Funny Background Event / Video Games

• As of version 2.3 (released August 14, 2019), 100% Orange Juice! has added a background to its arcade. Since characters and poses are randomly selected, odd things can happen in the arcade, for example, apparently something has bummed out a crazy OmnicidalManiac, trashed a Flying Castle, and given a witch with PrehensileHair a tummyache.
• Metal Gear:
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, numerous strange things happen during the twilight sniping sequence if you ignore what you're supposed to be doing and instead spy on characters with the microphone. These include Running Gag Johnny Sasaki making his appearance in 2, Emma wondering aloud to herself if Raiden's hair is a wig or not (to which the player can have Raiden chastise her), and Snake daydreaming about asking Emma on a date.
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater:
    • Ocelot performs his trademark hand gesture and storms off. If you then look all the way to the right, you can see EVA imitating the gesture and cracking up.
    • The Sorrow is encountered as one of these for most of his appearances in the game; occasionally visible in the corner of a frame, waving a handwritten sign at you with comic menace. (This is the solution to a puzzle later.)
  • During Chapter 3 of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you get a first-person cutscene of Monsoon through the eyes of a wounded Raiden in which you're able to look around. If you look to the right, you can watch a cyborg mook make friends with a stray kitty.
• In Tales of Graces, the team is discussing ways to enter the Big Bad's impenetrable dome whe... Hey, what's Pascal doing with that hunk of metal and the computer?
• A minor recurring thing in Tales of the Abyss; a lot of the time in small scenes you can catch Team Pet Mieu doing... something or another in the background. Like pointlessly rolling around.
• Devil May Cry 5:
  • During the slow-motion shoot-out sequence from the opening cutscene (which is replayed in Mission 1), an awesome and funny moment happens in the background; when Nero's bullets hit a sign in front of an Empusa, the bullets are seemingly wasted as they bounce off while the sign's trajectory is altered, yet the sign somehow manages to hit another Empusa's head in the background.
  • In the beginning of Mission 1's playable segment, Nico and the "Crew Cut" soldier are watching Nero fight the Empusas, although you have to wait for a while and adjust the camera to see the hilarious part. Nico helps Crew Cut stand, then pushes him toward the nearby concrete barrier, causing him to trip awkwardly.
• Divinity II: Ego Draconis has a permanent Undead minion which is already quite wacky. However, whenever a cut-scene triggers it will keep doing its random thing. So there can be an evil boss gloating about how you walked into his trap and you are at his mercy and foolish... while your Undead pet is pissing on his leg.
• In Battlefield: Bad Company, there are a few first-person cutscenes where Sarge talks to Juliet about their next objective, while Sweetwater and Haggard play Rock, Paper, Scissors behind him. Other events include Haggard tickling Sweetwater like a bug and Sweetwater showing Haggard golf swing techniques.
• Resident Evil:
  • Minor case in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, but a lot of fans thought it was absolutely hilarious that there is a shop vacuum and random mundane cleaning supplies in the background beside the weapons locker that contains an M66 Rocket Launcher in the basement of the Dead Factory. Can you imagine explaining that to the new janitor?
    Umbrella Scientist: Hey Frank! Go get the shop vac! Yeah, it's in the basement beside the rocket launcher!
  • In Resident Evil 4, while Ashley and Luis are having an argument, Leon is running around and barricading the doors in the background.
• This type of thing occasionally occurred in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, with characters having smaller text bubbles in the background. At the beginning of the game when Mario is talking to Goombella in Rogueport Plaza, a couple of grunts from the Pianta syndicate can be seen in the back roughing up a couple of Robbos. The game to come is rife with yet more shenanigans such as this; sometimes they stop being background events to intrude upon business at hand (such as the audience during the fights clowning around, only for a Shy Guy to flip its lid, leap onstage, then rush off in a panic).
  • The same game also had a moment that doubles as a Meaningful Background Event. When you're searching for General White all over the game's main locations, you return to Fahr Outpost to tell the mayor that you couldn't find General White anywhere... Cue General White coming out of a house in the background asking to himself where the mustached-man could be, before returning to his house, while Mario is talking to the mayor, both completely oblivious to General White being a few steps away.
