → u/imacatnamedsteve]

"when i see an accident on the highway, i get in the way" ~ George Carlin

People taking everything Carlin said like pearls of wisodm.....

[u/Common-Frosting-9434 → u/imacatnamedsteve]

https://giphy.com/gifs/AlEp8Fj45KPLO

[u/Zaximeows → u/imacatnamedsteve]

😲

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/imacatnamedsteve]

Or believe that every movie is ad-libbed on the fly

[u/Spike-Durdle → u/imacatnamedsteve]

Id say most of them are true or have elements of truth.

[u/Organic_Razzmatazz50 → u/Spike-Durdle]

All of them are based on the experiences of the comic, but unless you know these comedians personally you have no way of knowing how much of the information is made up. I'm not saying the majority of stand up is fantasy, but I am saying we never know enough to say it's not. 

[u/WraithOfTheFadedDark → u/Spike-Durdle]

Gather up all your credit cards and meet me in that dark alley over there...

[u/LordofThe7s → u/WraithOfTheFadedDark]

You can trust this guy. They’re a certified Wallet Inspector.

[u/andyetitwasnt → u/Spike-Durdle]

Damn near every bit is fabricated. The truest part will usually just be they were at the place the joke was set in.

[u/MiseryGyro → u/andyetitwasnt]

Hey comedian here.

There's fabrication in every bit. But it's anywhere from 25%-75%. People can tell when you 100% it. There needs to be truth and reality in the joke or it won't hit right

[u/-o-DildoGaggins-o- → u/MiseryGyro]

Yeah I feel like the best jokes are rooted in truth, y’know? At least a grain of realism. You can exaggerate, embellish, etc., but if there’s that little bit of truth there, it just makes it so much better.

[u/HirsuteHacker → u/Spike-Durdle]

Lol absolutely not

[u/NIGHT_DOZOR → u/Much_Concentrate7780]

Especially considering that most of the humor from GLaDOS comes from sarcasm.

[u/space_hitler → u/Much_Concentrate7780]

Completely unrelated note, Reddit has a very high rate of autism.

[u/Dronizian → u/Lil_Mcgee]

Eric Wolpaw is such a hoopy frood.

[u/spetumpiercing → u/Dronizian]

He definitely knows where his towel is

[u/-Nicolai → u/Lil_Mcgee]

What inspired this sarcasm though? Hoop is such a random thing to latch onto.

[u/58275859 → u/-Nicolai]

It's just one guy making a joke in a interview about a game full of sarcasm and comedy. It's not that deep.

[u/tuckels → u/-Nicolai]

I'm assuming he's making a joke about the companion cube, which was treated both in & out of game as a loveable inanimate object & spawned a bunch of merch & memes at the time.

[u/RoadsidePicnik → u/Lil_Mcgee]

It would be like if Arkane sold Reployer machines you could either have delivered or 3D print in your home, and hyped it up as their new flagship product. ☕️🔧

[u/Karl__RockenStone → u/RoadsidePicnik]

What does a Reployer even do?

[u/RoadsidePicnik → u/Karl__RockenStone]

There's a hundred emails on Talos I of people being so excited to get one for their department and then having no idea what the hell it does. 😆 It's just a big joke.

[u/TheSurvivor65 → u/RoadsidePicnik]

PREY mention in the wild???? Holy shit

[u/RoadsidePicnik → u/TheSurvivor65]

Like old times. 🤝

[u/absentminded_gamer → u/Lil_Mcgee]

I can hear this narrated by GLaDOS

[u/Hitei00 → u/Lil_Mcgee]

Anyone who reads this and takes it at face value is a lost cause

[u/Sea-Writer-6961 → u/Hitei00]

Hey only my teachers can call me that

[u/destro23 → u/Lil_Mcgee]

You know… for kids