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The Purpose of Humor - Printable Version

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The Purpose of Humor - GloryRhodes - 01-09-2015

"...but it’s also a symptom of the mindset that anything that isn’t entirely super-serious is flawed. The conclusion that gets to is that if Justice League International is funny, then it can’t be anything else."


I recently read an article about the lasting legacy of twenty year old comic book series, and it struck me as very informative towards RP.  While it is about a comic, and a ton of information in the article is about comics, it's also very relevant to RP styles.


The whole article is a discussion about why this particular book about a group of super heroes is more impactful than any number of other books about super heroes despite the fact that it's often derided as the "Funny" book.


A lot of RPers love serious storylines.  Murder, mystery, betrayal, sex, ultraviolence, blood on the ceiling, the whole nine yards.  Mature storylines.  And there is nothing wrong with those stories.  They're not just important, they're often critical to character development.  At lot of times though, the funny storyline is considered less important.  It's set aside as something entertaining to do once or twice, but isn't as necessary as the impactful drama of missing loves and evil villains killing PCs.


That's where this article makes its stand.  The comedy in characterization is just as important as the heavy hitting action and drama.  Many Free Companies are groups of extremely powerful people fighting badguys, and bickering amongst themselves with personal drama, making them very close to the established superhero team dynamic, which means that the storylines of FCs can be informed by the same kind of story telling as in super hero comics.


“The groundwork is laid through comedy and character work, so that when the action starts, it hits harder. You’re lulled into thinking that this is just going to be a sitcom about bickering teammates and Guy Gardner’s mouth writing checks that his glass jaw can’t cash, and when it’s time to flip it around and blindside you with all the serious stuff that comes from a superhero comic, it subverts your expectations and feels a whole lot more serious than it actually is.”


And let's be completely fair. Most big action drama storylines aren't really all that serious. We know that our own characters are probably not in any real danger unless we agree to it. We know that while someone may die, they're not really dead. They're just going to reroll a new character. The real impact of these events like character death is an honest feeling of loss at a character that you've enjoyed, but without laying the groundwork of having a character that others enjoy there is no sense of loss. If a dead character can be replaced by another stoic quiet loner with a mysterious past then there's no actual loss there. Often, there's not even a real sense of peril when that character is put in danger because there's no connection to him.


I'm a big fan of humor in RP, and not because I don't enjoy serious storylines. I like it because people you laugh with are people you care about. And when you care about the characters involved in a story then you care about the story.


“They all follow that mold, balancing out those small, affable, engaging character moments with the big action that works because it feels like the bad guys are going after your friends instead of your heroes.”

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Aaron - 01-09-2015

Aaron is humorous a lot of times tbh. He's just serious in public lol

I agree though comedy is about as important as mature storyline. The loner trope gets old after a while. 

This coming from the guy who was the epitome of the loner with Aaron, it gets boring eventually. It's why im slowly making him become a sarcastic comedic smartass Smile

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Unnamed Mercenary - 01-09-2015

I fully agree with it.
Too much "character development" with "dark"/"mature" plots can only go so long until really, give the poor character a break. Let them live a life. Give them someone to /want/ to keep going for. Too many serious plots is like over watering a plant. Sure, the first couple of times, you aren't going to notice. But keep doing it, and the plant is going to die. Give it some sunlight! Let it grow naturally.

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Gegenji - 01-09-2015

My favorite sort of material is the kind that has a nice duality, actually - the kind that can transition from silly to serious and back again without being shocking.

The Slayers anime is a good example of this - it has plenty of goofy moments, right next to plenty of serious ones too. Transformers Prime managed this plenty of times as well, along with getting that nice nostalgia feeling. Really, if you can pull this off with any sort of writing, you'll probably have my interest readily enough.

As such, I try for a similar thing for Chachan. Yes, he's a childish goofball character... but he can have his serious moments too. He's just a bit dim at times and his serious moments can get... a little overly dramatic. It's something I need to work on, really. Blush

RE: The Purpose of Humor - McBeefâ„¢ - 01-09-2015

(01-09-2015, 05:34 PM)Aaron Wrote: Aaron is humorous a lot of times tbh. He's just serious in public lol

I agree though comedy is about as important as mature storyline. The loner trope gets old after a while. 

This coming from the guy who was the epitome of the loner with Aaron, it gets boring eventually. It's why im slowly making him become a sarcastic comedic smartass Smile

I think you could just try and make a multi-faceted character! Maybe they're grumpy sometimes, loners sometimes, social other times, happy others...

Go hog wild!

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Edgar - 01-09-2015

(01-09-2015, 05:34 PM)Aaron Wrote: Aaron is humorous a lot of times tbh. He's just serious in public lol

I agree though comedy is about as important as mature storyline. The loner trope gets old after a while. 

This coming from the guy who was the epitome of the loner with Aaron, it gets boring eventually. It's why im slowly making him become a sarcastic comedic smartass Smile

"Tick tock, tick tock..."

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Aaron - 01-09-2015

(01-09-2015, 05:46 PM)Natalie Mcbeef Wrote:
(01-09-2015, 05:34 PM)Aaron Wrote: Aaron is humorous a lot of times tbh. He's just serious in public lol

I agree though comedy is about as important as mature storyline. The loner trope gets old after a while. 

