Conker's Bad Fur Day

"It all started.... yesterday. What a day that was! It's what I call... a bad fur day."

—Conker, opening cutscene

Conker's Bad Fur Day is a 2001 video game. Originally developed as a kiddy game under the name of Conker's Quest and later Twelve Tales: Conker 64, Rare's next game in the Conker series was heading to become another run-of-the-mill platform game. Apparently, Rare changed their mind during production, and instead set out to create a "controversial" game aimed at adults and older teens.

Inspired by South Park, the then newly renamed Conker's Bad Fur Day promised to use scatological humor, sexual innuendo (some more subtle than others), cartoon violence and excessive swearing. Originally thought to be an April Fools joke, the announcement turned out to be completely true.

Thankfully, what could have been a shockingly bad gimmick of a game gained rave reviews from critics over its graphics, adult sense of humor and entertaining gameplay, not to mention being considered a technical marvel at its time for squeezing hundreds of lines of spoken dialogue into a single game cartridge. Due to a combination of the Nintendo 64 (which was nearing the end of its run by the time of the game's release) being smashed down by the PlayStation and Nintendo's refusal to advertise the game much at all, Conker's Bad Fur Day ended up a as a largely commercial failure.

A few years later, after Rare was bought out by Microsoft, an "enhanced" remake of the game, Conker: Live & Reloaded, came out. This game was an even larger commercial failure, thanks to Microsoft's odd marketing plan and changes to the original game. And censorship. While Conker's Bad Fur Day has a cult following, Conker: Live & Reloaded has some fans and a Hatedom.

Tropes used in Conker's Bad Fur Day include:
  • Adorkable: Rodent is qualified to be this.
  • Alcohol Hic: When Conker tries to jump while he's hungover.
  • The Alcoholic: Conker, of course.
  • All Animals Are Dogs: The dinosaur Conker uses to defeat Buga the Knut, which Conker gets rid of by tricking it into playing fetch with a bone.

Conker: Ah. Good. Psychology, always works with these animals.

  • All There in the Manual: In the N64 version, the only reference to Ze Professor's past as the Weasel King was in the Panther King's profile in the booklet, where it mentioned the Panther King chopped off his legs.
  • Always Night: The second half of the game, starting with the Spooky chapters. Justified since the entire game is supposed to take place over a single day.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: They're everywhere, from Franky the Pitchfork to the Cogs to the money Conker collects.
  • Anti-Hero: Conker.
  • Awful Truth: The game begins with the given impression that it's a ridiculous tale of how Conker became king and met a bunch of strange people. Which is true, but at the end of the story, it's revealed that the tale is just one big sob story of how Conker was used by a bunch of rude, obnoxious jerks, got involved in wars and heists, risked his life on multiple occasions, and witnessed his girlfriend get killed right before his eyes when up to that point, no one took Conker and Berri as being a serious couple with a solid and sound relationship. The worst part of all was that he had a chance to save her shortly thereafter, but botched it. All he wanted to do is go home after a bad hangover and forget it had ever happened, but in the end his life was ruined, and there was nothing he could do to get out of it.
  • Badass Adorable: Conker, who in his previous appearances was just adorable, not badass.
  • Bait and Switch Boss: You don't even fight the Big Bad at the end, but rather an alien that hatched from his stomach.
  • Beat Still My Heart: If you fall from a high enough distance...! (Ugh)
  • Berserk Button: Never mock Batula's ancestors or their sharp teeth.
  • Big Bad: The Panther King, well, supposedly. He actually seems rather nonthreatening despite his intimidating way of speaking.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: The Spooky chapters.
  • Big No: The Great Mighty Poo gives several of these when being flushed.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Contains a lot of gory humor.
  • Boom! Headshot!: In both campaign and multi-player, complete with Calling Your Attacks in the latter.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Many of the weapons in this game never have to be reloaded, and the ones that do have infinite ammo.
  • Brass Balls: The boiler boss has a pair of literal brass balls.

Conker: Oh no... A bourgeois big-bollocked boiler. That's all I need.

