ENA: Dream BBQ - She's a Surface-Acting Service Worker

August 4, 2024.

I’m so excited for ENA: Dream BBQ. The game isn’t even out yet and I’ve already cosplayed the character Coral Glasses (and made her my Discord profile picture to boot). And while ENA is known for being quite surreal, all the Dream BBQ media we have so far seem to be the most thematically straightforward entries in this series. I’m in the middle of a very busy time in my life (I’m surrounded by moving boxes and business cards as I type this)— what better time to take on some slightly easier analysis?

WARNING: Some gifs in this article contain glitching and flashing imagery.

About ENA and ENA: Dream BBQ

ENA: Dream BBQ is a video game by online audiovisual artist Joel G, currently still in development. It is an extension of Joel G’s surrealist webseries ENA, known for its stream-of-consciousness writing style, off-kilter music, and low-resolution computer graphics reminiscent of games on the PS1 and Phillips CDI. The series follows the titular character Ena as she attends an auction that gets rained (more like rock-hailed) out in "Auction Day", visits her somewhat rude friend Moony in "Extinction Party", journeys through far-off lands to get her one wish granted in "Temptation Stairway", and attends a strange theatre-therapy hybrid in "Power of Potluck", all while trying to balance the happy and sad sides of herself— literally. Ena’s character design is half blue and half yellow, each with different voices, who take turns speaking depending on her emotions; when extremely depressed or drunkenly happy, these forms will distort and recolor her body. Dream BBQ will be the first interactive entry in the ENA series, taking advantage of the video-game-like aesthetic of the original, and features a brand-new Ena design and side characters.

The Two Sides of Ena

The easiest place to start is Ena’s new design. As opposed to the character’s original “happy” and “sad” sides (see Joel G, 2020a, 0:03), Dream BBQ Ena is split between a red “salesperson” side, who tries to sell the viewer on some vaguely life-changing product, and a light yellow “meanie” side, who admits to hating her job (Joel G, 2023b). Notably, because service work requires significant emotional labor (defined as “the stress of regulating one’s emotional displays… to comply with job requirements;” Whiting, 2014, p. 32), it is common for these workers to consciously express positive emotions that conflict with the negative ones they really feel, a practice called “surface acting” (ibid.). This, of course, fits the divide between the positive “salesperson” and the negative “meanie;” alongside the names and demeanors, her “salesperson” hand is blunted, almost like a mitten is placed over it (hiding the real thing), while their “meanie” hand is a bare claw (Joel G, 2023a, 1:17). Alongside using the term “salesperson” to title one of her halves, the Dream BBQ trailer directly refers to Ena as “ENA: The Worker” (ibid., 0:08) and shows her taking a tip from an outdoor restaurant table (ibid., 1:14). All in all, it seems that this new Ena form is supposed to represent a surface-acting service worker— which fits perfectly with the themes of balancing one’s emotions throughout the rest of the webseries, especially the masking of one’s negative side seen in “Power of Potluck” (Joel G, 2023c).

Just like how the original Ena has alternate designs for extreme happiness and sadness (see Joel G, 2020a, 1:27; also see Joel G, 2020b, 3:46), there are two new extreme Ena forms in Dream BBQ. One is a moldy green with cracking skin, a hole-like mouth and eyes, and her limbs rapidly orbiting each other, disconnected from the rest of the body (Joel G, 2023a, 0:48, 1:03). The other has gray skin, a hungry and exhausted expression, and a large hole burnt through her torso, cutting out most of her internal organs; this form also has a more realistic and fleshy human body compared to the polygonal style of Ena’s other forms (ibid., 0:33, 0:58). To be clear, there is not yet direct evidence that these gray and green forms are directly related to each half of Ena (in the way the original extreme forms are). But if I had to guess, I would wager that the green form is the extreme version of “salesperson” and the gray one is the extreme version of “meanie.” As opposed to “surface acting,” some service workers instead engage in “deep acting,” where they make themselves actually feel the emotions they’re supposed to be portraying (Hori & Chao, p. 216-217; Whiting, 2014, p. 33). While the study cited here finds that deep acting increases one’s satisfaction with their job (Whiting, 2014, p. 37), it also carries a high risk of emotional exhaustion and generally decreased happiness (Hori & Chao, p. 223-224)— i.e. burnout. Drawing from the research I’ve done for my own thesis, I would also argue that changing one’s actual emotional responses to fit one’s job could degrade one’s sense of self outside of said job. Ena’s green form, likewise, is literally falling apart to the point of unrecognizability, i.e. her literal self is falling apart, and she almost looks burnt, as in “burnt out” (Joel G, 2023a, 0:48). On the other hand, when you’re too mean to the people around your (yes, even in the name of “brutal honesty,” of admitting to your hatred for your job, of being “realistic” as reflected in this form’s fleshier body; ibid., 0:33), you lose your support networks and ability to socialize to others, making you feel desperately hungry for connection and generally empty inside (thus fitting the starved expression and missing organs; ibid.). This is speculation, of course, but I feel this is the matchup that makes the most thematic sense.