  • Although not as much and usually not with text bubbles, the first game also had some moments here and there where townsfolk will be seen talking to each other or doing other little events (such as when Rowf first builds his badge shop with his son, which caused a few of the pillars to fall and both having to repeatedly put them back up). Too bad they tend not to last long after each new story event is completed.
• Luigi tends to do this in the Mario & Luigi series regularly. During the opening sequence of Bowser's Inside Story, for instance, Mario and Luigi are in a meeting with Peach and the Toads. Throughout the meeting, Luigi slowly falls asleep on the table and somehow manages to sleep through Bowser interrupting the meeting, destroying a section of said table and nearly setting fire to the princess, leaving Mario to fight Bowser on his own. Throughout the battle, you can see Luigi, still fast asleep. Bowser attacking the castle has to get boring after the third time or so.
• When you finish a race in TrackMania, the camera stays at the finish line while your scores are displayed. Many tracks position the finish such that behind your scores, your car is sent flying into a pool, wall, or off into the air. Hilariously.
  • The same thing happens at the end of matches in Battlefield 2. The now-pilotless planes become indestructible and often come careening into view in hilarious ways.
  • Need for Speed: Shift has drift races, where the car becomes notoriously difficult to control. After finishing the race the computer will take control of your car in an attempt to get it driving around the track looking cool. Except for wide-open drift course finish lines (which are pretty rare), the computer will inevitably lose control of the car and smash into...well, anything nearby, really. While your score is displayed.
  • In this Let's Play of Red Faction: Guerrilla, at the end of a mission, an enemy vehicle unscriptedly knocks a character off-screen... a character that, as mentioned at the beginning of the video is never seen again in the game.
    Daerun: Yeah, I don't think we're going to be seeing Carmen again.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy X:
    • It's hard to concentrate on important Yuna-centric scenes when Tidus and Wakka are fooling about and attacking each other in the background.
    • Just after Tidus learns the Jecht Shot, when talking to Yuna, you can see one of the blitzers try to imitate the move and fall on his ass.
  • In Final Fantasy XII there is an early scene in which Larsa walks up to Penelo, who was caught after being set free by her kidnappers. The party is hiding behind some structures in the scenery. Once Penelo is shown, Vaan walks out into the open to go after her...only for Balthier to grab him by the arm and drag him back before anyone sees.
  • Final Fantasy XIV will have some form of a random event happening as you go about your business since it's an MMORPG after all. It's not unheard of for someone to calmly gather materials while several players in the distance are fighting for their lives against a huge monster.
    • At the end of Shadowbringers, after the party arrives on the beach of Kholusia, apparently having swam all the way back from the Tempest, Ryne notes that Urianger (who is a horrible swimmer) isn't with them. Thancred replies that he'll be fine. As the camera pans back from the main characters resting, you can see Urianger face down on the beach a distance away from everyone else.
  • Every once in a while in Final Fantasy XV, Gentiana will photobomb Prompto's snapshots. Most of the time, the guys don't even notice her, but when they do it's usually a flabbergasted expression.
  • In Dissidia Final Fantasy this happens after Bartz gets caught observing the Emperor, Ultimecia, and Sephiroth just as they were about to fight amongst themselves. While The Emperor and Ultimecia contemplate what to do with Bartz, Sephiroth takes the opportunity to walk away nonchalantly.
• Kingdom Hearts II:
  • The second time you go to Beast's Castle, Xaldin kidnaps Belle and the Rose to force Beast to join them. Belle Takes a Third Option and runs off with the rose. What sells the scene is her elbowing him, hearing Xaldin "oof" as she goes off-screen, Sora, Beast, and Co starting a charge, then SLIDING TO A HALT as she runs by. To top it all off, the music cuts out, and you can hear Beasts' claws sliding to a stop on the pavement.
  • Also Aerith's lines while inserting the MCP Eradication Program... all while Leon Facepalms in the background.
    Aerith: "Bon appetite! Don't talk with your mouth full."
    Master Control Program: "Wha... what are you loading?"
• This happens a lot in Breath of Fire III. During one conversation between Momo and Palet at the Plant, for example, Nina and Ryu can be seen having a spat, which ends with Nina sticking her tongue out and Ryu crying.
