History VideoGame / TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland

This game marks LucasArts' final use of the SCUMM engine. This game also marks the first appearance of Murray, the franchise's EnsembleDarkhorse.

* DeathByDispair: Minnie 'Stronie' Goodsoup died of a broken heart after her fiancee left her at the altar.

* FauxDeath: Guybrush [[FakingTheDead fakes his death]] with a combination of alcohol and a homemade hangover cure. Twice. At least.

* FeudingFamilies: The Goodsoups and the VanSalads.
* FissionMailed: "Funny. I didn't think [[UnwinnableByDesign you could die in [=LucasArts=] adventure games]]."

* MythologyGag: Examining the crack in the Goodsoup crypt causes Guybrush to pop-up from the inaccessable tree of TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland in Melee Island (the one with the often misunderstood joke ''Insert Disk #absurd_number''). The original -now crude by 1997- EGA graphics and SMI-music are used and Guybrush mentions that he feels like he’s been here before, maybe in a dream.

** The trope is lampshaded by Guybrush during the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4 A Pirate I Was Meant To Be]]

* PunnyName Tons of them: The Goodsoups, the VanSalads...

** When Guybrush uses his ventriloquism skills with Captain [=LeChimp=] he does a [[StarTrek Captain Kirk]] / WilliamShatner impersonation, hams, random speech rhythm etc. [=LeChimp's=] (a gorilla) golden and purple attire deliberately resembles a Starfleet uniform.

** The banjo duel is a family friendly {{Homage}} to ''Deliverance''.

This game is the final use of the SCUMM engine. This game also marks the first appearance of Murray, the franchise's EnsembleDarkhorse.

* FauxDeath: Guybrush fakes his death with a combination of alcohol and a homemade hangover cure. Twice. At least.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Played with in this game, making it the ''only'' game to get an "Everyone" rating, even though the word "hell" ''as a place'' is mentioned a few times (it does say, either in the instruction manual or on the back of the box cover art, that [=LeChuck=]'s BeardOfEvil is made of "pure demonic heckfire").

* MythologyGag: Examining the crack in the Goodsoup crypt causes Guybrush to pop-up from the inaccessable tree of TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland in Melee Island (the one with the often misunderstood joke ''Insert Disk #absurd_number''). The original -now crude- EGA graphis and SMI-music are used and Guybrush mentions that he feels like he’s been here before, maybe in a dream.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The cursed ring Guybrush gives to Elaine.
* NoodleIncident: Guybrush reveals he has a fear of porcelain (which is something of a running gag throughout the rest of the game) and never explains why other than that it's "a long story".

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Lampshaded by Guybrush during the song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4 A Pirate I Was Meant To Be]]

** When Guybrush tells to the Flying Dutchman ''I'm not afraid'', he replies ''You will be... you will be''. The dialogue is lifted from Luke and Yoda from ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.

* FissionMailed: "Funny. I didn't think you could die in [=LucasArts=] adventure games."

* ShoutOut: The title of Part 4, "The Bartender, the Thieves, His Aunt, and Her Lover", is a spoof on the film title, ''TheCookTheThiefHisWifeAndHerLover''.

* AWinnerIsYou: [[spoiler: After defeating [=LeChuck=], the game instantly cuts away to a 30 second scene without any dialogue, that consists of Guybrush and Elaine [[RidingIntoTheSunset heading off to their honeymoon]], while their friends are waving goodbye]].

* YouFightLikeACow: As you'd expect from the franchise that [[TropeNamer named the trope]], the Insult Swordfighting minigame returns...but with a twist: Because the fights take place at sea, the comebacks have to rhyme with the insults.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: In Part II, even though it's always daytime in Puerto Pollo, the clock tower at the Long John Silver Center for the Performing Arts is a real-time system clock that is built in for your computer, telling you at what time you played the game and keeping track of your current, local civil time. At each hour, the clock chimes in a bit of [=LeChuck=]'s Theme followed by the chime of the hour number, and about 30 minutes after each hour, the same bit of [=LeChuck=]'s theme plays, but without the chime of the hour number. Even interesting is that when Guybrush examines the clock tower, he will say what current time will be in the Caribbean Standard Time in hours, minutes and seconds, whether in morning, afternoon and night, [[MadLibsDialogue acting like a speaking clock on the phone at the time of day service]].

-->--Excerpted from ''The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The MonkeyIsland Years''

The third game in the MonkeyIsland series, ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' was released in 1997, six years after the previous installment, ''[[VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge LeChuck's Revenge]]''. With two of the three fathers of the series, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, no longer working for LucasArts, and the third, TimSchafer, being busy with [[GrimFandango other projects]], no one was really around to explain the infamous ambiguous ending of ''[=LeChuck's Revenge=]'', so the company decided to go with a CuckooNest interpretation of it.

* DeadMansHand: If the player has Guybrush keep losing against King André and then looking at the losing hands, one of the random comments Guybrush will make is "Aces and eights... that can't be good." This being a LucasArts game, Guybrush of course doesn't die... though he does fake his death at one point.

'''André:''' I'm not crazy -- my prices are!

* EverythingsBetterWithChickens: In this game especially. The very name Puerto Pollo, capital of Plunder Island, takes ruthless advantage of ''pollo'' being an InherentlyFunnyWord that just happens to be the name (in Spanish) for the inherently funny animal.

* IGotBetter:
-->'''Guybrush:''' No, honest! I WAS dead for a really long time!\\
'''Stan:''' And you just "got better?"\\
'''Guybrush:''' Well, yes.

-->''Fat Pirate:'' Hey! What d'ya know? I really AM big-boned!

The third game in the MonkeyIsland series, ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' was released in 1997, six years after the previous installment, ''[[MonkeyIsland2 LeChuck's Revenge]]''. With two of the three fathers of the series, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, no longer working for LucasArts, and the third, TimSchafer, being busy with [[GrimFandango other projects]], no one was really around to explain the infamous ambiguous ending of ''[=LeChuck's Revenge=]'', so the company decided to go with a CuckooNest interpretation of it.

** ShoutOutThemeNaming: Mr. Fossey, who hears voices in his head and interacts with the monkeys at Danjer Cove, is named after American zoologist Dian Fossey, who is known for saving the mountain gorillas from extinction and from poachers in Rwanda, and who met her sudden, untimely demise on December 26, 1985. Most of her life is described in her 1983 bestselling book, ''GorillasInTheMist'', most of which was made into a motion picture adaptation 5 years later, with SigourneyWeaver as Dian Fossey.