Destiny Developer Bungie Hired Comedians to Write Jokes but Used None of Them

Destiny's story and dialogue is a bit of a joke as it is, but it seems Bungie actually hired comedians at one point to write jokes for the game's companion Ghost – and used none of them. 

Arrested Development comedian David Cross and Brian Posehn, another comedian, were invited to write a few jokes for Ghost to use and got to play the game ahead of launch, Cross told IGN.

“We were flown up to Bellevue, Washington to do a punch-up on the Ghost character in Destiny about a year ago. We were both very excited about it,” he said, adding that the jokes “made them laugh” with some material being “self-reverential”.

“They did not use a single, solitary thing that we wrote, which is a shame because we wrote some stuff that – you know, we’re gamers, and they… – I would imagine somebody somewhere said, ‘we can’t inject this levity or humour into it.’

“I haven’t played since I’ve been over here and working on Bob and David, but you know when it came out I was way into it and way excited about it, and when you’re at an hour 20 of that thing, it’s like the Ghost is kind of monotone saying this thing, ‘we must get over the ridge.’ ‘That’s the cabal – we’ve got to defeat him.’ Whatever, it’s boring as sh*t, and I speak for myself and Brian, and I know thousands if not millions of other gamers would be like ‘it would be nice to have a joke or something in there.’”

While Cross notes that jokes may have ruined the game's tone, I think it's safe to say most players would've given anything for Dinklebot's dialogue to be a bit more lively. As it happened, players found plenty to laugh about but none of it was intentional. That being said, one wonders if The Taken King's price was also decided by a comedian.