History YMMV / Postal

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* MemeticBadass: The Postal Dude.
%%* MemeticMutation: [[IRegretNothing "I regret nothing."]]
%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhoBmUEy7as "Hi there, would you like to sign my petition?"]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Russia loves ''Postal''. So much so that they even got their own exclusive expansion, and Akella, the Russian publisher for the games, developed ''Postal III'', unfortunately with little involvement from Running With Scissors. To this day, the ''Postal'' games are very popular in Russia, and many of the game's most prolific modders and content creators are from Russia.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The ostriches in ''Postal 1''. It actually gets a BrickJoke CallBack in the ''Paradise Lost'' expansion.

** Really, who's to say that ''Postal 2'' isn't just a psychosis that the Postal Dude is experiencing (in other words, his version of [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Pyrovision]])? Considering he was tossed into a mental institution for killing dozens of people in the first game, this actually makes more sense than a killer with a huge body count simply being free with no repercussions a few years later. That is however assuming the first ''Postal'' has it's continuity connected with ''Postal 2'', which is to say unlikely because The Dude is almost nobody in Paradise instead of a wanted mass murderer. [[spoiler: That said, ''Postal Redux'' retconned the first game to be set in 2017, he's out of Paradise with military grade guns and experience, and he's seen fucked up things thanks to his brain damage after his failed attempted suicide, which clearly worsens. BUT then again, Paradise was destroyed again after Paradise Lost and Postal 4 reveals that The Postal Dude went to Edensin.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The ostriches in ''Postal 1''. [[spoiler: It actually gets a BrickJoke CallBack in the ''Paradise Lost'' expansion]].

* CrazyIsCool: The Postal Dude is possibly this trope ''given form''. A trailer-dwelling, deep-voiced, incredibly psychotic LowerClassLout with a total bitch of a wife who can, among many other things, throw a machete like a boomerang, carry around an absurd amount of stuff, use dolls as grenades, weaponize anthrax-ridden cow heads, withstand explosions to the face, use cats as silencers for his weapons, and heal himself by smoking crack. And that's not even counting the stuff he does in the actual story, such as [[spoiler: nuking the entirety of Paradise for a publicity stunt]]

* HarsherInHindsight:
** In the first ''Postal'', the final scene where [[spoiler:the Postal Dude tries to shoot up an elementary school (but to no avail) can become this in the wake of the ''several'' school shootings since its release]]. Running With Scissors cited this trope as the reason why ''Postal Redux'' didn't have this scene [[spoiler:(it was instead replaced with a different, although equally-surreal, "Church" level)]], as [[spoiler:school shootings]] had become a lot more common and less shocking in the nineteen years since the release of the original game.
** Postal Dude's black trench coat bears similarities to the ones [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold]] frequently wore.

* ''YMMV/Postal4NoRegerts

* YMMV/Postal2
* YMMV/PostalIII
* YMMV/PostalFilm
* YMMV/Postal4NoRegerts
* YMMV/PostalBrainDamaged

** The Uwe Boll film also has quite a bit of disgusting moments as well:
*** For starters: [[MaleFrontalNudity Dave Foley's penis...]]
*** We never see what The Postal Dude's wife looks like in ''Postal 2''. However, in the film she is shown to be an extremely overweight, disgusting mess of a woman who verbally abused The Dude to no end. Expect to see a lot of scenes of her eating profusely. We even get the [[BlatantLies treat]] of seeing her cheat on The Dude with the two corrupt cops that show up in the film.
*** The Bitch finally makes an appearance in the ''Paradise Lost'' expansion... albeit quite slim. Dieting for 11 years works wonders. But by the end of Wednesday, she gets ballooned back up to her original weight. Which is pretty damn hefty, but not as big as the film version.
%%* SoBadItsGood: All the games, really.
%%** The Uwe Boll film can also count, surprisingly.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Much like the later ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'', the first ''Postal'' seemed to be more of an exercise in riling up MoralGuardians than a fun experience for the player. ''Postal 2'' took the same basic idea, changed from a top-down shooter to an FPS, and mined the dark premise for loads of BlackComedy rather than being a straight-faced MurderSimulator. The result, while not a smash hit, went over a lot better with critics and gamers alike.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Much like the later ''VideoGame/Hatred'', the first ''Postal'' seemed to be more of an exercise in riling up MoralGuardians than a fun experience for the player. ''Postal 2'' took the same basic idea, changed from a top-down shooter to an FPS, and mined the dark premise for loads of BlackComedy rather than being a straight-faced MurderSimulator. The result, while not a smash hit, went over a lot better with critics and gamers alike.