  • Breaking the Fourth Wall
  • Bullet Time: During the Matrix level and when you enter a code to get Matrix-like 360's in multi-player, when you kill someone with a katana or a chainsaw.
  • Bullfight Boss: Conker encounters a bull during the Sloprano level.
  • Bull Seeing Red: One of the boss battles is against a bull that hates the color red. Conker just so happens to be a red squirrel. I don't think you need a flowchart here.
  • Butt Biter: Conker mounts a Raptor and uses it to actually bite chunks out of a giant caveman's butt.
  • Camera Abuse:
    • In an It's War mission, where you have to escort Rodent, the screen starts getting shot, and more so the more the bullets rain down on you.
    • Also one of Conker's Idle Animations is of him drinking a soda can: sometimes when Conker kicks it to get rid of the soda can after he's finished, it will hit the screen and make the camera shake slightly off screen while making the sound of the impact. Also, Conker: Live & Reloaded added the effects of water, blood and poo staining the screen during certain chapters.
  • Camp Gay: You encounter a cog in one level who is very angry and demanding. Turn him upside down, however...
  • Canon Discontinuity: Ask pretty much anyone: Conker's Pocket Tales never happened. It sure as heck didn't lead to this game.
    • Word of God has it that it is simply an adventure Conker and Berri had back when they were kids. Sure, it's quite a stretch, but if you think about it for a while, it actually makes some (minor) sense. His appearance at Diddy Kong Racing is another story though.
      • Promotional material for the Xbox remake referenced to his childhood adventures, including Conker's Pocket Tales.
  • Capture the Flag
  • Cats Have Nine Lives: Which is why Gregg hates them so much.

"I don't bloody believe it! They've got fish versions of the little bastards now!"

  • Cave Behind the Falls: With money in it too, but you can't go there until after Spooky.
  • Chainsaw Good:
    • One of the weapons in multi-player mode is a chainsaw, which lets you cut other players in half.
    • Conker is also seen using a Chainsaw to cut a panicking N64 logo in the opening as the Logo Joke in the original N64 version of the game.
  • Chasing Your Tail: The final boss, in a parody of Super Mario 64.
  • The Chew Toy: Nothing goes Conker's way. Ever.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Though "fuck" is always censored.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer: The Weasels in Heist. Their codenames are related to color just like Reservoir Dogs.
  • Context Sensitive Button: Trope Namer.
  • Copy and Paste Environments:
    • For example, the texture in the slime tunnel is the same one as inside the Great Mighty Poo's lair.
    • Besides a few exceptions, swimming in poo and swimming in water is only different in what color the remaining fluid dripping from Conker's body are when he gets out and the color of the splashes he makes jumping in.
  • Crap Saccharine World: The whole game pretty much takes place in one.
    • This game is probably one of the best examples of one. There's a swarm of evil wasps flying around, a weasel mafia running wild, a corrupt king with untrained guards, a completely unguarded Federal Reserve Bank, a fairly dysfunctional military, a war (the list continues).
  • Darker and Edgier: The second half of the game is darker and edgier from the Spooky chapter on. The game itself, compared to Rare's other games before this was made. Hell, even more so if you consider the original Conker's Quest/Twelve Tales: Conker 64 game it started out as and its prequel Conker's Pocket Tales.
  • Dead Baby Comedy: Quite literally, at one point.
  • Dead Character Walking: If using an infinite health cheat code in multi-player, the character will remain alive no matter how many hits they take. If, however, they take a hit that should kill them, but thanks to the cheat code, doesn't, which includes many a one-hit kill strike like a run-in with a chainsaw or a headshot by either a knife or a gun, the character will still go through their death animation as well as lose the weapon they had, but they'll be brought back to life, albeit missing bits and pieces of their body depending on how severe an attack it was. They will also still be able to take even more damage and similar normally-one-hit-kills unphased even after missing most of their body parts. The only thing that can kill a character even with the code on is when they are hit by something that'll make them explode, including a strike from a grenade launcher, a bomb, or falling an incredibly high height (also if you cheat further, a few characters can't be killed even with this, or maimed otherwise for that matter).
  • Deader Than Dead:
    • Berri, to a somewhat ludicrous level. She gets mowed down for 20 seconds with a Tommy gun, then sucked out into deep space. The Panther King also counts to this, first getting killed by the Xenomorph hatching, then getting sucked out as well.
    • The zombies after you shoot them in the head.
  • Deadly Gas: The chemical weapons in Multi-player.
  • Deadly Rotary Fan: The underwater rotating fans encountered during the U-Bend Blues segment.
  • Deceptive Disciple: Professor Von Kripelspac when he betrays the Panther King by hatching an alien in his stomach to defeat Conker.
  • Defeat by Modesty: Buga the Knut, though it's more Defeat By Shame.
  • Description Porn: The boss in the 'It's War' level 'The Experiment' does this every time Conker attacks its back:

The Experiment: Now then, lesson 1: Ballistics. This is my mini-gun. It fires 8000 rounds per second, brass cased 8MM with tungsten alloy heads, and high explosive charge. Very, very messy.