Ena, a polygonal woman with short black hair and a green hat, stands smiling at the far left edge of the screen, showing only the red half of her face. She is quoted as saying; 'Let me ask you: what if I offer you something that could change your life forever?' Ena, a polygonal woman in a green work uniform, sits crumpled in an apocalyptic wasteland. Her face is green and falling apart to the point where she is barely recognizable, and she is missing her arms.

Ena, a polygonal woman with short black hair and a green hat, stands frowning at the far right edge of the screen, showing only the light yellow half of her face. She is quoted as saying; 'HAAH!! Are you kidding?! I HATE THIS STUPID JOB!!!' Ena, a woman (no longer polygonal) in a green work uniform, lies in fetal position with her back turned toward the viewer. There is a huge hole burnt through her entire torso.

Top Left: "Salesperson" Ena tries to sell you on a mysterious product (Joel G, 2023b, 0:07). Top Right: Ena, in her green form, rots in an apocalyptic wasteland (Joel G, 2023a, 1:40). Bottom Left: "Meanie" Ena admits to hating her stupid job (Joel G, 2023b, 0:20). Bottom Right: Ena, in her gray form, lies badly injured on the ground (Joel G, 2023a, 1:40).

More Thematic Analysis

Associating literal hunger with loneliness is a choice I make deliberately. In her book The Lonely City, author Olivia Laing writes: “What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast” (2016, p. 11). This is certainly the sense one gets from the Dream BBQ trailer as scenes of gray-Ena crawling desperately towards an spatula woman, who glows like an angel (Joel G, 2023a, 0:33, 0:58), are intercut with scenes of mannequins (which have been portrayed in the past as copies of Ena; Joel G, 2021, 9:13, blink and you’ll miss it) floating up to a god-like grill-man in the sky as if being raptured (Joel G, 2023a, 0:43). Whatever others get by luck or divine intervention, Ena must claw her way towards just for a taste. And considering that said god takes the form of a grill, the rapture may be a barbecue— a social event that feeds both your stomach and your heart, two organs gray-Ena is notably missing (ibid., 0:33). At the same time, though, it would be naive to assume that the barbecue-rapture is necessarily good for its attendees. The way he glows an ominous red as he reaches towards the viewer (ibid., 1:00), combined with how Ena shakily clutches a dress form (essentially a type of mannequin) marked with electric-stove-like spirals as if she is clutching a dying friend (ibid., 1:38), implies that while he may promise a barbecue, you, the mannequin, are the meat.

A giant deity with human arms and a glowing grill-like body floats in a cloudy sky. He reaches down towards one of the mannequins floating up towards him. A gif in which the viewer is floating through computer code, up towards a glowing white door. Several copies of the original Ena, a polygonal woman with half blue and half yellow skin, float around the viewer; they occasionally glitch out and turn into mannequins.

Ena, a gray-skinned woman in a green work uniform, desperately and shakily clutches a dress form as if it is dying. The dress form is marked with red spirals on its head and chest, resembling a hot electric stove.

Top Left: The grill god reaches down to a mannequin being raptured (Joel G, 2023a, 0:59). Top Right: Copies of Ena floating in computer code glitch out, revealing that they are mannequins (Joel G, 2021, 9:13). Bottom: Ena, in her gray form, desperately clutches a dress form marked with electric-stove-like spirals (Joel G, 2023a, 1:38).