** Jon St. John's performance of the Dude in 4: No Regerts. A good replacement or a poor attempt at bringing the Dude to life? Some argue against it saying the Dude sounds too happy and not as threatening as Rick Hunter's take.

* GameBreaker: The likely reason that the ''Apocalypse Weekend'' expansion does not have a multiplayer component is that the new melee weapons are so much more effective than, well, every other weapon in the game.
** The 2013/2014 patches have gone some way to avoid this - whereas in earlier versions of ''A Week in Paradise'' you could get the machete five seconds into the game, now it takes significant effort to find anything of comparable power before the halfway point. And then Enhanced Mode [[PurposelyOverpowered goes straight towards this trope]], with higher-powered weapons being much more plentiful, and new bonuses such as [[BottomlessMagazines no upper limit on any ammo type]].
** The SawedOffShotgun has such ridiculous damage output per pellet that even armored enemies (red turban terrorists in the hidden base, soldiers, Survivalists in ''Paradise Lost'') get reduced to LudicrousGibs at point-blank range from ''one'' shell, you can fire off two in quick succession, and despite the wide spread, it's even effective at medium range if one or two of the pellets connect. ShotgunsAreJustBetter indeed, and the only thing holding it back is that it only shows up toward the end of the week.
** The catnip can be used for BulletTime - the sort where ''you'' and your guns don't slow down while everyone else does, and VeryHighVelocityRounds are in effect due to most weapons being {{hitscan}}. This will allow you to shred groups of enemies and circle-strafe around them faster than they can get a bead on you, making what would normally be very tough encounters very survivable.
** The Police Uniform makes for an EasyLevelTrick in some sequences of the game, partly because you can get away with PoliceBrutality as long as you don't strike any other cops, partly because both cops and hate groups will ignore you in uniform. This makes segments like making the return trip out of Meat World or Uncle Dave's place trivial when you can just run past all the SWAT guys storming the place without incident.
** The Chompy cartridge for the Bass Sniffer radar is generally TooAwesomeToUse due to rarity, but is somewhat more common in ''Paradise Lost'' if you know where to look. The main important thing about it is that it makes you ''impervious to damage'' while you play, Chompy kills the target in a way that can't be directly traced to you by [=NPCs=], and the timer pauses between kills. Now consider that doing something like entering Yeeland's private office swarms you with tons of tough armored security guard mooks immediately on top of Yeeland himself being just as tough and packing a ''Rocket Launcher'', they all like to close in on you point-blank, and the closer an NPC is to you on the radar, the more mileage you get out of Chompy's time limit, and you can kill them all ''without taking a scratch.'' It's also useful for avoiding damage in the mine cart ride sequence, since they can still hit you now and then even if you're crouched in the cart.
*** Chompy is ''not'', however, an effective solution against bosses, which will only have about a fourth or fifth of their overall life bar drained and be completely unaffected on the next attempt if you try to move Chompy over 'em on the radar. To be fair, bosses are probably the only enemies Chompy cannot kill outright.
* GoodBadBugs: There are several - lighting yourself on fire makes the instant-death fire harmless, dogs can [[LadderPhysics float up ladders]] to get to you and propel you skyhigh, and one well-aimed rocket lets you skip the "Confess your sins" and "Uncle Dave's birthday" chores.
** You can prevent the Parents for Decency from storming the RWS HQ after you collect your paycheck just by dropping a grenade in the path of the one guy who rallies them all up to go forth and kill you and the RWS guys. When the in-game cutscene plays, he sets it off and dies, and the rest just stay there. It won't prevent some scripted protesters from showing up to attack if you try to exit out the front door, but it does mean you won't get shot in the face the instant you regain control of yourself and have much fewer people to fight off.

