New Pocketpair-published horror game turns Balatro's live-action Jimbo actor into a jester again, devs insist it's "accidental," really: "No one will believe that we genuinely didn't mean to do this"

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The devs describe it as "the most incredible happy accident"

ben starr dressed in harequinn makeup chomping down on a banana
(Image credit: LocalThunk)

Final Fantasy 16 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr has lent his talents to horror game Dead Take, and although one moment in it appears to be a direct nod to his other iconic role as Balatro's live-action Jimbo, the devs insist the apparent reference was "genuinely accidental."

Dead Take – the latest game from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU studio Surgent Studios, and the first game to be published by the Palworld devs' publishing arm, Pocketpair Publishing – launched at the end of last month, and it didn't take long for players to spot the moment in question.

Responding to this, the official Surgent Studios Twitter account says that "no one will believe that we genuinely didn't mean to do this," before digging up evidence from "the moment we realized" in late July.

A series of messages from the studio's Slack chat shows one dev sharing a screenshot of the in-game jester alongside an image of Starr at this year's BAFTA Games Awards, dressed in full Jimbo attire. "This is the most incredible happy accident that just dawned on us," they wrote at the time, with their fellow devs responding "HOW HAVE WE NOT REALIZED THIS" and "if I had known I would have matched the colors and outfit."

Back to the present day, and Dead Take creative director and founder of Surgent Studios Abubakar Salim reiterates that the whole thing was "genuinely accidental," which honestly makes the whole thing even funnier. What is it with games picturing Starr as a jester, all of a sudden? He really does rock the look, though, and to quote him from his aforementioned appearance at the BAFTA Game Awards: "This might be a rather confusing, and at first glance, suspiciously arousing moment. But don't worry, it's perfectly natural. Don't fight the feeling, Jokers have full sex now."

I thought the scariest thing about Dead Take would be its Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate 3 stars doing American accents, but no horror game has stunned me like this since 2022.

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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