Larry Sightings

Spotted a Leisure Suit Larry reference in some unusual place? Email me with your sightings and I'll post them here! Send me email by pulling down the "More" menu above and choosing "Email Al."

Stephen Howe's Checkbook	Stephen Howe used a Larry desktop image for his custom checks. Click for larger image (without bank information, however).
Shellshock: Nam '67	According to GameWinners.com, in the game Shellshock: Nam '67, one particular Easter egg allows you to "unlock missions and gallery." What is that code word? Why, "kensentme", of course. See it here. --thanks to Brett Snow
BBspot	BBspot poked fun at the new Wii hand controllers with this fake Leisure Suit Larry game "news article." --thanks to Brian Connors
Asimov's Science Fiction	I was amazed to see a story by Charles Stross reference Leisure Suit Larry -- and in Asimov's Science Fiction, too!
Pong Nation	Pong Nation makes a Leisure Suit Larry T-Shirt for the millions of you who never got a chance to wear one of the originals. And the price is right, too. Man, I wonder what one of those original shirts would bring today on eBay!
Go Fug Yourself	Go Fug Yourself used Leisure Suit Larry as an example of Robert Downey Jr.'s wardrobe.
Just Adventure	JustAdventure.com's Randy Sluganski has named Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! as one of the "Top 10 Games for Lovers."
The Rich Jerk	David Neuburger found it ironic that The Rich Jerk uses an obvious Larry image on its site, but then adds a "holier than thou" disclaimer at the bottom of the page so that you won't do the same.
Something Awful	Daniel Zelter found Larry Laffer, Male Gigolo on Something Awful's "Movie / Video Game Hybrids" spoof page.
Lepa	George "G.G.F." Kekeris spotted this famous Greek singer who bears a stiking resemblance to, well, you know.
Dork Tower	Dork Tower is a comic strip on GameSpy.com. Here's their take on Magna Cum Laude.
Slate.com	Larry even made Slate Magazine. In an article entitled "Don't Stand By Me," about people struck by lightning, it says, "Zap a computer with an electrical surge and its hardware will appear unchanged, but that doesn't mean it'll still be able to run Leisure Suit Larry. The same is true of humans." I guess you'll have to read the whole page to catch the reference.
Worth1000	Robert Puckett found Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Altar Boys in a contest on Worth1000.com called "Games That Never Got Made."
Something Awful	Shannon Moose was exploring "Cartoon Characters in Old Age" on www.somethingawful.com and on page 13 spotted the aged Leisure Suit Larry, here.
T-Shirt	Here's a great T-shirt from Peter Mallegrom of the Netherlands. -- thanks to Kevin de Harde
Snopes	Adam Crinklaw found Leisure Suit Larry mentioned on Snopes.com (the Urban Legends Reference Pages), my favorite site to use to dispel those Internet emails that just won't stop. They discuss the tacky gamePanty Raider and use Larry as an example of good taste. Seriously. See it here.
Larry & Tex?	Aaron Conners, the author of the Tex Murphy action-adventure games, is interviewed on the UNofficial Tex Murphy site and mentions Leisure Suit Larry as one of their influences while creating the game. Read the article here. -- thanks to Mike Rodriguez
Fawn and Faith sighted	While it's not exactly Leisure Suit Larry, StrongBad's cartoon about digging up his old "Tandy 400" lifts two girls straight out of the original CGA version of "LSL1: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards." -- thanks to Are Ormberg
Larry in the News	Adam Bormann sighted Larry in Wired News, in an October 10, 2002 story entitled, "Why Online Age Checks Don't Work:" If anything, age verification has gotten simpler over time -- not more advanced. Veteran gamers might recall Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry, an adult-oriented game that determined players' ages by first testing their knowledge of recent history. The Leisure Suit Larry system relied on multiple-choice questions like "Who is Spiro Agnew?" But the system was not widely adopted, as many would-be players quickly found out that IQ, like a credit rating, is not a reliable indicator of age.
Leisure Suit Larry + Catherine Zeta-Jones?	Talking about going the ultimate full circle: spotted on SomethingAwful.com is a parody of the LSL1 package by SybaseGC showing John Travolta imitating Leisure Suit Larry who was imitating John Travolta! Whoa, I'm dizzy! See the original here. And doesn't Catherine makes a wonderful Eve! --thanks to Kevin de Harde of www.bluesmotel.nl
Jeopardy!	Leisure Suit Larry has finally arrived in the mainstream. In April, 2002, the #1 game show had a category called "Larry, Curly and Moe" in which every "answer" required one of those names as a "question." Alex Trebek asked, "This computer game character always wore a white leisure suit." You, of course, remembered to shout out your answer from the sofa in the form of a question. --thanks to multiple contributors
Larry the Octopus	Master video game programmer Steve Conrad discovered there was an octopus at the Seattle Aquarium named Leisure Suit Larry. It's here, in a research report from the University of Lethbridge. Who knew programmers had such varied reading habits? A third aspect of the lives of the octopuses which shows their capacity for acquiring different responses is their possession of "personalities". The impetus for this study came from the second author's work at the Seattle Aquarium (Anderson, 1987). Volunteers are the backbone of public institutions such as the Aquarium, and volunteers see animals a little differently than scientists. They give individual names to three species of animals in the Aquarium - the seals, the sea otters, and the octopuses. There was "Leisure Suit Larry", named for a video game character who would be cited daily for sexual harassment on the job for excessive touching. There was "Emily Dickinson", who hid behind the tank's backdrop and could barely be coaxed out. And there was "Lucretia McEvil", whose destructive acts are featured at the beginning of this article. Volunteers shied away from feeding her because she would try to pull them down into her tank. --Thanks, Steve! Famous game designer Christy Marx points out a more recent feature article in the Seattle Times on the Aquarium's octopi. It includes this quote: Their personalities can be so strong that, at the Seattle Aquarium, octopus names describe their characteristics, like "Emily Dickinson," the shy mollusk who always hid; and "Lucretia McEvil," the troublemaker who tore up her tank; and "Leisure Suit Larry," who, notes Seattle Aquarium biologist Roland C. Anderson, "would have been arrested for sexual assault because his arms were all over you." --Thanks, Christy!
ZDnet	Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the PC brought back fond memories for ZDnet's AnchorDesk's managing editor, C. C. Holland. Read her "Ode to the PC," including her fond memories of Larry.