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Stuff Done Right Episode 1: Comic Relief.
Nov. 22nd, 2014 07:33 pmI've been thinking about doing this for a while, so here's my attempt at a blog.
Because we all have things to complain about, particularly when it comes to fiction, my first post will be the start of a series, what I'm going to call Stuff Done Right. The premise is to discuss certain ideas, tropes, story lines that have often been done poorly, aggravatingly, unhealthily, highlighting the parts where they've been done, in my opinion, right. There will be some contrast, so complaints will be had. And, I invite people to disagree with me on these topics.
To start off...
Stuff Done Right Episode 1: Comic Relief.
Examples of comic relief done well include Columbo, Patrick Troughton's and Matt Smith's Doctors (Tom Baker's defies classification), Broadway of Gargoyles, and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender. (By the way, please check out http://amarie24.dreamwidth.org/ for a deconstruction of the A:tLA series.)
I think this poses a good range of comic relief characters done well (and, yes, this means that a main character can be comic relief within their own series). They each have slightly different ways of doing what comic relief does, relieving the tension through comedy. And, they each scale differently on the question of how much they're in on their own joke.
Some make you think them less intelligent, some make you think them less sane, and some make you think that they're smart and sane and just not good at paying attention. But, I think the unifying quality is competence. You cannot deny that any of these characters are completely competent in their strengths that are invaluable for their respective roles.
For instance, let's look at two shots of Broadway from the same episode.
Here we have a big, goofy kid of a character. The context of this shot is that he's watching a movie, so big goofy kid is a good description of Broadway... at times.
This is the same character in the same episode with just a change of context. That's him crushing a future-style gun in one hand while holding the owner of said gun in the other. That isn't unthinking anger on his face, that's knowing anger with a purpose.
To contrast this against comic relief that didn't work we have...
... a character that gets into trouble and gets in the way.
That's a quick (stop laughing, please) jot of my thoughts on the matter. What do you think?
Because we all have things to complain about, particularly when it comes to fiction, my first post will be the start of a series, what I'm going to call Stuff Done Right. The premise is to discuss certain ideas, tropes, story lines that have often been done poorly, aggravatingly, unhealthily, highlighting the parts where they've been done, in my opinion, right. There will be some contrast, so complaints will be had. And, I invite people to disagree with me on these topics.
To start off...
Stuff Done Right Episode 1: Comic Relief.
Examples of comic relief done well include Columbo, Patrick Troughton's and Matt Smith's Doctors (Tom Baker's defies classification), Broadway of Gargoyles, and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender. (By the way, please check out http://amarie24.dreamwidth.org/ for a deconstruction of the A:tLA series.)
I think this poses a good range of comic relief characters done well (and, yes, this means that a main character can be comic relief within their own series). They each have slightly different ways of doing what comic relief does, relieving the tension through comedy. And, they each scale differently on the question of how much they're in on their own joke.
Some make you think them less intelligent, some make you think them less sane, and some make you think that they're smart and sane and just not good at paying attention. But, I think the unifying quality is competence. You cannot deny that any of these characters are completely competent in their strengths that are invaluable for their respective roles.
For instance, let's look at two shots of Broadway from the same episode.
Here we have a big, goofy kid of a character. The context of this shot is that he's watching a movie, so big goofy kid is a good description of Broadway... at times.
This is the same character in the same episode with just a change of context. That's him crushing a future-style gun in one hand while holding the owner of said gun in the other. That isn't unthinking anger on his face, that's knowing anger with a purpose.
To contrast this against comic relief that didn't work we have...
... a character that gets into trouble and gets in the way.
That's a quick (stop laughing, please) jot of my thoughts on the matter. What do you think?