• A regular occurrence in Shadow Hearts. They're usually Yuri's fault, helping to establish how he doesn't give a crap.
  • A notable one is after rescuing Anastasia, while everyone asked what she's doing - Yuri is shown dancing with the wolf.
  • Even during From the New World, these are commonplace. One occurs when stoic Tsundere Shania returns to her native village in the Grand Canyon. While she's discussing a matter of great importance with her bodyguard Natan in the foreground, protagonist Johnny and the rest of the crew - which by this point includes a Polish immigrant McNinja, a giant talking cat and an Antonio Banderas Expy - stand around watching and acting like complete morons.
• Some stages in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom have odd things happening in the background. One example: in the background of the Orbital Ring Station, over the course of the battle, human soldiers are battling giant aliens. It doesn't seem to be going too well.
• Stark Tower's intercom in Marvel Ultimate Alliance has a couple of good ones.
  "Johnny Storm would like it announced today is Ben Grimm's 65th birthday! Happy birthday, Mr Grimm!"
  "Warning: a small thermonuclear device is missing, and Deadpool was last seen in the weapons lab."
• In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Linebeck accidentally knocking over a stone Tetra while Oshus is making an important speech about the Big Bad of the game.
• All the Cutscenes in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess involving Barnes usually show a moment of him being a pathetic coward while conveying major plot points.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in the Champions' Ballad DLC during the last memory, Daruk can be seen in the background planning his gigantic hug while Purah is getting everyone in place, looking between the other characters with a mischievous grin.
• There are humorous off-camera hijinks throughout Ratchet & Clank. In one of the infobots in the first game, an anchorwoman (anchorbot?) covers news stories involving a blob monster infestation as an exterminator get eaten by one of said creatures shortly after waving to the camera. The monster later devours the reporter, ironically after her stating that she was completely safe from the blobs. She shows up perfectly fine minus a finger in a later infobot.
  • In A Crack in Time, Quark makes a very dramatic speech about how life is precious and how it would be wrong to kill the War Grok. Meanwhile, Ratchet is in the background, desperately trying to keep said War Grok from eating him.
• In Mother 3, during a tragic scene with Fuel and Lighter, a bird can be seen apparently humping a flower if you start the cutscene at the right time.
• A number of stages in the Super Smash Bros. series:
  • Melee, Great Bay: The moon slowly falls toward Termina. At the last second, The Four Giants push it back into the sky.
  • Melee, Mute City: It's very possible for the F-Zero machines to get totaled.
  • Many stages: Random characters flying through the background.
• Metal Slug is rife with these. The first stage in Metal Slug 2/X has a businessman and a local attempting to negotiate. Later in the stage, upon blowing up a truck, a human baby happily crawls around the area, as if nothing is happening. In Stage 3, several mooks on the ground below the train can be seen engaging in random acts such as having funny conversations and sunbathing.
  • The businessman's backstory is that he is a video game salesperson for the company that makes Metal Slug, and has a chronic habit of losing the briefcase full of merchandise he's trying to sell to his customers, and blaming the briefcase's disappearance on the client stealing it. He yells at a young boy for this reason on one level. It's you who takes the briefcase for points, naturally, and if you stick around you can see the businessman realize his briefcase isn't there anymore and flip out on the client.
• Melty Blood has this twice with Neco Arc Chaos's mid-boss stage where the Damien Corps are having a party of some sort in the background and Satsuki is peeking in from even farther behind that.
• Open sandbox games such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. While busy doing your own missions, it's possible to pass cops in a gunfight (sometimes with each other) or see a two-seater plane just slam into a record building. Just two of many examples.
  • This also happens in Just Cause 2, with the rebel factions occasionally getting into fights with the military and then driving off in random vehicles. Planes frequently crash into skyscrapers in Panau City, too.
  • In Bully, you can sometimes see people randomly start a fight or walk up and pull the fire alarm in the school.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV, if you make the car friction -9, creates many instances of Apathetic Citizens getting killed by physics-defying cars (when you aren't the victim, anyway).
