In case there's any doubt that Epic's battle royale behemoth Fortnite is a mainstream phenomenon, let Saturday Night Live lay them to rest. A skit that ran on the most recent episode saw Adam Driver portray a middle-aged man desperately trying to learn the game so that he can impress his son, Miles, who normally plays with his stepfather Rick.
Driver, as WilliamMacTavish1972, comes under the tutelage of a pair of 15-year-olds, who of course are skilled in the ways of Fortnite. They do their best, but their student is a handful: He runs into walls, is unable to open crates, and at a crucial—well, I won't spoil, but let's just say that a victory royale remains elusive!
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Here's something I will spoil, though: The whole thing is tremendously unfunny. It's "old people and videogames, lol," strung into three-and-a-half minutes, with absolutely nothing original to say and not even a semi-amusing presentation of its tired trope to fall back on. Driver plays it tediously straight as a stereotypical desperate-to-be-hip dad, and the closest the gag ever comes to subverting expectations is when his teenage partners don't lose their minds with rage because of his inability to play.
The movements of the 'on-screen' characters are pretty good—the costumes and emote get it right—but overall? 'Bad Fortnite Dad' could have been funny, but this thing works about as well as a first-gen jetpack mode.
Now this is funny:
Thanks, Eurogamer.