This coming from the guy who was the epitome of the loner with Aaron, it gets boring eventually. It's why im slowly making him become a sarcastic comedic smartass Smile

I think you could just try and make a multi-faceted character! Maybe they're grumpy sometimes, loners sometimes, social other times, happy others...

Go hog wild!
Like Jim Carey in Me Myself & Irene? Lol

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Aaron - 01-09-2015

(01-09-2015, 05:58 PM)Edgar Wrote:
(01-09-2015, 05:34 PM)Aaron Wrote: Aaron is humorous a lot of times tbh. He's just serious in public lol

I agree though comedy is about as important as mature storyline. The loner trope gets old after a while. 

This coming from the guy who was the epitome of the loner with Aaron, it gets boring eventually. It's why im slowly making him become a sarcastic comedic smartass Smile

"Tick tock, tick tock..."
Plzno D:

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Jazz Egi - 01-10-2015

I happen to abhor serious RP and have been accused of trolling in the past when characters point out absurdities in otherwise sad narratives. I blame the Discworld series for this attribute, but I will always aim for the punchline. For instance, how do miqo'te wear glasses? Do they use straps? Tape?

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Unnamed Mercenary - 01-10-2015

(01-10-2015, 09:51 PM)Jazz Egi Wrote: I happen to abhor serious RP and have been accused of trolling in the past when characters point out absurdities in otherwise sad narratives.  I blame the Discworld series for this attribute, but I will always aim for the punchline.  For instance, how do miqo'te wear glasses?  Do they use straps?  Tape?

Definitely hairclips.

RE: The Purpose of Humor - FreelanceWizard - 01-10-2015

(01-10-2015, 09:51 PM)Jazz Egi Wrote: For instance, how do miqo'te wear glasses? Do they use straps? Tape?

Straps, clearly. Smile

Seriously, though (ha, serious on a thread about humor), I've had L'yhta wear glasses she doesn't need now and then as a joke, and what she does is buy ones that are too small, then use hairclips to keep them in place.

On the original topic, yes, humor's an important thing. I like to think there's a difference between silliness and humor, or "unserious" and "serious" humor, as it were. The former doesn't take the RP and the characters seriously, while the latter does, and it's better for it. There's a reason there's a lot of playful fun, "slice of life," and comedy event RP in the Tower -- so that the "grimdark" stuff, when it comes up, is all the more powerful because you're invested in the characters.

The last quote by the OP sums up how I feel about it:

Quote:“They all follow that mold, balancing out those small, affable, engaging character moments with the big action that works because it feels like the bad guys are going after your friends instead of your heroes.”


RE: The Purpose of Humor - Elysia - 01-10-2015

I'd like to add that comedy is often a powerful force for social or political commentary, partly because humour is employed as a way of coping with the underlying bleaker / darker aspects of life. Reason why many of the best English language movies are comedies, IMO (:

On a more related note, I've RP-ed in situations which started out "serious", dissolved into general slapstick silliness and then curiously went back up the scale amidst all that because the characters were learning, changing, in very small ways. All RP is meaningful as long as  it's your characters taking the story wherever it needs to go. 

My character admittedly hasn't been in RP all that much and all she's been doing is talking, writing and getting friends drunk - slice-of-life stuff, basically - and I'm finding that it's actually laying a lot of groundwork for her character development!

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Steel Wolf - 01-11-2015

While Steel is a little ball of hate towards Garlemald and a widower, it's also been now six years since the events at Carteneau, so even in an RPG world that seems like plenty of time to have grieved. I've personally always faced things with a smart mouth and a quick, humorous quip, so a lot of that goes into my writing for her character. I'd like to think that if someone I loved dearly had died, I'd face it in much the same way she is.

As for Cliaux, she's just a bouncy little thing whom I love dearly and need to get out into the RP world more. So inherently she's funny, but at the same time has the ability to knock your block off. In fact, she's probably my favorite character I've made for this game. She's the sort who would roundhouse the hell out of her enemy, then look around to see if anyone saw how AWESOME that looked, or perhaps eek because someone might have been looking up her skirt when she kicked.

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Kamome - 01-16-2015

I love this.

I think this applies especially to FFXIV. Just look at how characterization works in many JRPGs, especially Square Enix's. Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and all the FF's have a ton of humor and character fluff that makes you care about the characters. Just think of that horrible Yuna/Tidus laughing scene in FFX (just kidding about that one, but seriously--Ayla in Chrono Trigger is probably my favorite example). 

Character banter and joking around is my personal favorite part of RP, too. Thank you for posting this! Laugh with is, cry with us--that's the best way to go! 

Also, side note: something I see a lot in RP is all of the serious conversation happening IC, and people saving the jokes and goofing around for OOC. It's always good to give your characters weaknesses that can be laughed about, and not to take IC mocking or teasing personally. Maybe the reason we don't see as much lighthearted RP IC is because our characters don't have enough flaws to make fun of!

RE: The Purpose of Humor - Telluride - 01-16-2015

The thing I love about playing Nathan is that it can be very difficult to tell from one moment to the next whether he's serious, bantering, joking, throwing up subtle insults, or really just talking in circles enough to cause enough distraction to do whatever else is on his mind. He can take an insult or a jibe, though, and actually enjoys the ins and outs of the exchanges.

As I told one person in particular, in a slightly different way, he's almost happier finding the biggest pain-in-the-arse in the room for verbal jousting than he is surrounded by passive people - pretty or otherwise - whose best line is /chuckle or /laugh, with nothing added to it.