Would love to have a dev come and set this straight. I'm tired of attempting to explain it.

Chris Avellone explains it clear in http://www.gametrailers.com/video/new-features-fallout-new/702867. It's close to the End. It is a Fallout Humor Switch.

Others have said you can mode it. Thank the Devs I have a PC so I can. Still I was hoping I could play the came without having to get mods. At least for a year or so.

Right, but people are assuming that this game will have no humor without it.

I am sure there will be Humor just not Fallout Humor. If you are a fan of FO2's Humor and pop-culture you will need Wild Western Perk.

I suppose we won't really know until we play. People just make it seem like F:NV is gonna be like The Road without this trait, you know?

I'd like to find a toilet with a skeleton dressed in a white sequened jumpsuit sat on it.

I understand what you mean. There will be funny things to see and hear but the Wild Wasteland Perk will add other funny things and dialogue that would make the game more like FO2's style of humor. At least that's my understanding. I was hoping New Vegas was just going to have it but now it's conditional. You are right just have to wait and play to see it's full impact on the game.

I really don't think it's gonna be that dire.

lol, how about a super mutant dead on the toilet?

Only if it's wearing an elvis wig

That Avellone interview settled it. I'm picking it for sure.

It'd be funny if you had to track down some Elvis impersonator and you either find him dead on a toilet, surrounded by jet, or you kill him in the bathroom. I prefer option one though.

i like the first one, id like for it to be a super mutant as francis suggested. with a butch style wig and huge leather jacket.

im definitely picking this perk up, makes fallout more fallout-y (can we add that to the dictionary?)

Why track down the master of The King's? ^_^

I won't my first playthrought. This will save something to look forward to on my second go.

I was mainly offering a suggestion without mentioning them. In case some people haven't read on it yet. Not technically a spoiler, but I was trying to be mindful.

Ah, once the name is mentioned and you see them, greasers that are united under someone calling himself The King... That's about as spoiling as telling people about the opening narrative by Hellboy. ^_^
(But seriously, did someone tell people about that King already? I was just guessing here...)

Probably.

I dunno. It's just a habit to skirt around em anyways. I just do it anyways.

At least I don't have to watch Imperial Stormtroopers perform the Riverdance out in the wasteland if I don't want to.

Really? This woul uthewi...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ_WRzdgnZQ

I'm trying to give this trait thing the benefit of the doubt, but having an on/off switch (that happens to waste a trait slot) for Fallout-style humour, in a Fallout game, just seems bizarre to me.

"Fallout humor" to me, is the dark and sarcastic wit of the first game, which will likely be present in New Vegas whether you use this trait or not. It's true that pop culture special encounters have been around since the first game, but in the original Fallout there were only a couple encounters that were minor nods that you had to go out of your way to stumble across by pumping points into Luck and Outdoorsman. In a sense New Vegas is a bit closer to Fallout 1 in that regard as the ability to stumble across pop culture encounters is controlled by how you build your character.

I think Fallout 2 handled the pop culture encounters extremely poorly by constantly shoving them down the player's throat regardless of their build, and there were instances where the game broke the fourth wall even in town. For example, asking the New Reno boxing ring midget if he's been in the circus leads to a rant about how you're a generic Fallout player character. That's not Fallout humor to me, the original Fallout never broke the fourth wall outside of special encounters and even then I don't remember characters actually acting like they were in a video game.

That is the sarcastic wit of the original developers ~can't get that; but I'm sure there will be plenty of humor in the same spirit.
(My spirits went up a notch today when I looked closely at the Supermutant model by the building behind Marcus )

It's not so bizarre when you think about why they did it. People always argue about the wacky stuff in Fallout 2. Some people like it, some people prefer Fallout 1's more subtle approach. You get the best of both worlds here.