>The two are not mutually exclusive
Are they not? I think I'm back to the part where I don't really get what people are finding so funny. I get the impression it's mainly the silly/bad animations and lifeless characters, and I don't see how I could improve the quality without moving away from that kind of jank.
Like, I can't have the enemies menacingly t-pose at the player while also being lively, characterful and otherwise well animated.
>Or really, here, I think all you need to do is develop the gameplay properly and model the game's aesthetics around the inherently over-the-top exaggeration it entails.
I'm not sure what you mean.
>Five Night's at Freddy's
FNaF isn't trying to be so bad it's good, though, it's just trying its best to be good horror (I think, I've never played the games). Cawthon didn't try to make models that were trying to be appealing but failing for FNaF, he just tried to make them scary.
I'm also not sure what works for horror will work for comedy - when horror fails it can still be funny, but funny gone wrong is just awful.