What’s your opinion on comedic relief characters in cinematography? (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

99% of the time I hate it so much. Especially when it’s a movie adaptation of the book and the character is dumbed down and made to be stupid and whatnot. Imo a perfect example is Gimli from the Lord of the Rings. In the books he was a very able dwarf, one that could survive through a lot of challenges and could compete against Legolas in fighting, as was shown by their competitions in who could kill the most enemies. In the movies he was a straight up clown. Clumsy, stupid, incapable. He could only seem to kill enemies by being stupid and messing up, like Jar Jar Binks in the first Star Wars movie. What’s the point? If you want comedic relief watch a comedy, not a more serious movie, and don’t ruin characters for no good reason. Rant over

 

[Soogi]

theyre just a really cheap way to add some humor imo, i prefer when jokes are a bit more subtle and varied. having one clown character gets old really quickly

 

[Tickita]

Your example made me think of Ron Weasley, so I dislike it in that sense. But even in comedy I don't like it either, maybe worse because that character is just trying too hard to be funny.

 

[Magician]

there are some good ones, at least in animes, like Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs

 

[RandAlThor]

99% of the time I hate it so much. Especially when it’s a movie adaptation of the book and the character is dumbed down and made to be stupid and whatnot. Imo a perfect example is Gimli from the Lord of the Rings. In the books he was a very able dwarf, one that could survive through a lot of challenges and could compete against Legolas in fighting, as was shown by their competitions in who could kill the most enemies. In the movies he was a straight up clown. Clumsy, stupid, incapable. He could only seem to kill enemies by being stupid and messing up, like Jar Jar Binks in the first Star Wars movie. What’s the point? If you want comedic relief watch a comedy, not a more serious movie, and don’t ruin characters for no good reason. Rant over

reason @#$ why i never watch them again and will not watch rotk.

 

[RandAlThor]

some thing like your example is just obviously trying too hard. thus not fun.

but there are some that are fun. lethal weapon had some that worked.

 

[Day]

there are some good ones, at least in animes, like Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs

I agree, anime knows how to do it! Zenitsu in Demon Slayer as well, a great comedic relief character

 

[Myth]

It depends, but I do feel what you're saying.

I think since this was a sitcom show you might be able to give it some more leeway, but I do remember when watching Wizards of Waverly Place... I kind of wish they didn't make Max as dumb as he is and I wanted them to give him some more cool moments. A lot of the characters in the show are funny without being morons and while I love Max and don't mind him being a loveable goof, I think it would have been way cooler if in the Wizard Tournament, he was seen or built up to be a likely contender in the way Alex and Justin were. There were missed moments there.

That's might be a problem a lot sitcoms have. Where they have a character that's dumb as rocks when they don't necessarily need to make them that dumb to get laughs.

 

[eclipsoul]

i like it when things are funny ngl i don't see a problem in a character being just there to make people laugh even if it's forced cringe or whatever. usually they don't really have a big role too so it's not much of a problem for me. the fact that there were people sending death threats to the actor who voiced jar jar binks is insane to me like go get a hobby...

 

[Wingfrost]

I think it just depends tbh, sometimes I like the character (like Olaf is the comedic relief, but I personally find him very likeable). But in other cases like with Ron from HP, I really dislike it. Ron is always considered the “useless” one of the trio but from what I remember in the books he wasn’t useless at all and a lot smarter than what the movie’s portrayed him as.