!!How To Make A JokeCharacter

There are different ways to accomplish in designing a bad video game character.

Note that this also applies by proxy to the LethalJokeCharacter, with the difference that it gets some other gimmick to keep it viable in a competitive enviroment.

!!!Bad Performances
Most playable characters in video games have {{Stats}} or some way to distinguish them in the gameplay (including stuff like strength, HitPoints, maximum speed, jump height, SanityMeter...). The Joke Character usually is outclassed by all other normal characters in the roster, if not having the lowest possible values assignable for that stats. In this sense, the Joke Character is the opposite of the PurposelyOverpowered MasterOfAll, which instead outclasses all normal playable characters. If the Joke Character has bad stats because they are evenly spread among each other, and lacks any skills to distinguish itself from the normal playable characters, which instead often are more specialized in their roles, it also crosses over with MasterOfNone.
%%Example:

!!!Only One Good Stat
The opposite of a MasterOfNone: this Joke Character has one stat it excels at... The problem is, it's the ''only'' good stat it has. The rest are so low it drags the good stat down, and probably lacks the means to mitigate its weaknesses: it's CripplingOverspecialization. The result is a GlassCannon that cannot attack because it always gets killed first, a StoneWall that can't stop the DeathOfAThousandCuts, or a FragileSpeedster that lacks the power or the endurance to actually use its speed.

Since this Joke Character is at least good at one thing, it's the variant most likely to be NotCompletelyUseless. It might even turn up to be somewhat decent... unless the backlash it suffers turns it into a even more hated LowTierLetdown. Unless its good stat is the OneStatToRuleThemAll, which can even be enough to make it playable even when everything else is crap.
%%Example: Magma Rager in Heartstone

!!!Wrong Person At The Wrong Place
Not all weak video game characters are useless: the CrutchCharacter in [=RPGs=] is a common way to help new players start the game, before they gain experience. SkillGateCharacters in fighting games are a similar concept.

Those are not Joke Characters. A Joke Character would be an underpowered unit that would be ideal for a first-time player... if it was available earlier. Instead, it's unlocked at a time when the player has become familiar with the game.

!!!Built This Way
This Joke Character is programmed differently from the other playable characters, just to be made ''worse''.


QuirkyBard, MechanicallyUnusualFighter and MechanicallyUnusualClass are more neutral takes of this concept, often equal to the other playable units, even if in different ways.

!!!Literally Unplayable
Sort of an extension of the previous point, this Joke Character cannot perform an action necessary to make in-game progress, or inevitably ends up triggering the conditions for the Game Over.

In other words, it's impossible for this character to even win without cheating, automatically turning the game into an UnwinnableJokeGame.