The Wood Beyond The World Forum Comic Relief

Ok... a time for another of MR NICKS topic's

Comic relief. I am not talking just about bits of humor scattered throughout the stories we write. I am talking about a character put in as comic relief and not the main characters obviously.

Do you have one, or more? Who are they and how do they manage in your stories? What other purpose do they serve, if any? How important is this. Or, does it take away from the serious nature of the fantasy novel to incorporate a character as strickly...comic relief.

I have read many books with characters that could be considered comic releif. Tolkien had his of course, but one of my beloved favorites is Tasslehoff Burfoot. The Kinder from the Dragon Lance Series by Weis and Hickman. I loved that little Kinder. More even than I like Tanis.

Nick.

Hmmm... I suppose I do have one, although I've never thought of her as comic relief as such. She is a chatty, good-humoured serf girl who becomes Nemma's confidant during the story. She has a light-hearted take on life, a positive attitude, an inquisitive mind and runs with her feelings rather than logic - a stark contrast to Nemma. This causes some developments in Nemma's personality as well as some clashes between them. However, it becomes clear that Inogen (the serf girl) has had her own share of negativity in her life. Neither girl has had a friend before so their friendship goes through its paces.

I think it is important to have a bit of comic relief but I don't really believe in having a character whose only purpose is to provide it. Its not that it takes away the serious nature of the novel, but rather it has the danger to stand out as an obvious attempt to tick boxes. Also a comic relief character with no further depth can come across as a bit flat. It�s more realistic to comic aspects of the character and explore them during transitional or �cool down� periods.

Scribble

I agree that we should not just put a character in for comic relief without exploring the character a bit, to give the readers a sense of who they are.

The Tasslehoff Burfoot character I noted was more than a bit player in the early books, but he was the one that constantly got them into and out of trouble. In later books, he is explored in depth because he became a favorite of readers. Thus, the comic relief rose to the top of the pile, so to speak. Which I think is your point Scribbles.

Nick.

I can't do funny very well, and it never ocurred to me to include comic relief per se in my stories. I think usually comic relief comes from characters who are more down-to-earth than the main protagonists -- like Sam and Merry and Pippin in LotR. But real characters will always have more than one dimension, as those three young hobbits do. In the films Gimli, at times, was turned into comic relief too, I noticed. The fate of the short, I suppose. (Down to earth -- huh!)

Comic relief can simply be delivered by someone whose attitude and behavior is in contrast to the hero's high purpose. Nick, I find your Buttercup, when she's flirting with Nathin, to fill that role. (Even though she's dead serious about some things too.) When I started writing Aulia's young colleagues in OTM, Paarvo and Leimu, I thought of them as a kind of comic relief -- not blatantly comic, but frivolous, superficial -- but they got pulled into the serious current of the narrative pretty quicklly.