From the Segaworldweekly newsletter interviewing Greg Johnson
co-creator of the TJ&E series:
Q) Just what inspires that sense of humor and attitude the
games have?
All kinds of things. One of the main things is a deep and
abiding love of Black American Culture (or African American
if you prefer), especially music culture. I'm half black
myself (on my dad's side) and my family is all mixed up.
The whole ToeJam attitude of "Trick or Damn Treat", and
"You Latisha you look FINE", or Latisha's hand-on-the-hip
"Miss Thing", or Big Earl's ultra cool "Yo Wha'sup" laid
back style is really what drives the humor for the main
characters. That's true for Lamont too. It's fun to play
with that style but with them as aliens on a "Messed Up"
planet of Earthlings who are clueless about the Funk. It's
also fun to play with the whole "religion" of Funk. "Praise
be for the Funkopotamous", "Spread the word of Funk". That
sort of thing.
As for the other characters... well, you can't think your
way to comedy. The best way to get to something that will
make others laugh, or put a smile on their face, is to
simply try to enjoy yourself and make yourself laugh when
making something. The game isn't "supposed to be funny",
it's simply that it's too boring to sit at this desk and
write dry dialog. If it made me laugh or someone else laugh
it got tossed in.
Whenever we found ourselves saying "can we really put that
into a game?" that's when I knew it had to go in. Stuff
like the line where the Hula Girl says "Hey don't tell
anyone but I'm really a guy" , or the little girl says to
ToeJam "My momma says you're my daddy and you owe us some
money", or the little elf says "Say I'm cute or I'll kick
your ass". Anyway, comedy is about as subjective as it
gets. You can't expect everyone to like it, but one thing
is for sure... if you approach comedy with a cynical
attitude, whether it's in a game or in a comedy club,
you're sure to not like it. You just need to let go a
little.