• Some of Eggman's best in Sonic Colors is the commentary he spouts in the background, spending much of the game parodying the intercom announcements at theme parks.
  Would the owner of a white hovercar shaped like an egg please report to the front desk? Your car has been broken into. Repeat. Would the owner of a white hovercar shaped like an egg please report to the front desk? Your car has been broken i— wait a minute, what the heck?!...
  This ride not intended for small children... Or big babies!
  Visit the Bucket'O'Sushi... Now with FISH!
• Anytime in Sonic Unleashed where Chip is not in the foreground. Activities range from doing the backstroke in mid-air to stealing a teapot in Professor Pickle's lab.
• Team Fortress 2 regularly employs the trope within its "Meet the Team" videos.
  • In "Meet the Medic" the x-rays attached to a light box in the back of the operating room reveal that the Heavy has had a bomb lodged inside him. The extracted bomb is in the bucket underneath the x-rays.
  • You can also peer through the areas that are barred from your access on other maps, revealing gems such as...
    • The panel from "Meet the Spy" at Doublecross—it even lights up when the intelligence is stolen.
    • Several BLU NPCs are standing in front of a black board behind Stage 1 of Thunder Mountain, and they randomly taunt from time to time.
    • The RED Team has a swimming pool on Stage 2 of Thunder Mountain, and NPCs can be seen lounging there.
    • A RED Sniper can be seen camping on Stage 3 of Thunder Mountain.
    • The "campfire" in "Meet the Engineer" can be noted to be a corpse of a BLU sniper toward the video's end.
    • Humorously-appropriate signs also appear in the "Meet the Team" videos, such as a Soldier conking out the constantly-cigarette-toting Spy with his shovel while a "No Smoking" poster is in the background in "Meet the Soldier".
    • The "Meet the Team"'s title cards say "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" instead of an expected actual copyright notice.
• Bug: At the level endpoint of Quaria Scene 1, you'll see a scuba-diving bug chasing a small fish offscreen, wait a while, and he comes back in... being chased by a hungry dog-fish (Yes, that's a fish with a dog's head).
• Mortal Kombat:
  • The franchise loves these, oftentimes making them into a form of Chekhov's Gun. The Pit 2 features a green Liu Kang palette swap fighting Blaze. Mortal Kombat II also gave us Sonya and Kano in chains in the Arena. The Living Forest has guys running around the forest. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3's Desert has Cyrax buried in sand.
  • In Mortal Kombat 9, almost every stage has one. There are people fighting on the background bridge in the Pit, people are lowered into the Acid Pool throughout the battle, business is continuing as usual in the Forge...
  • In Mortal Kombat X:
    • When Johnny's team is preparing to infiltrate the Lin Kuei temple, Cassie in particular says, "He (Sub-Zero) won't know what hit him." In the background, Johnny makes an amused expression as he knows full well that Sub Zero already knew they were coming because in advance, Johnny and Sub Zero devised this as a training exercise for the team.
    • The Destroyed City has a guy looting through the wreckage of a crashed plane only to get attacked and mauled to death by a pack of rabid dogs. A portal occasionally opens in the Refugee Camp with arriving Outworld refugees, but sometimes a Tarkatan mook comes through and is immediately gunned down by the Special Forces guards.
    • In the Emperor's Courtyard stage there are several workers just behind the field of battle working on sculptures and structures who carry on with their work through the entire battle normally. If you're playing on the stage as Kotal Kahn and move near them however, they'll notice and immediately bow to their kahn for a few moments before awkwardly returning to their work once they realize he's not paying attention to them.
• Portal 2 has three types of this trope. Act One has the various advertisements for Aperture Science products (the Thermal Discouragement Beam was apparently developed to prevent employees from moving from their cubicles), while Act Two has both the not-at-all-helpful signs posted around the place (Know your allergens: Pollen, Animal Dander, Plastics, Antimatter) and the hidden instructive recordings by Cave Johnson ("Best case scenario, you get superpowers. Worse case, some tumours, but we'll cut those out."). Act three is a bit more serious than the rest of the game, but in one test chamber, you can see one of the co-op robots running through a door in the distance.
