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alt title(s): The Funny Guy I'm a comedy sidekick... Oh, shit, I'm a comedy sidekick! This isn't gonna work!
-Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien), Last Action Hero
My brothers have my measure when it comes to fighting and dancing and thinking and reading books, but none of them is half my equal at lying insensible in mud.
Also known as the Comic Relief or The Funny Guy. A character whose primary role in the show is to relieve tension with oddball and/or hysterical antics. He has a job to do, but doesn't get into the thick of things and can stay somewhat detached. Due to the fact their purpose is to relieve tension, they almost always have immunity to dying when compared to the other characters. A guaranteed sign that the series is suffering from Cerebus Syndrome or that things are just going to go to Hell from here is to see whether this character either dies or has a complete and utter meltdown.
The term comes from Sam Rockwell's "Guy Fleegman" character in the movie Galaxy Quest (who, in a non- genreblind example of Lampshade Hanging, is afraid that he is only a Red Shirt, until another character ("Fred Kwan") suggests that maybe he is instead the Plucky Comic Relief), which of course was spoofing the television show Star Trek.
In some cases, similar to Stupid Boss.
Many sidekicks fit this description as well.
Examples
Anime
- Shinagawa from Ask Dr Rin.
- In the last episode of Slayers NEXT, Lina concludes that the only reason Martina survived the confrontation with the Big Bad was because she is the Plucky Comic Relief character.
- Uzura in Princess Tutu spends much of the second season filling this role, although she has a few plot-important moments towards the end and is never quite able to stay completely detached from the action.
- Shiho from Mai-Otome. Though some of her antics are usually the cause of (or contribute to) the problem of the day in early episodes, she becomes surprisingly effective near the end, while retaining her goofy madness. This is considered a cross-continuity Scrappy Heap rescue to those who were turned off by HiME!Shiho's violent attempts at Love Triangle-breaking.
- Matsuda in Death Note.
- Puck and Isidro apparently exist in part to keep Berserk from collapsing under its own cynicism during the darker stretches of the series.
- Bat in Fist Of The North Star was the plucky comic relief sidekick until the Time Skip, where he Took A Level In Badass.
- Rock Lee and Maito Gai, without a doubt, in Naruto.
- Smith from Ginga Nagareboshi Gin who evolves into a Cool Old Guy in Ginga Densetsu Weed.
- Gomamon from Digimon.
- Isaac and Miria, the very, very out-of-it Bonnie And Clyde duo of Baccano!. They also miraculously avoid injury beyond paper-cut level on a regular basis in a show with a violence rating and body count of a typical Quentin Tarantino film. The lone exception to this is one heavily-bleeding cut Isaac acquires on his while saving Czeslaw, which reveals their less-than-mortal nature to the boy when it immediately stitches itself up.
- Sailor Mini Moon in the Sailor Moon anime. Her Pink Sugar Heart Attack rarely worked, and even then it was pathetically weak. This is in contrast to the manga where it actually does work well on a regular basis.
Film
- As stated above, Guy in Galaxy Quest. To some extent, Fred Kwan also qualifies for spending most of the film oblivious to, or at least unreasonably calm about, the ostensible dangers:
Fred Kwan: Uh, guys? They're telling me, the, uh, engines can't take it... ship's, uh, breaking apart... just FYI.
- The Largo brothers, Pavi and Luigi, fill this role in Repo! The Genetic Opera. Of course, in a movie like Repo, the comic relief duo is made up of a murderer and a rapist...
- Jack, the main character of Big Trouble In Little China, falls squarely into this category, although he thinks he's the hero.
- Pippin in the first film.
Literature
- Bluebell, the comedian rabbit of Watership Down, serves as a comic relief not only to the readers, but also is an in-story tension breaker.
- Keehar the seagull serves the purpose in the film adaptation.
- Madame Khokhlakov's role in The Brothers Karamazov is to provide lighthearted, trivial discussion versus everything else that goes on in the story. She is eternally cheerful and will talk you to death. Dostoevsky used her to insult his critics at the time by having her agree with their works.
- In Harry Potter, Fred and George. As the series gets Darker And Edgier, one loses an ear and the other bites it. (Dies, that is, not bites the ear.)
- A casual reading of the Witches subseries of Discworld novels would suggest that Nanny Ogg's job is to keep bringing the funny, while Granny Weatherwax and Magrat get all the Crowning Moments Of Awesome. And this is the case, but what's not always apparent is that this is exactly how she likes things, and if she wanted to be Granny, she easily could be.
Live Action TV
- Greg Sanders, the DNA specialist on CSI, is an excellent example of this trope.
- Not so much anymore, now that he's had several serious character arcs (not to mention becoming one of the most experienced CSIs on the team). The role has been taken over by Hodges and the supporting Lab Rats.
- So is Marshall on Alias.
- Taylor Townsend of The OC. As the series Wacky Girl she was a welcome relief from the sometimes overpowering angst of the penultimate season.
- Hurley's role on Lost began this way, but has become less so as the character has become more important.
- Xander and later Andrew in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Though the writing is uniformly witty enough that all characters get their day in the Plucky Comic Relief sun.
- Klinger of M*A*S*H. He so seldom got into the dramatic plots of the episodes his Sarcasm Failure was more effective than Hawkeye's ("Mail Call Three", "Period of Adjustment", "Death Takes a Holiday").
Webcomics
Web Original
- Lee Phillips in season 2 of KateModern.
- A lot of them in the Whateley Universe. The junior high mages known as 'the three little witches', Go-Go (a speedster who used to go by 'Quickie' until she found out why everyone was laughing), Generator, ...
Western Animation
- Danny O'Farrell of Fillmore.
- Teen Titans Beast Boy. Oh-so-very-much.
- Sokka in Avatar The Last Airbender is this, while also being The Smart Guy and a Badass Normal.
- In the classic Warner Brothers cartoon Drip-Along Daffy, Daffy Duck is the supposed western hero, while Porky Pig is explicitly called the "comedy relief", dressed in a Gabby-Hayes sidekick outfit. Of course, Porky is five hundred times more competent than Daffy, and ends up defeating the villain and being appointed sheriff.
- Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible, yet somehow he is The Hero of the show...
- The Flash in Justice League Unlimited. Considering his death sparked a totalitarian dictatorship in another unvierse and nearly caused the apocalypse in the regular one, his anti-angst plays a very important role in keeping the Justice League from going off the deep end.
Tabletop Games
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