Cave of the Ancient Treasure

The class ends with two major projects, both designed to challenge students: one about comedy, and the other about intimacy. This is an exercise I use to introduce the former.

There's an elder in a cave. To the player, they somberly bequeath their sole possession. The player approaches the chest in the rear of the cave, and the game cuts to a POV shot of the opened chest – what does it contain? I don't know, that's your job.

The task: Put some kind of visual gag inside the chest. Edit the "ending" dialogue to write the game's closing dialogue, which occurs after the visual reveal. The goal is to achieve a comedic subversion; feel free to edit the elder's dialogue to better set up your punchline.

This is an introduction to "incongruity theory," a theory of comedy that suggests humor is created when a setup is resolved in an "incongruous" (or unexpected or subversive) way. As examples, see either this comic about a supportive dad or this one about a supportive son. Both set us up to expect that the speaker is engaging in bullying, but are subversively revealed to be sincere.

A great example of this kind of punchy subversion in a Bitsy game is Sean S. LeBlanc's Tea for Two. What player assumption does this subvert, and what other common player assumptions are ripe for a comedic subversion?