Morale Support

Amy Wright 

It has been a basic notion of performance going back to the beginning that everybody has a part to play. There is a reason that “there are no small parts, only small actors” is such an enduring mantra among the dramatic set. The same principle applies to general character types as well. Some being thought of as more prestigious and desirable the others. Heroes tend to be a popular choice, which only stands to reason. Villains are also near to top of the wish list for many a thespian. As the opposite number to the heroes they are equal in status in terms of the narrative while also having little to none of the usual moral restraints. The main difference between Batman and The Joker is that the Joker kills, often and gleefully, while Batman tends not to kill at all, unless being directed by Tim Burton, the trauma of seeing his parents murdered having made something of an impression.

A character-type, once perfectly respectable though having fallen out of favour in recent years is the Comic Relief. Dating back to the days of Shakespeare, the Comic Relief character was devised as psychological safety valve. Bringing release and relief to even the darkest of tragedies. As well as to give the Comedy specialists in the company something to do. It was not until the early-20^th century that the idea of Comic Relief being annoying came about. Something which has been seen to influence everything from Star Wars with C-3PO to Harry Potter with Ron Weasley. There were several factors that went into this shift but two of the main propagators were Michael Eisner of Walt Disney Studios and Rob Schnider who, despite his Such incarnations can easily give the impression that Comic Relief is a euphemism for "Annoying Side-Character". At their best, however, Comic Relief characters are more complex than they seem and can be among the the richest parts to play, going beyond even what Shakespeare was able to do with them. Interestingly and perhaps as a sort of atonement, none other than Disney Studios have been at the forefront of the effort to resuscitate the Comic Relief character into something more than a wise-cracking doofus or a singing, pun-slinging animal. Taking things in a somewhat different direction, the 2010 film Tangled featured some of the best Comic Relief characters in the studio's history in the forms of Pascal, the lizard friend of the the main character and Maximus, the horse who is on the trail of the roguish love-interest. In a coup for the company and animal characters in general, neither Maximus nor Pascal are actually able to speak. Which is not to say that they cannot communicate. The writers and animators having skills with physical comedy such that they are genuinely the funniest characters in the film, despite there being a good number of decent zingers coming from nearly everybody on the screen.

Live action is also branching out in terms of how Comic Relief characters are used, particularly on television. One of the key examples is the Canadian Detective series Murdoch Mysteries. While most of the characters are intentional or unintentional parodies of established character tropes such as the focused detective and his bungling superior officer, the program really shines because of the contributions of Constable George Crabtree. Portrayed by Stand-Up Comedian Jonny Harris, Crabtree comes across initially like the classic Comedy Sidekick. He is keen but inexperienced with a tendency to believe in the supernatural and say the wrong thing for the context of the scene. Such as saying a particular twist in an investigation would work well for the murder mystery he is writing. He is also dedicated, brave, a brilliant 
researcher and has more than once broken a seemingly impossible case often with an off-hand comment.

A creator known for crafting well-rounded characters in general, it is little surprise that someone know for his complex Comic Relief is Joss Whedon. No matter what project he is doing, an online series about a super-villain or an adaptation of The Bard, Whedon manages to keep his trademark sense of humor in every script he writes. One of the most obvious examples of this is Wash, the deceptively skilled pilot of the starship Serenity in the series Firefly and its spin-off/resurrection bid Serenity. Rather than the oafish, tries-too-hard, not-as-funny-as-he-thinks-he-is Comedy Sidekicks of yore, Wash’s humor is sharp, to the point and generally reactive. Some of his best lines coming in response to something said to him, such as when resident tough-guy Jayne Cobb threatens to beat him up.

Jayne: You wanna dance, little man?

Wash: Only if it’s somewhere with candlelight.

Generally, Wash’s purpose in the story, despite his wicked pilot

skills, is to maintain balance and keep the show from ever getting too serious or dark.

To address the elephant that is no doubt in the room, yes, Xander Harris, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, is a prime example of the Comic Relief character in the modern context. The stand-out character when it comes to humor on a show that is famous for being funny, Mr. Harris quickly established himself as the “Funny Guy” of the series. A title he maintained, against some stiff competition, until the end of the series. More than giggles however, Xander brings the show something else. A core of humanity. One of the very few main characters with no powers to speak of, even the stodgy former Librarian Rupert Giles having Watcher’s training and some low-level magical ability, Xander is the character with whom the audience can most readily identify. He is just a regular guy caught up in strange goings on due to his friendship with Buffy. He didn’t ask for any of it and likely would have stayed oblivious had he and Buffy never met. More than this, because he is the one who is closest to regular humans, he is also the one who is best at relating to them. People tend to like Xander and trust him, not despite but in a way especially because of the scary situations on the show. This is shown throughout the series, perhaps most strongly in a scene near the beginning of Season 5 after the arrival of Buffy’s teenaged sister Dawn. In the scene Buffy is told by her mother, Joyce, that she has to babysit Dawn so Joyce can go to an important work event, though Buffy, being the Slayer, needs to go patrolling, Dawn protesting all the time that she doesn’t need a baby-sitter. When Buffy brings up the idea of getting someone else to babysit Joyce is skeptical, wondering who she could possibly get on such short notice. The first person Buffy thinks of is Xander. A notion to which neither Joyce nor Dawn object.

Xander’s position as only being Comic Relief is tested at various points, beginning with the Season 3 episode “The Zeppo”. Though this comes out most strongly in the fifth and sixth series. First there is the notorious episode “The Body” in which Joyce dies suddenly of complications related to a brain tumor. It is an unusual episode in that it contains next to no supernatural elements. Just the emotions and reactions of the surviving characters. In Xander’s case, somewhat surprisingly, this comes out as a quiet, seething rage. Epitomized by a scene in which he suddenly punches a wall, putting his hand right through it. Despite his happy-go-lucky persona, this is the first real indication we get that there might be something else going on with Xander. That maybe all those years with Buffy, doing his best to help but in the end being next to powerless, are getting to him. Joyce’s unexpected death being the most recent example. This comes to a head in Season 6. Following various events that have resulted in their estrangement, Xander and his ex-fiancé Anya, a former Vengeance Demon, have a knock-down drag-out argument in which Anya utters a line that not only recognizes but criticizes Xander’s role as Comic Relief.
Xander: I hurt you and you get me back, real mature!

Anya: No, the mature solution is for you to spend your whole life telling stupid, pointless jokes so that no one will notice that you’re just a scared, insecure little boy.

While hard to take, this observation more or less sums up Xander’s character up to that point and goes a ways in explaining his recent turn towards depression and aggression. While this is not going to be the case with all Comic Relief characters, it is certainly a different twist on the trope.