Take it from Snee: ‘Serial Killer’ game is A-OK

If there’s one thing I enjoy about art, it’s an artist’s ability to willingly create something guaranteed to offend the masses. It seems easy: find a piece of collectively assumed “common” thought, and then create something that challenges that thought. The difficulty is separating yourself from common sense long enough to finish that project and then defending it when the townfolk have arrived with your rail.

Ryan Hobson has this difficult part ahead of him right now. The artist has a board game on display at the Vermillion Gallery in Seattle, Washington. The game is adroitly titled, “The Serial Killer Trivia Game,” and consists of moving a player piece around the board and answering trivia questions about, go figure, serial killers. If you get the question right, you “kill” someone on that space, which represents a house.

Just in case that wasn’t offensive enough for you, the kills are awarded with little plastic babies. It’s a shame this isn’t commercially available, because I’ve finally found a reason to start an Amazon wish list.

Posted as a link on Fark, the usual comments appeared, suggesting just how depraved Hobson must be and whether or not he deserves a ritualized killing a la the serial killers featured in the game.

Hobson–who has presumably received such sentiments long before Fark posters could claim “first!”–addressed this rationale:

“[Serial killers are] icons,” he said. “I didn’t make them that way. I’m not the one who did the news stories on them. I’m not the one that wrote novels about them.”

And he’s right: serial killers are entertainment now.

They’re the darlings of every “CSI”-wannabe show, including “CSI,” which is probably why they’re not as scary anymore: we catch them before victim number 12 … sometimes.

They’re well-crafted characters that are quoted incessantly: “It puts the lotion on its skin,” or “I’m having a friend for dinner.” When’s the last time someone quoted Jodie Foster?

This isn’t to blame the media or entertainment for downplaying the threat of killers who kill first, then rape and then eat. As a rule, these organizations only present what we want to see so that they can make the most money.

Based on today’s headlines, Americans haven’t worried about serial killers since Jeffrey Dahmer and the Unibomber. In fact, the last true serial killer threat was the Beltway Snipers, but try remembering that when it was almost a vacation from Al Qaeda.

Instead, our nightmares are haunted by mass murderers like terrorists and high school students. It’s probably based on numbers, whether I’m referring to numbers of recent cases or numbers in individual body counts.

And why not? Who would you rather live next door to …

A) … a mass murderer?
In racing terms, mass murderers are sprinters. They don’t generally care who they kill, as long as they get plenty of it done before the authorities arrive, which means they could raid your shopping mall, your school or even just blow up your neighborhood. They’re always trying to make a statement, so there’s a good chance they’re doing this because they hate your stupid SUV, flag, face or iPod when you’re jogging (which may also be stupid).

Since ammunition is expensive and regulated, they homebrew explosives, stockpile weapons and invite bizarre like-minded individuals to barbecues, all of which add up to a neighborhood-wide property devaluation.

B) … a serial killer?
Serial killers are distance runners. Every mile, or kill, is something that must be planned out so they don’t run out of steam before their magnum opus. They’re not necessarily making a statement, so killing is more of an intricate hobby, like building ships in bottles or bowling.

When neighbors of serial killers are interviewed after the arrest, what do they always say? “He was so quiet, mostly kept to himself. But he was very polite whenever I talked to him.”

So what you have instead of a Mad Max/Tom Clancy villain is more of a gentleman with peculiar tastes, like that unmarried uncle that travels to Thailand a lot.

Based on the preceding criteria, we’re not afraid of serial killers, or at least not to the same degree that we’re afraid of mass murderers.

• Concerns over serial killing in Manhunt 2 pale in comparison to the uproar over mass killing (and digitized nipples) in the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
• There’s only one 24, probably because the ongoing terrorist threat is too raw to over-market. On the other hand, Saw V is already in pre-production.
• At the airport, we ban any item ever used in a terrorist attempt (box-cutters, lighters, Arabs), but we still allow plastic bags and mini-coolers as carry-on items.

Keep in mind that none of this is an indictment of using serial killers for entertainment purposes. I just find it hilarious that they’re considered a welcomed respite from the daily deluge of news about people that want to blow up day care centers.

Hobson is facing his critics today, but those are nothing compared to if he designed “The Shooting Spree” or “Terrorist” Trivia Games. In the grand scheme of things, “The Serial Killer Trivia Game” is a small potatoes story that I’ve enjoyed, but the game itself will probably never become a parlor favorite.

Image: “.| Fall of Kings .|” by Rodolpho Clix