"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, no matter how deserved.
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. Also see Amusing Alien, for otherworldly characters whose only purpose is comedy. Finally See The Face, where they have a purprose greater than comedy.
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.
Code Geass features a Britannia comic relief, Rivalz Cardemonde and a Japanese comic relief, Shinichiro Tamaki. Lelouch can confirm that. He's been around both of 'em. Rivalz' friend Lelouch Lamperouge by day, Tamaki's idol, Zero by night.
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.
Misa Amane. Indeed she and Matsuda were the only characters who used most of the "sillier" anime tropes, like puffy cheeks, Face Faults and, at one point, repeatedly hitting Light on the chest with Looney Toons sound effects).
Ryuk. He makes off-hand humorous comments that usually involve apples even during the most serious scenes, and almost always chuckles loudly at any new plot or character development that occurs.
Berserk: Puck and Isidro apparently exist in part to keep the work from collapsing under its own cynicism during the darker stretches of the series.
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.
Saito of the Japanese police. He's kind of like Matsuda in that he's a member of a special taskforce with a tendency toward humorous bumbling (Saito has twice been shown using his own name when undercover), and his unrequited crush on Kirihara is played for laughs. He's also something of a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, which makes sense, as he's a muggle who has regularly been up against superpowered sociopaths and has survived.
Naoki from NANA fits this trope particularly well: Despite all the drama that goes on in the series, he is oddly immune to it and (in present time) seemingly oblivious. The writer herself admits that he was written to round out the two rival bands in the story — in essence, he's basically a throwaway character with no real backstory — but he usually ends up being used as Mr. Exposition in side stories.
Misato Katsuragi and her pet Pen-Pen in the otherwise quite dark anime Neon Genesis Evangelion count as this. Pen-Pen considerably more than Misato, it has to be said. When Pen-Pen leaves, you know that the series has totally given up on plucky comic antics altogether and has now completely moved into depressing territory.
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.
Surely that's a matter of perspective. In-universe, for the characters, Guy is the Plucky Comic Relief, whereas for movie viewers Fred is PCR, while Guy hangs a lampshade on everything.
Fred's constantly laid-back nature was originally written to be due to him being a stoner. Most of the overt references were excised when the film was marketed as a family film, although the circumstantial evidence is still there, as is this line following the above exchange:
Guy: What're you, stoned?!
Also stoner noteworthy being that Fred is Comic Relief with snacks
Given that the premise of the movie is that it's all been downhill for the whole cast since the show ended, removing any overt drug references results in Fred coming across more as having been through rehab so many times that he can't stop thinking like a group therapy leader. Is it possible to have Adaptation Distillation in post-production?
Aside from being The Lancer to Tom Cody's The Hero, Billy Fish filled this role for the scene where he refuses to give Ben Gunn the money. Tom manages to convince Billy, which follows with the latter complaining under his breath. And should we mention that Billy is played by Rick Moranis, an actual comedian?
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...
Humphrey from Alpha and Omega serves as the snappy one-liner of the movie. he is usually seen hanging out with his other omega buddies and is shown to try to cheer up an alpha named Kate, whom he likes to be with.
Justified in that this is stated to be the role of the Omegas in the pack; to break up fights and keep everyone's spirits up.
Pavel Chekov increasingly takes on this role in the Star Trek films, the height of this occurring during the fourth movie.
The MS T3k-subject Attack Of The The Eye Creatures has the Peeping Tom Air Force guys, who manage to both avoid having any plot relevance or give their actions any actual humor or other, non-repulsive qualities.
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.
Fred and George. As the series gets Darker and Edgier, one loses an ear and the other dies.
Ron Weasley also fills this role within the main trio, and he's an even earlier gauge of the series' impending dark turn: as early as book four, his general status as Chew Toy produces some moments of unexpectedly bitter resentment. By book seven, he's primed for a complete meltdown.
A casual reading of the Witches 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.
Greg Sanders, the DNA specialist on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was originally an excellent example of this trope. Later in the series he has several serious character arcs. He also becomes one of the most experienced CSIs on the team. His role has been taken over by Hodges and the supporting Lab Rats.
Taylor Townsend of The O.C.. As the series Wacky Girl she was a welcome relief from the sometimes overpowering angst of the penultimate season. Usually her wackiness was paired with Seth and Summer's in the aforementioned season to provide comic drama, if such a thing exists.
Hurley's role on Lost began this way, but has become less so as the character has become more important.
Eric on Boy Meets World started off as the Chick Magnet but when that role was taken over by Shawn he became this. And then things just got weird...
