and
to that joke in his Painkiller review. Now this would normally be understandable because as a comedian he's totally allowed to reuse jokes from back when no one liked him.
But.
The joke in the Painkiller review was made less subtle.
Now I remember during that dark period of reading his archives coming across the soccer joke, and, in spite of being one of the slow Americans myself, got it right away. Maybe I even chuckled, and that's all that joke was really worth. And maybe only because I like zombies movies too I got the Dead-Alive joke as well.
But what I don't like is that this reuse makes the joke less funny. Of course saying "That's Dead Alive if you're American" isn't even a joke at all, and adding "and fat" to it doesn't make it a joke, it sounds like it just adds a further restriction to the number of people who don't know the real name of the movie. And surprisingly last I checked 70% of the adult population here in America (admittedly not a figure to be proud of) doesn't fit that description (although from the few times I've seen Yahtzee's entire body he probably thinks Nicole Richie could stand to lose a few, so maybe his standards are a little off-kilter).
Now this sad little Pluto of a joke is pretty alone in the crowded Solar System of Zero Punctuation, so I don't think Yahtzee's losing his touch. Just a little constructive criticism. Overly in-depth, pedantic constructive criticism.
PS Why, when pressed to think of terrifyingly thin people, was my first thought Macaulay Culkin?
PPS "Losing his touch"? Do you think that came from the Midas touch? Did he ever lose it? Wouldn't that be a good thing anyway?