  • The Don: Don Weaso is a mafia don.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: It's only Gregg, after all.
  • Downer Ending: Much to the dismay of many players. Could have been worse, they could have gone with the original ending and have Conker commit suicide.
  • Down the Drain: U-Bend Blues may be the most frustrating level known to man.
  • Driven to Suicide: Franky the Pitchfork, who is encouraged to kill himself by the paint pot. He fails because he doesn't have a neck of any description. The original ending was going to have Conker shoot himself during the bar scene after the credits, but the creators decided they wanted to eventually do a sequel. Ironically, Word of God says that Conker would have been killed in the opening of the sequel, and the main game focusing on the Tediz and Army Squirrel War instead.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Queen Bee.
  • Drowning My Sorrows
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Before you even meet him in-game, you can see him leaned against the door of the Cock & Plucker while Conker staggers in, before you can pick a slot to start playing.
    • You can also see Gregg the Grim Reaper and some squirrel soldiers. Don't forget the fire imp near the fire place, whom you can speak to and use cheat codes with. Or cuss at him, your choice.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: The game prior to this one, Conker's Pocket Tales, is a children's game played completely straight.
  • Electric Torture: Conker finds a squirrel strapped to an electric chair when he invades the Tediz base. He tries to free him by pulling a switch, but inevitably, that only turns the chair on, zapping the squirrel nearly to death. Though terribly charred, he's "not quite dead". Also, there's two switches... but they both electrocute the squirrel. Anyway, after one of them is used, the other will open the door to leave the area, no matter which you picked.
  • Empty Room Psych: The windmill on top of the tall hill in the center of the overworld. It visibly has paths on higher levels, but gets fragged after the war level. Conker was sure it was going to be the last level... Actually, the windmill was intended to be a building you could go into when the game was still the kid friendly Conker's Quest/Twelve Tales: Conker 64: you could open it and go inside, as seen in this video. As for what purpose going in there served, it's pretty much a mystery by now. It was most likely going to be like the Donkey Kong Country and

Donkey Kong 64 treehouse as well as Banjo's house in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie in which it was a building that was in the starting area where you could go back inside anytime after the game began. Another one is the slightly destroyed stone and brick building structure near where you rescue Rodent in the War Chapter; it serves no real purpose in the game and there's nothing in the area inside it. It might have served a purpose while the game was still the kid-friendly Conker's Quest/Twelve Tales: Conker 64 game, but it certainly doesn't in the final M rated Conker's Bad Fur Day product.

Conker:"It's true what they say, the grass is always greener. And you don't really know what it is you have, until it's gone..."

Gregg...the Grim Reaper: "And don't laugh!!"

  • Guns Akimbo: A shortage of this in the remake makes a couple of parodies awkward.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Conker himself, who doesn't wear pants. Averted in the X-Box remake though.
  • Hand Cannon: Not only is it as big as your arm and one shot kill anywhere, it also has a zooming scope and laser sight. Perfect for Scrubs of all ages! If you see that laser sight, you have one second before your head disappears.
  • Have a Nice Death: There are a few different Game Over sequences depending how Conker died on his last life. From being captured, gagged and used as a replacement table leg as intended, to being listed as missing on a milk carton, to being delivered to the Panther King as a bag full of splattered squirrel bits...
  • Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Mr. King Bee "pollinating" the big breasted sunflower. The look of horror on Conker's face.....
  • Heli Critter: Conker himself, when he flies by using his tail as a propeller. He calls it the "helicoptery tail thing".
  • Herr Doktor: Professor Von Kripplespac.
  • How We Got Here: ...showing how Conker came to become the new king of this bizarre world.
  • Hub Level: Windy, arguably.
  • Humanoid Female Animal: Berri.
  • "I Am" Song: The Great Mighty Poo's song.

"I am the Great Mighty Poo, and I'm going to throw my shit at you..."

