"I'm sorry, the position of 'annoying talking animal' has already been taken!"
— Donkey, Shrek 2.
In fiction, many character groups possess someone whose (usually self-proclaimed) job is to provide the humor. To be the token goofball who cracks painfully lame jokes, and often annoys everyone.
But what if someone else comes along? Someone who also likes to play the clown, and can seemingly do it better? In this situation, the group's original clown usually won't be happy about it. They may even think the new guy is trying to "steal" their position as the group's funny guy, and set out to fight for their role. And thus, hilarity ensues.
The challenger to the comic relief's position may be a Foil of some kind, utilizing a different style of comedy (or simply a better delivery) that proves more popular with the group.
This can also apply to when the comic relief places such importance on their jokes and routines that they react with anger when they see someone else using them.
Sister trope of Territorial Smurfette. Compare with Cast Speciation and Dislikes the New Guy. See also Plucky Comic Relief, The Gadfly, and Class Clown. Not to be confused with Fighting Clown.
Examples:
Comic Books
- Secret Six: At the end of the "Six Degrees of Devastation" miniseries, Ragdoll pushes newest team member Mad Hatter off a ledge. His reason for doing so? "There's only room for one dandy freak on this team."
- Spider-Man: Spider-Man is used to being the quipster of whatever team he's on, so he's upset when he's temporarily on the same Avengers team as Hawkeye, who likes to quip, too.
Films — Animation
- In Shrek 2, Donkey is initially hostile toward Puss-in-Boots, believing he's going to take his place as Shrek's Sidekick.
Films — Live-Action
- This is the premise of Death to Smoochy - a veteran children's show host plots to murder an upstart who has become more popular than he is after his own show is cancelled.
Live Action Television
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Homecoming", Xander is convinced he's going to win the "Class Clown" award, only for it to go to someone else, a student who uses props. Xander sourly retorts "Anyone can be a prop class clown."
- The Fast Show: A recurring sketch revolves around Colin Hunt, an office joker who annoys his co-workers with his incessant pranks. In one sketch, another joker walks into the office, with Colin responding to his jokes with uncharacteristic coldness.
- Friends: In "The One With The Male Nanny" Monica mentions that her new coworker is the funniest guy she's ever known. This upsets Chandler, who takes his sense of humor very seriously. Joey agrees that Chandler should be upset at this. Chandler embarrasses himself by increasing the number of jokes that he tells around Monica, confusing her. When Joey tells Monica and Ross about this, Ross agrees that Chandler has a right to be upset and Monica is confused.
- NewsRadio: In “Mistake”, the station hires an eccentric new employee (played by French Stewart), leading to Matthew feeling that he’s being replaced as the “office weird guy”.
- The Office (UK): David Brent is a Pointy-Haired Boss who fancies himself a laid-back funny man. When a more popular manager visits the office and actually gets the staff laughing at his jokes, David becomes passive-aggressively hostile, as he usually does when his self-image is threatened.
- 30 Rock: Tracy is upset when he thinks Kenneth is actually funnier than him, starting a subplot where he teams up with Jenna to upstage him.
Video Games
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order: The Alliance is sent to the Dark Dimension and encounters golem-like creatures called Mindless Ones. Deadpool, of course, has a quip for it:
Deadpool: Hey! I landed the role of "Mindless One" on this team fair and square! No way I'm letting those dudes steal my deal!
- Persona 4: Spinoffs and crossovers show that Teddie gets upset whenever he feels like someone is intruding on his role as the funny mascot. He's gotten into pissing contests against Koromaru (who beats him without even trying), Morgana (who doesn't care until Teddie starts hitting on Ann) and Jubei (who's incredulous that Teddie even feels this way).
Web Animation
- DEATH BATTLE!: The introduction of DUMMI has Boomstick show signs of disliking the robot on the assumption that it's being introduced to replace him as the show's funny guy. Then Wizard uses DUMMI as a test subject for God of Destruction energy, destroying the robot, showing that DUMMI is only taking Boomstick's spot as the show's Chew Toy and nothing else. Next episode shows that DUMMI's role doesn't prevent Boomstick from still being abused though as Wizard is still happy to use him over DUMMI for certain demonstrations.
Boomstick: Why'd you even make the stupid robot?!
Western Animation
- American Dad!:
- In "Whole Slotta Love", Roger decides to become a comedic air stewardess. However, his jokes end up falling flat, while another stewardess' jokes get big laughs. This infuriates Roger, to the point where he tries to crash the plane out of spite.
- Roger and Steve sometimes role-play as Wheels and the Legman, a pair of private detectives. In the episode "Wife Insurance", they bicker over who gets to be the Comic Relief character. Eventually they reach an agreement that Steve can be the wisecracking one, but Roger can have some sarcastic quips.
- Family Guy: In "Killer Queen", Peter and Chris are sent to fat camp, where Peter quickly tries to establish himself as the "cabin clown". When the lamb he's riding on (as part of a joke about "going on the lam") cracks a joke of his own, Peter quickly tells him to stop.
Lamb: You sure you got the chops for it?Peter: Knock it off, I'm the cabin clown!
- Futurama: In "War is the H-Word", Dr. Zoidberg quickly develops a rivalry with iHawk, a more capable and charismatic doctor, leading to this:
Nurse: Are you ready to operate, doctor?Dr. Zoidberg: That's my joke! I'll Kill You!
- In the Johnny Bravo episode "I Used to Be Funny", a pair of clown street performers fight over a corner - with Johnny (who hates clowns) getting caught in the middle.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Pinkie Pride", Pinkie Pie finds her position as Ponyville's resident goofball/party planner challenged by Cheese Sandwich. Afraid that her friends will abandon her in favor of Cheese, she challenges him to a "goof off", with the funniest pony being declared the winner.
- The Simpsons: In "Radioactive Man", Moe claims that he was once one of the original members of The Little Rascals, but was fired after he beat the original Alfalfa to death for stealing his Running Gag.
