Developing comic relief characters

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I smell a series...but anyway:

What are your standards for creating comic relief characters, if you use them? They've been mentioned periodically in trope talks, but there hasn't been a lot of focus on them.

Here are mine:

1) No bullying
I think society has moved past the need to have a character in the cast whose only purpose is to be constantly mocked, ridiculed, and insulted by their "friends". Thanks, but no thanks.

Even if I do have a comic relief character who gets derided fairly often, I like to give them at least one friend who can "meet them on their level"; so they can have positive/neutral interactions with others, too, not just negative ones.

And this friend doesn't have to be a "fellow idiot" or a "motherly sweetheart pushover" type; that just reinforces the idea that they're less of a person (can only connect with caretakers or people who are just as stupid as they are). Just another person who more or less appreciates them for who they are...AKA a real friend.

2) Give them background
This doesn't apply to every story, but if the tone is serious enough for most of the main cast to be given interests, depth, and backstories, you shouldn't be leaving the comic relief-type MC out of that.

And on that note, the "they play the funnyman to hide their feelings/cover up deep personal trauma" background is kind of overdone. Some people can just be joyous and silly for the sake of it, y'know? ^^; It doesn't always have to be a mask, as if happy people aren't real...

3) Let them drive once in a while
I think this one actually applies to all stories. Even super flat kiddie shows hand the spotlight over to a minor character occasionally, and this is a good thing.

Comic-relief characters are called such because they are around often enough to be considered a reliable source of levity for the story. But if they're around that much, shouldn't they also be allowed to propel the plot? At least sometimes...

And I don't mean by messing something up and creating a cascade of new problems for the more level-headed characters to solve. I mean by being allowed to solve a problem for a change. Or to make an important decision, or even just to say an important line.
I mean, if you've written them to be so useless that it doesn't make logical sense for them to do any of those things, I think you should examine why you put them in the story in the first place.

4) Let someone take their place
Basically, let someone else be the comic relief once in a while; while they get to throw in an insult or two. ^^ It's only fair...and by that I mean it lets the cast feel more balanced, so you can avoid the 'bullying' look from #1.

One of my favorite casts to write for is pretty much constantly passing the comic relief hat around from member to member. Of course, some are more consistently comic relief than others, but everyone gets a chance to be the joke of the day at some point, even the most serious members~.

And when that happens, the hat isn't immediately passed back to the 'default' comic relief character; I see that happen sometimes...it's okay to just leave someone else in their place for the duration of an episode, or a chapter. If you're telling a story with a significant helping of comedy in it (and if you actually have a comic relief character, you probably are) other characters should have the capacity to be funny. Not to break character and become jokesters, but to be seen in a funny way.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

For my stuff I usually don't have a comic relief character. I try to give all my characters funny moments. None of them are safe from my impishly dark sense of humor.
How I see it....For comedy to work, someone needs to suffer. It doesn't have to be painful or awkward, just as long as it shows the characters out of their normal comfort zone enough for the reader\viewer to resonate with it, then laugh because it's not happening to them.

[Kann]

Personally I like having a comic relief character in the cast, but the most important thing for me is to not make them dumb, because that's been overdone and ends up as bullying. I give them personality and backstories just like I would do with any other character. They're just the cause of funny situations more often than the rest. xD

But yeah, letting your funny guy do important things is a good move. Just as much as letting them pass their comic relief hat to someone else just for a while. xD

[HGohwell]

I think the most important thing for me is that they don't feel out of place. A lot of comic relief characters feel like they've been shoved in without consideration for tone ect. Yeah, comic relief characters can ease tension and break up scenes/periods of too much heaviness, but when you have a serious series and then just shove in some cringe humour or toilet humour, it often doesn't fit. Timing is also really important or they just come off as not with the story.

Unless this is the goal, of course. Some of the best comic relief character I've seen in heavy series are the ones who don't quite get it. Or get it too much. Chiyori and Eldora as a pair from the Selector WIXOSS seasons are a great example of this. In a heavy psychological series, Chiyori is younger but also understands the consequences and the deal by virtue of being into anime and having read the light novels which leads to some wonderful scenes of people trying to explain the seriousness of the situation only for her to already know. (For a less obscure example, imagine a magical girl in Madoka Magica trying to explain how awful the situation to someone who's seen the anime and knows but just thinks it's cool anyway.)

I also think Johnathan from The Mummy (the first two at least, not the late sequel) is one of the best examples of a comic relief character. Especially in a pretty funny series, he manages to stand out anyway. He's funny, he's cowardly, he's lazy and selfish and is often the butt of the jokes, especially more slapstick humour, but when it comes down to it he's there with his sister and gets the job down and puts his life on the line with everyone. And I think that's one of the most important things. If you want us to like the comic relief character and not just find them annoying comic relief that doesn't need to be here, actually being there when it matters is important. Let them be brilliant when they need to be.

And also very important humour doesn't have to be mean. They don't have to be a character who is mean or is the butt of all the jokes and made fun of. That just comes off as lazy to me. If the only way someone can think of to make a character funny is to hurt them (assuming this isn't a slapstick type comedy, in which case everyone should be getting hurt really) or make them someone who's constantly picking on others, I'm not going to find them funny, I'm going to hate them or you or the character hurting them. Tsunderes are a big example of this, 99% of the time the violent tsundere is not funny it's annoying.

[DiegoPalacios]

I don`t let a single character be responsible for all the humor in a story. That burden is way too heavy XD

Personally, i give the whole main cast some personality traits that can be played for laughs, but also space for development. Even for the most serious character, his seriousness can ocasionally be played humorously, or every once in a while, show that he is not so above all.

That being said, some characters may have more comedic potential and/or more development potential than others.

[Legendofgenii]

My comic relief character is also the love interest. She's there to cheer up my MC (and piss him off, because she's so much better at everything than he is ), teach him how to have fun and give him something to care about. She'll have a much more important role to the plot later on.

I'm also aware that my story is pretty much doom and gloom so far (zombies, painful curses, lies and leaving home) But there's actually not many pages to go until she's going to shake things up and make the world a little brighter. She's my favourite character actually.