• Half-Life 2 contains a few if you know where to look. The easiest to find is just after meeting up with The Resistance at Black Mesa East. While Dr. Mossman takes you on an elevator ride down to Eli Vance's lab you can catch glimpses of how the Vortigaunt aliens help out around the house.
• Jitsu Squad have plenty of these in the background of several stages, while you're too busy fighting waves and waves of mooks up front. From mooks chilling in arcades or enjoying a hot spring, to a bunch of mooks on a beach paddling away from sharks on a dinghy, another mook peeking at you from behind a wall and pulling a Screw This, I'm Outta Here after you defeat all his comrades, and one moment in the winter-themed level where a random penguin plays with a chained-up polar bear for shits and giggles.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Shortly after the Rank 51 fight and the murder of Bishop, while Travis and Sylvia are talking at a restaurant, a man randomly falls out of the sky and lands on a car in the background. This event attracts the attention of everyone except them, though they're likely focused on discussing an already serious topic (the aforementioned death of Bishop). Ironically, the unlucky man's fall is caused by the very villain Travis is aiming to kill in the game; said villain used his One-Hit Kill attack aganst that man, so this also counts as Foreshadowing.
• More of a funny sideground event, but in Persona 4, everyone is having a watermelon and Ryotaro and Nanako talks about how they can't break watermelons open...and Kanji is pulling a salt container out of his pocket and sprinkles his watermelon...
  • In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the hapless detective Tadashi is seen ordering some nasty-sounding food from Shiraishi Ramen in the hopes it will get the owner to sell him weapons. Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi then come in and order the correct thing (banana char siu ramen), and after they leave Tadashi runs up to the counter and presumably orders some of it for himself.
• In the Nintendo 3DS Eshop, when you buy a download, progress is shown by little drops/spheres/toroids being moved across a conveyor line and dropped into the box representing your download. Occasionally, the little shopping bag mascot will ride the line and gets knocked off, flying off-screen. They should've had a crash/cat scream gag for it.
• During downloads, the Wii eShop has Mario or Luigi running across the screen collecting coins, or sometimes both of them swimming all over the screen. There are 3 coin bricks that they hit to represent 33% done, 66% done, and almost done. If he happens to be Fire Mario, you can press the A button to throw fireballs.
• Triggering these is what makes the Living Books so fun. They are absolutely loaded with these. Tap-dancing pencils, ants playing orchestras, you name it.
• Often occurs in the Mario Party games, especially involving the loser of a mini-game with something bad happening to them. One worth mentioning: In Mario Party 5, after the Squared Away mini-game, the loser(s) is/are chased by a random herd of stampeding Thwomps.
• This sometimes happens unintentionally in Knights of the Old Republic. Such funny examples include:
  • People walking through open lightsabers or swords when you're having a conversation (especially Taris).
  • People getting stuck in walls.
  • And for some reason, in a Let's Play, Jedi Jesus ignored someone in a weird pose behind him.◊
• Sometimes, when enemies are still alive in Guild Wars cutscenes (Especially necromancer minions) they start attacking the party members who're supposed to be standing around watching the events unfold. This becomes a funny background event when you see your party members watching characters have a conversation when minions are beating them up.
• South Park: The Stick of Truth has you, while you're in mini size, fight the Underpants Gnomes on your parents' bed while your parents have rough sex on said bed.
• Life and Death 2: The Brain has someone pouring coffee all over the floor in the background.
• Tales of Monkey Island: During the Brotherhood chase in Chapter 3, while Guybrush is asking Morgan for help, you can see Noogie suddenly stop while raising his wooden sword in the air before collapsing, and Guybrush running and passing through him before he gets up and rejoins the chase. So funny.
• Some of the minigames in Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii have funny stuff going on in the background, like various people leaping to catch kicked footballs in "Double Date" or Mr. Game & Watch fooling around in the factory in "Working Dough".
• The end of a later chapter of Kid Icarus: Uprising features a conversation between Palutena and a certain god, but what you're more likely to notice is Pit being distracted with the Great Sacred Treasure... and eventually crashing into the floor with it.
• LEGO Adaptation Game:
  • LEGO Indiana Jones: when the senior Dr. Jones is shot and his legs wander off by themselves, they can be seen in the background kicking the head of a fallen Nazi offscreen like a soccer ball.
