Literary Terms - Comic Relief

 

Literary Terms

Comic Relief

 

Comic relief is a phrase of two words comic and relief. The meanings are clear that it is a relief provided through comic incidents or remarks. Comic relief is a literary device used in plays and novels to introduce light entertainment between tragic scenes. It is often used in the shape of a humorous incident, a funny incident, a tricky remark or a laughing commentary. It is deliberately inserted to make the audiences feel relief. In this sense, it makes the tragedy seem less intense. Although it is often considered a diversion, it plays a significant role in advancing the action of the play or the novel.

Comic relief is a pause for the audience. It provides them with an opportunity to feel light-hearted and enjoy something new. It also gives them a chance to smile at something different. Although it sometimes seems awkward, it happens in real time, too, that humor is the spice of life where tragedy becomes too heavy to tolerate. Also, it proves a moment of reflection for the characters.

In a funny movie or play, there’s no need for comic relief – there’s just regular comedy. Comic relief is when the comedy takes place in a story that’s dramatic, tragic, or serious overall, not comedies.

In literature, writers don’t want their story to get too grim, depressing, scary, or tense. To prevent this from happening, they use a little humor here and there. This dates back at least to Shakespeare, who often put humorous characters in even his darkest plays, like Macbeth and Hamlet.

Comic relief comes in two forms, which can often be found side-by-side in the same book or movie or play:

Internal Comic Relief is when the joke is actually part of the story – for example, the character makes a joke and other characters laugh. We laugh with the characters.

External Comic Relief is when the audience laughs, but the characters themselves don’t. This could happen, for example, when a character slips on a banana peel: nobody onscreen is laughing, but the audience still finds it funny. We laugh at the characters.

Examples:

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 1-8

PORTER:

“Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of

hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock

Knock, knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of

Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’

expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins

enow about you; here you’ll sweat for’t. Knock

Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name?”

These lines occur in the third scene of the second act of Macbeth by Shakespeare. Porter is delivering these lines between two gruesome incidents; the murder of King Duncan and the discovery of his dead body. Porter thinks that he seems to be on guard of the gate of the hell. He is hallucinating and delving inappropriate jokes and abuses. This scene brings a brief comic relief after the tragic death of King Duncan.

 

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 55-58

THE FOOL:

“Fathers that wear rags

Do make their children blind;

But fathers that bear bags

Shall see their children kind.”

King Lear was a powerful and a beloved father, enjoying the love of his daughters. When he was a wealthy king, they used to flatter him. However, when he is a poor man after dividing property, every daughter becomes blind toward him. The joking and mocking behavior of the court jester provide this comic relief at several other places in the play. These lines bring relief for the readers when the tragedy is overwhelming.

 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Act 5, Scene1, Lines 14-20

FIRST CLOWN

“Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here

stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,

and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he,

he goes, –mark you that;

but if the water come to him

and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he

that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.”

This is an example of comic relief from Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The two clownish gravediggers in this scene are talking about the drowning of Ophelia and her burial in the graveyard. These lines show how jestingly this first gravedigger is exampling the suicide in a way that it does not seem that he is accusing the dead; rather, he is accusing the water. This is comic relief as it provides the audience a chance to smile after going through heavy sorrows of the death of Hamlet’s father and melancholy of the young Hamlet.

 

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow,

Scene 11, Lines 20-24

HORSE-COURSER:

“Well, sir.—Now I am made man for ever. I’ll not leave my horse for forty. If he had but the quality of hey-ding-ding, hey-ding-ding, I’d made a brave living on him: he has a buttock as slick as an eel.  [Aside.] Well, God b’ wi’ ye, sir, your boy will deliver him me: but hark you, sir; if my horse be sick or ill at ease, if I bring his water to you, you’ll tell me what it is.”

Horse courser is a character in Dr. Faustus, who wants to buy Faustus’ horse when they are in the emperor’s court. Faustus warns him not to ride his horse in water. At first, he displays his seriousness in understanding his instructions. Later he begins to cut jokes over this issue saying that the horse’s behind is “slick as an eel” making others laugh over the argument. However, it is interesting that when he rides on it through water, it vanishes, leaving him on the grass. This comic scene occurs when the situation becomes profoundly serious and intense in the play.

 

Cynicism

Cynicism is a pessimistic or negative view of the world – a suspicious attitude toward sentimental attachments and a tendency to view the world as a grim, unhappy place. Though this doesn’t sound like a very funny philosophy, cynical characters actually make for great comic relief, because the bad things in the world don’t affect them as much. They already take a dim view of the world, so nothing really upsets them and they’re able to make jokes at pretty much anything. Their brand of comic relief usually comes in the form of dark comedy.

Dark Comedy/Gallows Humor

This is when we make jokes about a serious matter: death, disease, terrorism, addiction, war, injustice, slavery, etc. “Gallows” aren’t funny, but at the same time, making fun of them can help make sense of the world’s ills, and humor is a healthy way to deal with negative experiences. This kind of humor can be very effective if crafted thoughtfully.