Balatro fans react as Ben Starr delivers hilarious BAFTA speech for mysterious developer ...Middle East

For Balatro fans, seeing Final Fantasy 16 star Ben Starr don the Jimbo Jester hat and clown makeup has become somewhat of a common occurrence, but their acceptance speech on behalf of developer LocalThunk for best debut game at the BAFTA Game Awards 2025 was quite something.

First off, you might be wondering why LocalThunk wasn’t there to accept the award for themselves, but Ben Starr made sure we got a show, as can be seen in the BAFTA Games Awards 25 ceremony from 1:45:35, but not without recognising that it was “weird”.

“Yes, it’s me, that weird live-action Jimbo from the Balatro commercial.” Ben Starr opened with, noting that for those of us who “aren’t chronically online, this might be a rather confusing and at first glance, suspiciously arousing moment”, setting the tone for the rest of the speech.

“But wait! Ben didn’t make that game. ‘Why’s he up here?’ I hear you say like a loser.” Starr points out, but while he points out the audience “may have a point”, he wasn’t happy about it, clapping back with “screw you a little bit, that hurts my feelings.”

“And so what if my only contribution to Balatro was that trailer and a bit of sucking on a banana for a few seconds?” Starr continued, before posing the question to the audience, “I ask you this: isn’t selling stuff nice?

“What is art in 2025 but a thinly veiled vessel of ruthless commercial self-interest through which rich people try to make even more money?” Starr continued, which could be understood to be a jab at companies such as OpenAI using generative AI to create images extremely similar to established styles such as that of Studio Ghibli films.

But to lighten the mood, Starr notes that “having met him personally, LocalThunk is really rich now. He has shoes made of gold, and he thanks you for making him that way.”

Jimbo has arrived at the @BAFTAGames pic.twitter.com/Y8YFMl04Ra

Going against the grain of most acceptance speeches (as if it weren’t already), Starr passes on LocalThunk’s words about who to thank.

“He says here at the bottom, he wishes he could thank more people, but if he’s being honest, it was just him who made it.”

Taking tongue-in-cheek aim at their publisher, Starr relayed LocalThunk’s thoughts in them, saying “Everyone else is a freeloader, especially you, Playstack.”

But it wasn’t all jokes and laughs, as LocalThunk’s final remark was a wish for us all to “play more independent games like ANIMAL WELL”, adding that “they are the lifeblood of this industry, and they deserve your respect, thank you very much.”

We at Radio Times Gaming enjoyed the speech plenty, and we weren’t the only ones, as Balatro and Ben Starr fans alike took to social media to share their thoughts.

Vice President of Business Management at Splash Damage, Will Lowther (@willlowther), posted to X (formerly Twitter) that he thinks Benn Starr “definitely wins the award for best acceptance speech“.

Also @The_Ben_Starr definitely wins the award for best acceptance speech

Similarly, Winiar kinnie (@bayerngay) took to X to tell the world of their Balatro and Ben Starr appreciation.

MAN I LOVE BEN STARR!!!!!CONGRATS BALATRO pic.twitter.com/fEY3hBPxII

Before his portrayal of Clive in Final Fantasy 16, Starr was a huge fan of Final Fantasy 8 and has made no secret of it over the last couple of years.

Lex (@WintersFruit), took a moment to appreciate that Starr recognises the achievements of other games, and not just that of the greatly underrated FF8.

i love it when ben starr takes a break from his regular final fantasy 8 shilling to plug balatro pic.twitter.com/baq6HYMPx3

But with the BAFTAs over, we will have to wait and see if Ben Starr puts on the hat once more for LocalThunk. One thing we can guarantee is that it will be as bonkers as ever.

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