  • Idea Bulb: And you have to press B whenever it pops up. Ting
  • Idle Animation: Too many to count. Some even only happen if you're in a specific area, such as the dancing one in Rock Solid.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Conker manages to turn even his own urine into a force to be reckoned with.
  • Inexplicably Tailless: Berri.
  • It's a Long Story
  • Jerkass: Most of the people Conker meets, most notably Carl, an impudent, foul-tempered, foul-mouthed cog with a bad attitude. Not to mention Conker himself, though he does show a few acts of kindness. They're few and far between though, such as shutting up the Paintbrush and Paint Pot laughing at him and Franky the Pitchfork, as well as fixing Franky up after he gets broken in two and having that be one of the (very) few good deeds Conker does without asking for the person he's helping (in this case Franky) for anything in return for helping them, and possibly the part where he rescues Rodent from a group of Tediz a little ways into the War chapter that were going to kill him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Conker.
  • Karma Houdini: Don Weaso manages to escape with his cash after killing Berrie. Maybe his comeuppance would've happened in the canned sequel. Or more likely, since Conker's the king now, he probably used his resources to hunt Don Weaso down and slaughter him for what he did to Berri. Except for the fact that Word of God says he would have used up all of said resources in the next game blowing all of the treasury on booze, parties and hookers, and then be thrown in the castle's highest dungeon tower for doing that and face the prospect of execution for doing that as well, so this troper really doesn't see how he would use the resources to hunt down Weaso since Conker would have used them all up for such things and was dethroned for it, so he wouldn't even have stayed king of all the land for very long in the sequel.
  • Killer Teddy Bear: A whole army of them in fact, called Tediz.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Tons of it: mostly concerning gameplay mechanics such as extra lives and context-sensitive buttons.
  • Large Ham: The Great Mighty Poo, in all his opera-singing goodness.
  • Laser Sight: The sniper rifle, the hand cannon and the crossbow.
  • Let's Play: There are a few of them online though Nintendo Capri Sun did this one blind.
  • Literal Ass-Kicking: Actually literal ass biting. The Uga Buga boss fight requires you to use a dinosaur to bite chunks of flesh out of his buttocks until he can no longer hold up his loincloth.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: The fate of most of the male Golems at the Rock Solid dance club.
  • Logo Joke: Conker cuts the N64 logo in half with a chainsaw, and replaces it with a shiny Rare logo which he seems to prefer.
  • Lonely at the Top
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Pretty much most of the gun sequences and multi-player modes deaths are gib-tastic.
  • Man Behind the Man: It really seems to be the Weasel professor rather then the Panther King that calls the shots for the Panther Kingdom.
  • The Man They Couldn't Hang: Franky the Pitchfork is Driven to Suicide by his heckling companions, the paint pot and the paint brush, after failing to kick Conker's ass. When he decides to hang himself, he fails because he "does not appear to have a neck of any description", and remains stuck hanging from the barnyard ceiling until Conker cuts him down.
  • The Many Deaths of You: Subverted. There are many ways you can die that may not mean much (besides different animations Conker has), but depending on how you die on your last life, you'll trigger different cutscenes as far as what happens between the guard weasels delivering Conker and the Panther King, including Conker being missing and advertised on a milk carton (common), being tied up (alive) as a replacement desk (if Conker runs out of energy), being delivered in pieces in a sack (if Conker was chopped, exploded or otherwise in pieces), delivered in a smoking sack (if burned to death), or being delivered in a wet sack (if he died on the surface of the water or in it, regardless of how he died).
  • Mature Animal Story: While the game is a comedy with talking animals, none of it is meant to be kid-friendly.
  • Medium Awareness:
    • Very much so. An example coming from the X-Box remake is when Conker notices the first subtle differences from the N64 version and remarks that he thought the programmer told him it was going to be a straight port.
    • Also present in the N64 version during the "Haybot" chapter. Before the boss fight, Conker says, "I don't like the sound of that music" and Franky agrees.
  • Mercy Invincibility: More noticeable in a part of It's War where you have to blow up submarines that are constantly firing homing missiles at you. Sometimes there are two subs at a time, and they fire one immediately after the other in a way that, even if the first missile chips off your chocolate health while you're taking aim, the second one will do you nothing assuming that you are still in your recovery time, even though it'll come dead-on down on you.
  • Mood Whiplash: After a relatively lighthearted - if incredibly raunchy - first half, the final leg of the game becomes increasingly depressing, finally culminating in a Downer Ending... which still worked quite well, but was decidedly jarring. There IS a reason for the Tear Jerker tab. The ending's made all the worse when you consider this is a game inspired by South Park. That's fatal Mood Whiplash. How about the whole game in general? The first Conker game for the Game Boy Color was a kid-friendly Puzzle/Adventure game.
  • Night of the Living Mooks: The Spooky chapter with its zombies.
  • No Fourth Wall: "The game's locked up!"

Conker: I know everything, I'm the king! Well, I will be, didn't you see the prologue?
Bouncer: What?
Conker: Eh, nothing. Can we come in?