  • LEGO DC Super-Villains: In the ending cutscene for "Fight at the Museum", as Joker offers Black Adam a position on the villains' team, Harley is seen in the background wearing an Anubis mask taken from an exhibit and fumbling around as she tries to take it off.
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: During the cutscene preceding "The Boonta Eve Classic", as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan negotiate with Watto, Jar-Jar can be seen in the background being spun around by a stuck electric drill.
• If you stealthily approach the VIP's house in Arcadia of Modern Warfare 2, you can surprise a Russian soldier inside, who is busy raiding the fridge, despite wearing a full gas mask to do so.
  • A Black Comedy one in the infamous No Russian level where the player has to maintain his double-agent cover by taking part in a terrorist attack on an airport, gunning down multiple helpless civilians and somewhat less helpless (entirely serious with that statement) police officers for a good bit of the level. After the shooting starts, the flight schedule suddenly shifts all flights to "delayed".
• Mass Effect 2:
  • Many players during Thane's loyalty mission are distracted from the person they were supposed to be tailing since they are too busy watching the random Turian who calmly walks onto the dance-floor and then proceeds to own the room!
  • Shepard walking into the AI core to find Legion doing the robot.
  • During Conrad Verner's side mission, asking him how he got his armor will cause the bartender behind him to silently facepalm.
  • When Shepard headbutts Gatatog Uvenk, the Urdnot shaman can be seen looking back and forth between Shepard and Uvenk, as if he's trying to process what he just saw.
  • Taking the Renegade interrupt when confronted by a Weyrloc spokeskrogan during Mordin's loyalty mission has the krogan mocking Shepard's bad aim. One of his guards looks down, sees Shepard hit exactly what s/he was aiming at (a gas main), and nervously takes a step back.
  • During Tali's loyalty mission, when Tali storms up to Admiral Raan demanding answers, the unnamed quarian Raan was speaking to can be seen Backing Away Slowly.
  • In the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, Jack brings Eezo, a pet biotic varren that she adopted, to Shepard's apartment. As she is talking about what Eezo has gone through and how it started out violent and angry but became somewhat of a softie (completely oblivious to the similarities to herself), Shepard is in the background playing fetch using a pan, finally tricking it resulting in him/her getting biotically blasted to the ground.
  • In the opening of Mass Effect 3, a female Alliance officer can be seen doing a double-take when she notices Kaidan's rear.
• In Octopath Traveler II:
  • During Temenos's Chapter 1, he scolds Crick for shouting too loudly about the book of scripture that Temenos took from the scene of the pontiff's death. As he's technically stealing evidence, Temenos doesn't want anyone to know about it... but as Temenos tells Crick to keep his voice down, you can see the cleric on duty in the library briefly look over at them.
  • In the epilogue, when the camera pans down to entrance of New Delsta, you can see Rai Mei riding around the city on a horse while her retainer Kunzo struggles to keep up with her. Once you take control of your starting traveler, you can talk to both of them, and Kunzo will complain about Rai Mei taking getting to the theater on time way too seriously.
• Early in Arc Rise Fantasia, when L'Arc and Co. are apprehended by General Freya, you can see Niko standing behind her squirming around in embarrassment/nervousness while she talks. When she finally yells "Arrest them!" and the camera zooms out, Niko hunches over and covers his head.
• In the original Spyro the Dragon, Spyro will be chasing sheep in the background while the interview is being conducted in the foreground.
• The original Poker Night at the Inventory has plenty of these, especially once you knock players out. Most of them will do more or less what is expected of them—Tycho wandering off to the bar, perhaps, or Strong Bad playing the arcade game in the background—but Max will randomly do...things. Like wandering around the Inventory and bothering Strong Bad while he plays. Or gnawing on a stairway banister. Or coming back to the table, but not actually ''sitting' at his seat, resulting in only his ears poking up above the level of the table.
• In Poker Night 2, when the camera zooms in on Sam during a showdown you can occasionally see Max jumping down from the ceiling in the background.
