BROOKLYN — Who will be crowned Lena Dunham?
Travel back to the Brooklyn of the early 2000s when it was “virtually uninhabited by young adults with wealthy parents” in a new video from online comedy network Above Average that turns the borough into a board game.
The Settlers of Brooklyn (pronounced Brook-lan) is a parody of the popular strategy game “The Settlers of Catan,” which challenges players to trade and build their way toward becoming the strongest civilization in an unsettled world.
The goal of The Settlers of Brooklyn “is to become the first place with a fully gentrified colony filled with used record stores, food trucks and Urban Outfitters,” according to the video posted Tuesday.
Sadly, the hipster version of “Catan” does not actually exist but the comedy group details the important features of the game in the video.
Players can trade with five all-important resources — coffee, bicycles, vinyl, skinny jeans and kale — upgrade lofts into condos and attempt to earn the coveted “Longest Brunch” card to get a step closer to victory and gentrification.
“I hope they open a gym there,” one player says in the video.
Above Average was founded a little less than three years ago and is part of Broadway Video, the global entertainment and media company behind SNL, The Tonight Show and 30 Rock, the comedy group said.
Staff writer Matt Moskovciak said the idea for the video came from playing the actual game for the first time on New Year's Eve.
“'Settlers' also seems to be a thing a lot of my friends started playing in the last year or so," he said in an email.
This is Above Average’s first direct parody of Brooklyn but the group has made several other comedy videos, including one on a “Girls” tour guide and a “Thingstarter” series that spoofs Kickstarter.
