Oh Lord, I’m talking about Leisure Suit Larry again. This time, though, I’m talking about a different Larry. 

After LSL7, there was nothing in the main series for 8 years. Series creator Al Lowe basically said he was done with game development, and any new entries in the series would need to be handled by someone else, though he was willing to contribute if Sierra Entertainment wanted. While there were a few spin-offs and mobile games, the IP had faded into the background.

In 2004, the developers over at High Voltage and Vivendi Universal (who purchased Sierra) decided that now would be as good of a time as any to modernize the IP. But how would they bring the series to a new millennium and a third dimension while keeping the protagonist a “behind the times” perv with a heart of gold? 

In enters Larry Lovage, the original Larry’s nephew. Lovage looks up to his uncle, seeking guidance from him on women, and aiming to be a “ladies’ man” just like him. As such, Lovage is just as schlubby, just as cheesy, and just as repugnant in-universe as Larry Laffer. But, longtime LSL fans and casual gamers alike cannot stand Lovage. Why? 

Larry Laffer is supposed to be a chivalrous pervert of sorts; trying desperately to get his rocks off, but wants it to actually mean something. To further his goal, he will pretty much do or say whatever he can to make the ladies fall for him. From giving up 500 million dollars in stocks to stopping a plot for world domination to force-feeding Tabasco to a whale, almost nothing was off limits in Larry’s search for coochie/love. Ultimately, Larry’s perseverance and lack of self-awareness have made him a lovable goof to his fans, despite his scummy actions.

Both Laffer and Lovage have gone out of their way to get a girl to be interested in them. They have both given gifts, done embarrassing things, or put themselves in harm’s way in order to sleep with a lady. They both even have the same reaction to being attracted to a transwoman. 

Which is to say, horror and disgust.

You would think that both Larrys would be pretty equally loved or hated, right? Well…no.

A big part of why people hate Lovage is because he is more of a lying, manipulative scumbag than his predecessor, and causes more trauma with his bumbling. For instance, in Magna Cum Laude, Lovage meets a shy, mousy student named Ione. Lovage decides to booze her up, making her more receptive to a makeover, then sex. He gives her the makeover (which makes her look like a Jerry Springer reject) then tries sleeping with her, “warming her up” with her childhood teddy bear equipped with a strap-on. Ione becomes so traumatized that she swears off men forever and starts dating women. 

LSL fans may now be thinking, “Didn’t one of Laffer’s ladies immediately start dating a woman after being with Laffer?” Yes. But Kalalau, Larry Laffer’s second wife, wasn’t “traumatized” by him. She got tired of him being terrible in bed. When Kalalau left to be with a woman, Laffer was sad but left her alone and moved on. When Ione left Lovage, Lovage made things worse by trying to insert himself into Ione’s intimate moment with her new girlfriend. 

Lovage also objectified the ladies more than Laffer did. And considering the nature of the series, that’s saying something. Remember, the primary goal of the Laffer games was for him to find, then make, love. Lovage was trying to fuck. And because he was trying to fuck, he was a lot more callous and chauvinistic than Laffer. A few of the comments he makes in MCL aren’t funny-in-a-cringy-way, just weird and misogynistic. (“Your breasts put you at a natural disadvantage.” “Feminism IS pretty pointless.” etc.) Most of the encounters with women in MCL involve Lovage getting her super drunk and trying to manipulate her into sex. 

Lovage’s weird misogyny and cringy sex jokes were upped to the Nth degree in Box Office Bust. Lovage in MCL was just a weird idiot stuck in the early 90s, but BOB turns him into a full-on sex offender, taking lots of gross candid pictures of women, and talking about jizz before saying “Hi” to people.

Speaking of which, look at Larry Laffer in BOB.

Look how they massacred my boy! This version of Laffer has had all the positivity sucked out of him. Any redeeming quality is just gone for the sake of “comedy.” He might as well just have been “Sleazebag Sal,” and nothing would have changed about the plot.

Not helping matters is his VA for this game was Jeffrey Tambor.

Al Lowe has gone on record saying that he doesn’t like the Lovage games. He wasn’t involved with the development of MCL or BOB. He played both games, but was unwilling to finish them because of the terrible gameplay. Al conceded that even though he created the IP, the character belonged to Sierra, so the direction of the games was out of his hands. He admitted in an interview that seeing what happened to Leisure Suit Larry was, to paraphrase, like seeing a video of your kidnapped son. You’re glad he’s alive, but you’re like, “What did they do to him?“

Al Lowe briefly returned to game development for Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, a remake of the first game. There were a few references to Larry Lovage…none were favorable. Al also said in a Reddit AMA that he would not have let the Lovage games go in the direction they did.

The IP has since been picked up by CrazyBunch and Assemble Entertainment, who would work on the next two LSL games. These games would put Larry Laffer back into the spotlight in a modern era of smartphones, dating apps, and a broader spectrum of gender and sexuality than there was in the 80s. The most recent games have been generally well received, despite Al Lowe and Sierra co-founder Ken Williams giving them a thumbs down. Here’s hoping that if there are any more entries into the Larry series, they focus on Larry Laffer and not this fucking skidmark of a character.