• Late In Metro: Last Light while waiting in a decontamination chamber the disguised Dark One child will wave to one of the soldiers outside of the chamber. Said soldier will smile and salute back.
• In the Gran Turismo series, at least in 4 and 5, the Loch Ness Monster◊ can be seen on the Trial Mountain course. She's in the lake to the left of the people in the boat.
• A little bit Easter Egg and a little bit Funny Background Event, but if you leave the menu screen on too long on Borderlands, Claptrap will eventually start doing random things in the background of your menu, including rolling around, dancing, bouncing back and forth, and attempting to hide corpses or displaying a human skull to the player. The first game has a wider variety of actions.
  • Borderlands 2 mostly has Claptrap wandering around behind the player's chosen character, who is posing on a majestic cliff, but he still manages to get into trouble, such as when he encounters a Tremors-like worm Expy. It also has a Running Gag of him unintentionally going over the waterfall in hilarious ways.
• One of the more popular forms of entertainment in Deus Ex is bugging conversations, often resulting in this.
• In Super Mario 3D World, there are various places where you can find an 8-bit Luigi (just as he looked in Super Mario Bros.) doing various things. For one early example, the middle of Bowser's Highway Showdown has one wall that you have to kick a soccer ball bomb at to break open. Way down in the water past it, you can see a large Luigi swimming under the actual highway portion of the level.
• In Sheep Happens, the backgrounds have lots of things going on in them that change constantly. From simple things like a cyclops eating a bucket of sheep to Charon crashing his boat through the side of a mountain.
• Tales of Xillia: Oh Teepo, you rascal you.
• In Ni no Kuni, during the scene where Myrtle and her father reconcile, the touching dialogue between the two is underscored by... Drippy, fully utilizing his Invisible to Normals powers to try on all of Myrtle's hats.
• One cutscene from The Legend of the Mystical Ninja shows Goemon and Ebisumaru sitting on a bench while a giant octopus scales the Konami building in the background.
• Street Fighter has always had animated backgrounds, and the fully 3D-rendered locales in Street Fighter IV have a lot going on behind the fighters:
  • At Festival at the Old Temple, a young boy tries to imitate the fighters' moves. His Bumbling Dad tries to do so as well but keeps losing his balance.
  • At Underpass, a group of children watch between games of hide-and-seek. A small boy tries to approach the fighters but is held back by his sister.
  • At Cosmic Elevator, Mecha-Zangief floats around in the zero-gravity environment, before he gets battered around by floating cargo containers.
  • At Mad Gear Hideout, the hardened criminals are throwing a kabuki festival, of all things. At the end of Round 2, Mike Haggar crashes the party.
  • At Skyscraper Under Construction, a fat construction worker (an Expy of Mario) is too busy eating a sandwich to notice the fight. When he does notice, he panics and clutches a safety wire for dear life.
  • At Run-Down Back Alley, a drunk stumbles into the scene, takes a moment to stare at the fighters, and then sits down to enjoy the show.
• This happens a lot in Party Hard. While you're busy stalking and murdering party-goers, all sorts of bizarre events are happening elsewhere in the party venue, including drug deals, drug hits, bank robberies, etc.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3: If playing as the bonus characters, the skate shop cashier in the background is either being Force Choked by Darth Maul, having his hair set on fire by the Demoness, having his hands up when Officer Dick is here, or trying to get the attention of Private Carrera by whistling.
• In Marvel: Contest of Champions these can often be spotted in the backgrounds of stages.
  • The New York City stage has a sign for Nelson & Murdock visible on a building. The Avengers Tower can also be seen in the background.
  • The Spaceport stage has moving holographic wanted posters of Rocket and Groot. It also features an advertisement of The Collector (depicted in Super-Deformed style) hawking items for the game.
• In the cutscene at the start of the Doctor Who level of LEGO Dimensions, while the Doctor is talking to Wyldstyle and Batman, Gandalf is poking at the TARDIS console in the background, at one point pressing something that briefly transforms him from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White. (Bonus gag: in the Doctor Who level pack, that's the panel that lets you set the Doctor's incarnation.)
