Comic relief

Comic relief

Today’s expression is “comic relief.” This is a technical term in filmmaking or storytelling, but you can use it in everyday conversation. Comic relief is something that makes you laugh, and which breaks the tension in a story.

“Relief” is a word we use to get a little bit of a break from something stressful. Oftentimes in a movie or in a story, there’s tension. As a viewer, it’s stressful to watch the scenes. You feel this tension in your body. It’s almost not easy to watch, as the tension and the uncertainty builds.

So one device, one tool, that filmmakers can use to lower the tension a little bit is to add something that’s a little funny. This is called “comic relief.” It’s something funny in a tense or stressful or serious situation that lowers the intensity a little bit.

Comic relief doesn’t usually solve a situation. It doesn’t make a situation better; sometimes it does. But it gives you a little bit of a rest from constantly feeling the tension. That’s comic relief.

Here’s a great example. Snoopy is asleep on top of his red doghouse and it’s snowing. He wakes up under a blanket of snow, worried about Woodstock, the little yellow bird. Snoopy says that Woodstock, as a bird, probably doesn’t know how to take care of himself in the snow. He worries that maybe he’s buried under the snow or frozen. This is the tension. In the final frame, we see Snoopy arriving at a tree. In the tree is a bird’s nest. And in the bird’s nest is an igloo, with a fireplace, and a warm fire inside. And that’s often Woodstock’s role in the strip, to provide a little comic relief .

Disney movies have comic relief. You don’t want the children to be too scared! So even when there’s danger, even when something bad is happening, they find a way to make you laugh a little. Olaf, the snowman in “Frozen” provides comic relief. So does “Iago” in Aladdin.

Often the characters providing comic relief are secondary characters, and they sometimes make jokes about a situation that is very serious. In the early days of literature and theater, plays were either “comedies” or “tragedies.” But Shakespeare introduced “comic relief” to tragedies—some lighthearted moments in an otherwise-serious story.

You can use “comic relief” in your daily life too. A funeral, for example, is a sad occasion, a serious occasion. Every culture has its own traditions, but in the U.S., it’s often considered acceptable for someone speaking at a funeral to tell a funny story or make a small joke about the person who has died—obviously respectful. However, people often appreciate a little comic relief in a situation like that. There’s a reason to laugh, even during a sad time.

I was once a juror in a trial in New York. The defendant was accused of first-degree assault, a serious crime. She could have gone to jail for a long, long time if she had been convicted. This was a serious occasion—a time for us, as jurors, to carefully weigh the facts and the arguments and to make a decision about the defendant’s guilt. But the lawyers in the case introduced a little comic relief, too. There were brief moments that broke the tension. Small jokes, things like that. That was comic relief.

And it serves a purpose in real life, just like it does in the movies. The lawyers are trying, each side, to get us, the jury, to agree with them, with their side. Let’s say you’re the defense and I’m on the jury. When I think about the defense’s arguments, do you want me to be tense all the time? You want me to be serious. But you want me to be comfortable, too. So every once in a while, you introduce a little comic relief to just make us, on the jury, feel a little less tense, a little less stressed out.

If you want to use comic relief in a serious situation, I recommend that you do it carefully. But it can be a good tactic, if you know how to use it.

JR’s song of the week

I was reading an article that was asking, why is it that so many Christmas songs are old? If you’re like me, and if you’re a living, breathing human, then you’ve heard Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You” way, way too many times. But this is the exception that proves the rule: this is played so often because it seems like it’s one of the only new Christmas songs!

So JR picked “Christmas Tree Farm” by Taylor Swift. A lot of the lyrics are about her childhood—and get this, Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm. Did you know that? She grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania—I have been there. Not to the farm, to the town.

So anyway, “Christmas Tree Farm” by Taylor Swift is the song of the week.

See you next time!

And that’s all for today’s lesson. Remember the full lesson is available online at PlainEnglish.com/533. Congratulations on finishing the year strong with us at Plain English. We’re going to start another great year together on Monday, January 2, 2023. That will be the last of our four holiday special episodes. That one will ask, and attempt to answer, the following question: Why is New Year’s Day on January 1?

If you’re tempted to answer, “because it’s the first day on the calendar,” well, okay. But why is it the first day on the calendar? That’s what we’ll attempt to answer on Monday. I haven’t written the lesson yet, so I don’t know if I’ll find the answer. We’ll try together—that’s on Monday. See you then.