But the chase, if shorter on surprise than it sets out to be, remains sweepingly silly fun.
Whether you're angling for nuts and bolts deathmatch on a lunch break, or something more substantial, CoD remains a silly, slick and intuitive shooter that sucks you in and keeps you there.
But to purists, the hole in Messi's résumé remains, no matter how silly that sounds.
But the Ealing comedy caricature of a kind vicar, who may be a bit silly but remains intrinsically decent, is still most people's picture of the religious in England, not least because there is truth in it.
Meanwhile, in spite of published DNA evidence and the testimony of forensic experts who examined Che's remains, there are those who persist, vainly, in denying that it was really Che's body that was found — as if that alone would somehow diminish the power of his legacy, which remains, for all the silly T-shirts, uniquely potent.
How this affects the Sounders during the silly season remains to be seen, but with Mario Martinez looking less and less likely to sign now that his loan spell from Real Espana has ended, one thing the supporters haven't lacked throughout the franchise's history is confidence in the front office to get quality talent in and a commitment to bringing the MLS Cup to Seattle.
It's a monument to that crazy, earnest glee comic book films can have Weexpectrefuse themator them down or regroundheir heroics withemselvesng smirk.
As long as this remains the status quo: silly, stupid spreads like this will continue to proliferate; black models will continue to be a rarity on the catwalk, and minorities will continue to be unrepresented in the pages of magazines.
All this isn't convincing anyone of course, because the Pythons' material remains timelessly funny – particularly the silly walks sketch, which is a joke that straddles the decades, age demographics, and even the rocky British class system.
Forget for now the well-financed campaign to clear his name, the offensive statements from his family that he remains a role model, the silly comments this week by a TV personality, even the horrific abuse on social media of his victim.