• Minecraft: Story Mode:
  • While the main group is building a bridge at the beginning of the fourth episode, Soren is building an archway with redstone lamps at the start of the bridge rather than contributing to the actual important process. Particularly funny because this happens while the group is being chased by the Wither Storm.
  • Ivor creates a skull that cries lava flows while creating a bridge over to the Sky City in Episode 5. Funnily enough, it's also a Chekhov's Gun, as the flow of lava helps to indicate that the abyss over Sky City is not bottomless.
• In the Arena of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, you can find a room containing nothing but a fountain, with a Succubus and a Lilith (presumably bathing) in it. If you look closely, you can spot a rubber ducky in the water.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, two can happen in quick succession in one of the Home Ec classes. Saguaro claims he got an anonymous request from a male student, who he starts to name as "Ar—" before cutting himself off. If the player character answers his question with the "Ar...ven?" option, Arven will react in surprise from the seat in front of them. Shortly after, Saguaro accidentally says Arven's name in full, causing Arven to react again.
• A couple from Pokémon Sun and Moon, both under similar circumstances:
  • When Olivia shows the protagonist how to do the Rockium-Z dance, Lillie can be seen in the background with a rather excited look on her face.
  • Later, Nanu shows the protagonist how to do the Darkium-Z dance. The camera then shows Gladion wearing a horrified expression, as if he's thinking "that pose looks so embarrassing."
• BlazBlue: In the background of the Postprandial Happy version of the Lost Town stage, a large pot is being washed clean. As you fight, a Kaka kitten will repeatedly try, and fail, to scramble up the pot's inside.
• Friday Night Funkin':
  • Week 5 features a cameo cavalcade bopping along to the beat of the music, and also a Mall Santa, who is nervously sweating as the Father holds him at gunpoint.
  • The various store names in the background of Week 5 are "LMAO", "CRAP!", "JUNK + SHIT", and "SALADS AND SEX".
  • Week 6 has a swarm of girls watching the Senpai and the Boyfriend sing, who even go from lovestruck to disgusted in between "Senpai" and "Roses".
• Not for Broadcast: During the lockdown level, while Megan Wolfe is interviewing Katie Brightman and Alan James, Jeremy Donaldson is visible on the unused camera feed making himself a sandwich.
  • Combined with One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In Day 296, when Jeremy is holding everyone at gunpoint, he tells you to "look to your right"; although he's telling you to do so, if you stay focused on the screens, Andy the CCO will get confused and think that Jeremy is talking about him before looking to his right, as if it's supposed to mean something for him.
• Bioshock Infinite: In the "load save" menu, there's a pair of boys splashing each other with water from an open fire hydrant.
• In Detectives United: Origins, during the scenes where James is trying to put together a ritual that will rescue Anna (who is stranded in the past), players can observe the presence of a dartboard with a scorecard beneath it. Apparently, while they were waiting for Anna to return from her mission in the past, James and Agent Brown decided to pass the time by playing darts; Brown is evidently the much better player.
• Some of these show up in the New Yankee in King Arthur's Court series of time management games, especially in the illustrated scenes which provide exposition between periods of gameplay. The player can see things like Max the bulldog stealing a boot from the foot of King Arthur.
• LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin: After Kai's jetpack (which Jay made for the ninjas) breaks down while escaping the Fire Temple, Jay apologizes and says that he was expecting Cole's jetpack to be the one that breaks down. After Cole expresses his disapproval, his jetpack in the background explodes.
• In Punch-Out!! Wii, during Don Flamenco's intro cutscene for Contender Mode, the third slide has someone in the background holding a sign that reads "TE AMO DON" ("I love you Don", and it is written in all caps) in slightly-sloppy pink writing.
• Nibblers: On the overworld, some mook Lizards will appear on the map. Some of them will do something cute or hilarious, such as Yeti Lizards building snowmen, or Cactus Lizards trying to disguise themselves as cacti.
• Titan Quest: A Megaran fruit seller near the east entrance can be seen juggling his wares, where he's not an interactable character.
• Parodius games have variety of humorous events happening, often involving penguins.
• Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey: While Wishbone is reading the shield of Athena when he finds it on the Cyclopes' island, Polyphemus can be seen entering his cave and accidentally running over his toe with the stone he uses as a door.

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