Breakout indie hit’s BAFTA speech has gone viral for all the right reasons: “This is absolutely perfect”

Breakout indie hit Balatro won big at the BAFTA Games Awards last night (April 8) – and their acceptance speech has gone viral.

• READ MORE: These are the big winners of the BAFTA Games Awards 2025

Balatro was released last year for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC. A reworked take on Poker, the additive card game went on to sell more than 3.5million copies and received rave reviews across the board. It won Best Indie at The Game Awards in December and last night, picked up the Debut Game trophy at the BAFTA Games Awards.

Actor Ben Starr accepted the award while dressed up like Balatro’s Joker mascot and his speech is now going viral across social media.

“This is weird. This is weird, isn’t it,” he said, taking to the stage of London’s Elizabeth Hall. “Yes, it’s me, that weird live-action Jimbo from the Balatro commercial. For those of you who aren’t chronically online, this might be a rather confusing and, at first glance, arousing moment. But don’t worry, it’s perfectly natural. Don’t fight the feeling, Jokers have full sex now.”

“But wait, Ben didn’t make this game. ‘Why’s he up here’, I hear you say like a loser. You may have a point but also, screw you a little, that hurts my feelings. So what if my only contribution to Balatro was that trailer and a bit of sucking on a banana for a few seconds,” he continued, referencing one memorable advert for the game.

“But 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?”

“And I can say having met him personally, LocalThunk is really rich now,” he continued, playfully mocking Balatro’s creator. “He has shoes made of gold and he thanks you for making him that way. 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. Everyone else is a freeloader, especially PlayStack (who published the game).”

Starr finished up by encouraging people to “play more independent games” and gave a shout out to fellow indie title Animal Well, which was nominated in four categories at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards. “Independent games are the lifeblood of this industry and they deserve your respect.”

I'm glad balatro won because otherwise Ben would've had to sit through an entire awards show dressed like Jimbo as the camera kept panning over him and then he'd just have to quietly and awkwardly leave. https://t.co/vZGvpSDCnu

— Scrap (@ScrapXIV) April 8, 2025

The speech has been praised across social media. “I cannot stress it enough, LocalThunk is probably the best game developer of 2024 and 2025. Not because the game he made was amazing but because he WANTS you to support the only games that are making gaming fun,” wrote one fan.

“The purpose of jokers was always to be able to safely speak truth to power because they wore makeup & a silly hat & made funny jokes in-between statements of brutal honesty. Jimbo’s acceptance speech might be the most honest portrayal of a Joker in modern history,” added another. “This is absolutely perfect,” wrote a third.

“I’m glad Balatro won because otherwise Ben would’ve had to sit through an entire awards show dressed like Jimbo as the camera kept panning over him and then he’d just have to quietly and awkwardly leave,” said another fan.

After the awards were done, Balatro developer LocalThunk posted on social media. “Anyone see Jimbo walking around with a BAFTA,” he asked. “My dude locked me in the bathroom and wrote his own speech.”

In other news, a number of stops on the European leg of the PlayStation: The Concert tour are being quietly cancelled. According to a representative, the UK leg is “absolutely” still going ahead though.

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