Which naturally brings us to the dialogue cards from the trailer; one does, after all, read “Let’s put that dead meat in its place!” (ibid., 1:04). It is heavily implied that all dialogue cards are being spoken by the freaky entity Ena faces off against in the opening scene of the trailer. This dialogue, both the “dead meat” quote and “I see lack of conviction in your mind… How unusual for you” (ibid., 0:11, 0:52), read like a particularly bad boss berating a worker (Ena) for not performing as well as usual. Also note the little animations around the dialogue cards for the former quote, which each depict complaints a worker may have about a bad work environment:

A brown and orange dialogue card. White text reads 'I see lack of conviction in your mind.' In each corner is an illustration. They are: A chained-up pair of lips, two sliced purple fish, a yellow camel with a clock for a head, and a man rowing an envelope like a canoe. A brown and orange dialogue card, less bright this time. White text reads 'How unusual for you.' In each corner is an illustration. They are: A green suitcase walking, a headless person in a dress shirt in a rainy picture frame, three knives surrounding a paper clip, and a yellow megaphone.

The two dialogue cards in question.

Outside of the dialogue cards, the scene itself evokes other elements of a bad work environment. If I had to guess, I believe the television screens surrounding Ena and her boss (ibid., 0:13) represent the projection of an image of good corporate culture, in a dystopian-propaganda, nothing-you-see-is-real, Society-of-the-Spectacle kind of way. During the hand shadow scenes, the boss’ hand transforms from a barbecue fork (which, from the previous paragraph, would represent the promise of being taken care of physically and mentally) to a gun (ibid. 1:09), like how a bad boss may try to manipulate their employees with carrots before bringing out the sticks, proverbially speaking. This is when the TV screens flicker away and reveal a wasteland— the facade of a “great” work culture breaks down— and Ena counters with a much larger weapon (ibid., 1:43). Compare this to Coral Glasses, who is stressed, dressed in professional attire, and “turned down another job opportunity to be here,” “here” being a tiny desert island in what appears to be a literal sea of blood (ibid. 1:11). The wasteland of Dream BBQ is ruled by a restrictive and harmful corporate culture, and while Coral Glasses tries to follow its rules as closely as she can, Ena fights back against it.

Ena, a polygonal woman in a green work uniform, faces off against her boss, a pile of rubble. As the shadow of her claw stretches out against the television screens in the background, the boss's shadow of a barbecue fork morphs into that of a gun, pointed directly as Ena. Ena stands in the middle of a hallway of blue television screens. These screens glitch away, revealing the apocalyptic wasteland behind them.

Coral Glasses, a woman in a black suit with coral growing out of her right eye, stands with a worried expression on orange sand next to a blood-red sea. She says: 'I turned down another job opportunity to be here...' Ena, standing in the wasteland where the TV screens used to be, points a finger gun at the viewer. Behind her, the cannon on a large mech charges up. She smiles.

Top Left: The boss's barbecue fork morphs into a gun (Joel G, 2023a, 1:10). Top Right: The television screens glitch away, revealing the apocalyptic wasteland (Joel G, 2023a, 1:26). Bottom Left: Coral Glasses worries about her job prospects while standing next to a sea of blood (Joel G, 2023a, 1:11). Bottom Right: Ena fires back (Joel G, 2023a, 1:43).

The song from this trailer is called “anemoia” (Buckland, 2023). The term refers to “nostalgia for a time you’ve never known, a past you’ve never lived” (ibid.). I think Ena has anemoia for the time before the wasteland— for the time before this corporate culture.

Conclusion

As I finish up my thoughts on this (unreleased) game, I realize that putting this blog and my hiring information on the same website may have been a bad idea. To any prospective employers scared off by this analysis, please remember; these are the themes I think will come up in a work of fiction on the internet, not a predictor of my own workplace behavior. As long as you are decent to your employees, there is nothing here to be scared of. And if you are truly worried that you are comparable to Ena’s demeaning and threatening boss, or that your employees are starving for connection or falling apart… perhaps it’s time to do some soul-searching.

References

Cite This Article (APA)

Miller, A. (2024, August 4). ENA: Dream BBQ - She's a Surface-Acting Service Worker. Grab a Shovel. https://primmsfairytale.neocities.org/posts/2024-08-04-ENA-Dream-BBQ