I was raised on British comedy. It was one of the few things my father and I both agreed on, so I spent plenty of nights watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Mr. Bean. Shows like that became formative, as I grew a love for physical comedy and ridiculous gags by studying silly walks. To an outsider, it all might just look like random jokes that don’t make much sense, but there’s an art for absurdity that the British comedy scene nailed. I found that spirit once again in Thank Goodness You’re Here! Developed by Coal Supper, a small studio based out of Yorkshire, England, the “slapformer” is gleefully goofy in the same way that Monty Python is. It may not be the most compelling gameplay experience out there, but the bite-sized comedy delivers some good-natured (if juvenile) laughs through colorful cartoon absurdism that brought me back to my childhood for a couple of hours.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! takes place in a small English town called Barnsworth that’s filled with eccentric locals. Players take on the role of a tiny man, with skin as yellow as a lemon, whose job it is to help out around town. That’s at least what everyone seems to think his job is, anyways. The almost stream-of-consciousness adventure has our hero getting roped into tasks, from mowing lawns to helping a bedridden man get his groceries. A normal day in a small village, right? Not so much. The town is a slapstick playground dense with sight gags, almost like an explorable Where’s Waldo picture. When I mow that lawn, I inadvertently murder a sentient flower proposing its love to another. The bedridden man gives me a hand — literally — when his sausage-like arm extends out of his room and leads me around town. It’s a series of surrealist laughs mixed with townie humor.
The biggest rise it gets out of me is when I come across a canvasser on the street advertising his cause: Bring Back Asbestos. Your mileage will certainly vary when it comes to the barrage of jokes. It can be crude, gross, and childish — sometimes in the same breath. I really had to reach back to my youth at times to get on its level so I could laugh at the phrase “smacky bum bum.” The mix of adult and Saturday morning cartoon humor can feel unbalanced at times, but that’s in the spirit of Monty Python. I think the reason I loved it so much as a kid is that it felt like I was getting away with seeing something mature when I was allowed to watch Life of Brian. Thank Goodness You’re Here! carries that same feeling, peppering cusses and potato violence between butt jokes.
While it all works as an interactive comedy, its moment-to-moment gameplay is more of a backdrop. I run around a town comprised of a few screens and smack things to interact with them. There are small puzzles here and there, like when I need to turn a blocked hose on by following it down a well and smacking its valve, but I’m more so a spectator watching weird things happen in town. Those vignettes are glued together with some repetitive navigation between areas that has me backtracking and revisiting visual travel gags a few too many times. You wouldn’t miss out on much by just watching a long play on YouTube like a cartoon. Even if that’s how you prefer to experience it, Thank Goodness You’re Here is worth its two- to three-hour runtime if you hold a special place in your heart for British humor. It’s a densely packed comedy routine about small-town weirdos in a concise, goofy package. I can’t promise that you’ll find it funny, but I can confirm that you’re in for something completely different. Thank Goodness You’re Here! launches on August 1 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