** Paradise getting nuked may be harder to ponder after a deadly fire mostly destroyed a town of the same name in northern UsefulNotes/{{California}} in November 2018, followed by a flash flood hitting the region.
* HilariousInHindsight: ''Postal III'' featured a pre-order bonus called [[LethalJokeItem "Fart Gun"]] exclusive for the Russian release, which [[OneHitKill instantly knocks out anyone in the vicinity]]. One year earlier, the same weapon was featured in the 2010 movie ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' and it still retains the same effect.
** Also in the same game, if you ride a segway, the Postal Dude will say: "Right, [[BreakingTheFourthWall Postal has vehicles now]]. [[SelfDeprecation VERY funny, assholes]]!" Later, a modification for ''Postal 2'' known as "[[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=292353394 Project Marica]]" was released featuring actual drivable vehicles from Postal Dude's 1987 [[PunnyName DaFuQue]] (Volkswagen Golf) to [[UpToEleven a goddamn monster truck]]!
** As for "The Ghetto" loading screen from the original game, the skinny, skeleton-like hallucination seen in the alley isn't that hard to remind of Creator/JunjiIto's ''Manga/TheEnigmaOfAmigaraFault'' (as the latter came five years after the 1997 installment's release).
** If you're undergoing health pipe withdrawal ''Postal 2'', the Postal Dude will say "[[Film/AvengersInfinityWar I don't feel so good.]]"
** As the EasterEgg entry on the [[VideoGame/{{Postal}} main page]] points out, there is a house containing ''Postal III'' posters, a fat guy [[DrivenToSuicide who hanged himself]], a fallen chair, and a computer. The computer was running ''Postal III'', crashed, and has a message that says "[[BlatantLies Amazing Game Development]] has caused the program to stop responding", with the options being "wait for the game to get better?" and "uninstall and install Postal 2 and hope for Postal 4". Fast forward to October 2019, RWS announced ''Postal 4: No Regerts'' and released it on Steam's early access platform. If only that fat guy went for the second option and waited.

** In ''Postal 2'', you can pee on things. Peeing on people generally causes them to throw up violently, with some fairly advanced liquid physics for the game's time. On Friday, the Dude gets gonorrhea, and his urine becomes green and burns when you pee, which guarantees that people you pee on will throw up in reaction. And it's possible to decapitate someone as they're vomiting, causing it to continue to spew out of their neck stump.
*** The police will pick up and eat any donut they happen to come across. You can drop a donut, pee on it, and the officer who eats it will throw up right after eating it.
** The entire front porch of The Postal Dude's trailer home is covered in dog droppings, since his pet dog Champ lives out front.
** Even most of the public restrooms blatantly feature excrement on the floors and sinks, suggesting that the citizens apparently have no value for public decency and hygiene whatsoever.
** The cats and dogs in S&M gear near the end of Apocalypse Weekend.
** One of the first missions you do in ''Postal III'' is to vacuum up used cum rags in a porn store. The Postal Dude is rightfully squicked out by the whole scenario.
*** Also, the game itself is the [[BloodierAndGorier goriest in the series and the violence is even more graphic.]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Try shredding a crowd of people with]] an [[MoreDakka M249]] or a [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Benelli M4 Super 90]] and [[BodyHorror you'll see what happens...]]

** The same can be said for the use of offensive stereotypes. The immigrant running the local grocery store turns out to be a secret Taliban supporter with several heavily armed veil-wearing wives at the back of his house. This would be disgustingly racist if other groups were portrayed as idealized or even just neutral. But next to that you have the cops being gun-toting thugs who gleefully abuse their authority, the military are thugs with even bigger guns, rednecks are inbred gun-toting sexual deviants, activists are hypocritical idiots who turn violent at the drop of a hat... Even seemingly normal civilians walking down the street can suddenly pull out a gun and start shooting for no reason. What you end up with is "[[HatesEveryoneEqually I'm not a racist, I hate everyone equally]]: The Game".[[labelnote:note]]Postal Dude even says almost exactly that, particularly when he kills a black person[[/labelnote]]

* GuideDangIt: In the first game, many players clearly had trouble figuring out that pressing [=F1=] was how you moved on to the next level after you completed all objectives, given that the Steam version has an achievement called "Oh, you press [=F1=]!" for reaching the second level.