This is true with allJoss Whedon shows, but there is still one or two characters in each series who do virtually nothing but be funny, in addition to fulfilling their role in the cast. In chronological order: Lorne on Angel, Wash on Firefly, and Topher on Dollhouse.
Lampshaded on Firefly:
Kaylee Did Zoe seem a little, er, funny to you at breakfast?
Wash C'mon Kaylee. We all know I'm the funny one.
And pretty much deconstructed with Lorne: the toll that being the Comic Relief takes on him by the fifth season is seriously rough.
Klinger of M*A*S*H 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").
Chloe O'Brian on 24 is this, as far as a serious show like this allows anyone to be.
Joxer: Now listen, I'm fierce, and I have a lust for blood. As a matter of fact, if a couple of days go by and I haven't shed some blood, I get very depressed. Blood and me go together like a horse and chariot! I once bathed in a tub of blood! My nickname is Bloody Joxer!
Xena: If you like blood so much? Keep talking.
The Lone Gunmen on the X-Files. This did not save them from a random and contrived death in the last season, in an otherwise comedic episode.
Lampshaded in the Doctor Who episode The Unicorn And The Wasp, when the Doctor calls Donna "The plucky young woman who helps me out":
Donna: 'The plucky young woman who helps me out'?
The Doctor: No policewomen in 1926.
Donna: I'll pluck you in a minute!
In murder mystery Harper's Island, Cal and Chloe provide much-needed wacky romance hijinx between all the deaths. They even have a short breather episode after the head spade incident when they try to retrieve Chloe's engagement ring. When they both die in episode 11 of 13, it's a sign that there won't be any more funny bits thence onwards.
Randy Disher in Monk his quirky antics and wild theories really give a nice dose of humor in the show. Still he is semi-competent and is always in the right place when he's needed.
Tyron Lannister can lighten up any scene in Game Of Thrones, even the most violent ones (his bludgeoning a man to death with his shield easily counts as one of his most badass and amusing scenes in the series.) He also bucks the trend in that he is neither dim-witted nor genuinely concerned for anyone around him.
Sister Sisto in The Flying Nun. In the pilot it was explained that she is studying English sayings in preparation for her eventualy teaching in the United States. From that point on her running joke was to say something like "We need to get on the circle!" to immediatly be corrected by one of the others "Uh, that's 'ball', Sister."
In Magic: The Gathering, Squee from the Weatherlight Saga. For example, the flavor text for Fool's Tome. More generally, goblins typically fill such a role. There was a Running Gag where goblins that could destroy things had a profession related to whatever it was they were destroying - Goblin Gardener destroyed lands, Goblin Medic dealt damage to creatures, and so on.
Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant Of Venice, who was written in specifically as this. His life offstage is referred to (he's got a family and a mistress), but onstage he's mostly there to give overdramatic monologues, spew Incredibly Lame Puns and complain about how converting Jews to Christianity will raise the price of pork. Gratiano qualifies, too.
Although Teddie from Persona 4 is this trope incarnate, just about every other character in the Investigation Team fulfill this role at some point or another in the game.
Yosuke also relates to this trope, although really more towards the beginning.
Portal 2 subverts this with Wheatley, a moronic personality core who escorts the player through the early areas of the game and, with your help, attempts to engineer a coup against GLaDOS. The subversion comes when Wheatley, upon successfully replacing GLaDOS in the Enrichment Center mainframe, goes into full A God Am I mode and becomes the Big Bad of the game.
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. Oh God, Generator. Wacky comic relief in other people's stories, horrifyingly effective hero in her own stories. There are school armbands that identify the pacifists (who won't fight back if they're bullied so you're supposed to leave them alone) and the Ultraviolents (Exactly What It Says on the Tin). Only Generator wears both. Not at the same time, of course; that would be silly. She flips a coin every morning.
In the classic Warner Bros. 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.
Porky's character from Daffy's Duck Dodgers cartoon and series, Eager Young Space Cadet, is also supposed to be this.
TheFlash in Justice League Unlimited. Considering his death sparked a totalitarian dictatorship in another universe and nearly caused the apocalypse in the regular one, his angstlessness plays a very important role in keeping the Justice League from going off the deep end.
The Fairly Odd Parents: While it's hard to find a character that isn't comic relief, Cosmo is hands-down pluckier comic reliefier.
As serious as The Secret Of NIMH was in tone, there was a certain crow that happens to be the comic relief. And that crow in particular is Jeremy.
On Xiaolin Showdown Raimundo starts off being pretty much just this.
Parodied in Titan Maximum, where it's stated that each military squad are required to consist of one of these. The one shown is woefully aware that he's totally unfunny since he originally just wanted a desk job.