  • No Name Given: Von Kripelspac was only known as "Ze Professor" in the original game.
  • Oh Crap: Take a shot for every time Conker pulls one off. And that's counting only him.
  • One-Hit Kill: If you see someone with the Hand Cannon, then GET THE !@#$ OUT!
  • Only in It For the Money: Conker, so very much.
  • Only Sane Man: Conker himself.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping:
    • Conker just can't decide if he's American or British. Neither can anyone else, as British Chris Seavor - in addition to writing and directing - also voices nearly every character in the game.
    • Berri also sounds slightly British at a few points.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Count Conkula, who not only has the power to turn into a bat, but turns Conker into one as well. And instead of being killed by a stake or sunlight, he's killed by drinking too much blood, growing fat, and falling into his own grinder.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Type F, pretty much.
  • Pac-Man Fever: Tell me the truth, you wouldn't expect this to show up in a freakin' video game, would you? Anyway, if you leave Conker idle for long enough, he may sometimes pull out a Game Boy Color and start playing the GB version of Killer Instinct. Whose screen looks just like the classic monochromatic GB (for these kinds of games, GBC usually "improvised" a palette). Whose animation repeats between the characters quickly going back and forth over and over like a damn LCD game (kinda like Game & Watch). And to top it all off, the BGM is an 8-bit version of Jago's theme from Killer Instinct 2!
  • The Parody: Much of the latter half of the game is based of this.
  • Parrot Expowhat:

King Bee: I didn't even get to tell you about the big-breasted babe...
Conker: The-- the big what?

Private Rodent: Connnkkkerrr, Nooooooooo!

"It all started yesterday. And what a day that was. It's what I call a Bad Fur Day."

  • Toilet Humor: LOTS of it. An entire level dedicated to rolling balls of dung, with the linked boss being a huge singing mound of poo.
  • Trrrilling Rrrs: "IIII am the grrreat mighty poo!"
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change:
    • Quite a few times, the first example being the lava boarding level. The War levels kinda came out of nowhere as well, turning the game into a shooter.
    • If the Context Sensitive Button appears, be prepared for gameplay changes. What it changes into, that's another story.
  • The Unfought: The Panther King, and to a lesser extent, Don Weaso.
  • Urine Trouble: Conker's main weapon when he's drunk is, you guessed it, his own urine.
  • Valley Girl: Berri.
  • Vampire Vords: Count Batula's speech patterns are sprinkled with this.
  • Video Game Remake: By the time the Xbox remake was released, much of the parody was decidedly out of date, and the profanity was mostly censored - which is odd, considering the Mature rating and the fact that the uncensored track could be unlocked by playing through the game once. The game's multi-player was also changed to be decidedly less, shall we say, good.
    • To put in perspective: In the original, MP included Lava Boarding, 2 War levels (1 of which was an Assault map with a giant microwave sudden death), tank fighting (co-op if you wanted, 1 gunner 1 driver), and Dinosaurs vs Humans (every bit as awesome as it sounds, essentially 1 team captures the eggs and returns them to the frying pan at base, whereas the 1-3 dinosaurs on defense have to eat the humans, and the humans just have crossbows). The remake? Just some shooter levels, whilst good at the time for having an unlock system, were nowhere near the original's quality, almost becoming Quake with squirrels+Teddiez (which had very good AI but lacked online).
  • Villain Song: The best one ever.
  • War Is Glorious
  • War Is Hell: What Conker realizes at the end of the It's War chapter.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: Conker somehow wanders from the bar to the place where he meets Birdy the Scarecrow after a night of heavy binge drinking, and spends the rest of the game trying to get home.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?:

Great Mighty Poo: I'm going to take your head and ram it up my butt!
Conker: Your butt?
--My butt!
--Your butt?
--That's right, my butt!
--Uh-
--My butt!

--Ugh!
—MY BUUUUUUUUTT!
  • What the Hell, Player?? Killing more than five allied NPCs in multi-player war will cause them to turn on you and start attacking while yelling out insults. The opposing team will no longer attack you. Note that they will revert back to normal if you grab the flag. However, in an Arena mission, this can mean that you get to take free potshots at the enemy without getting return fire.
  • White Gloves: Averted in the Conker: Live & Reloaded version.
  • Wicked Weasel: The weasels in the game are either members of the mob or bank security guards, both have connections to the Panther King, who rules over the weasels after he overthrew their old monarch. Weasel characters include Professor Von Kripplespac, Don Weaso and the Panther King's two minions. Except, of course, for the musicians at the local bar!
  • Wingding Eyes: Conker's dollar sign eyes whenever he sees money.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: The plot in a nutshell.
  • You Have Failed Me...: Don Weaso won't hesitate to throw his soldiers into a river tied to a rock if they fail to rob the Federal Reserve Bank. Weaso is also first seen beating one of his own men to death with a baseball bat in a parody of The Untouchables.
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