Tis a niche of its own
Sorry there is only two female characters, I kinda pulled these off the top of my head and probably missed a ton of other candidates. Reblog with an addition if you have one!
Edit: I forgot to make this poll a week long! Once this poll ends I'll remake it with new additions depending on the results (the characters with the fewest results will be replaced with suggested characters from the notes so be sure to suggest some!) in the meantime tho plz reblog to increase sample size
This follows my own definition of what "Comic Relief" means: A character that is used as a conduit for comedy in a piece of media
Through character studies I have determined that there are 5 types of comic relief: the Character Relief, the Audience Relief, the Tone Shifter, the Butt of the Joke, and the Slapstick. Characters that identify as "Comic Relief" usually fall into one or more of these categories
Further explanation under the cut
The Character Relief refers to a character who actively makes jokes to be funny in-universe through conscious humor. Examples from this poll would be Sans and Rayla, who go out of their way to make their friends laugh
The Audience Relief refers to a character who makes the audience laugh regardless of their impact on the story. Examples from this poll would be Lapis and Gus, who are often involved in comedic bits meant for audience entertainment that aren't acknowledged by the narrative as anything unprecedented
The Tone Shifter refers to a character who makes jokes to relieve tension and shift the tone of a scene, either consciously or unconsciously. Examples from this poll would be Jay and Leo, as they both consciously make jokes about grim situations to help their friends or family feel better. Additionally, Jay would do this unconsciously before his trauma made him start doing it on purpose
The Butt of the Joke refers to a character who is made fun of by other characters in-universe, whether endearingly or not. Examples from this poll would be Dewey and Lance, who are often met with insults whenever they do something wrong or silly. The insults are usually meant to be endearing and comedic, but they can still feed into the character's possible inferiority complex. This also applies whenever a villain hits them with a sick burn*
The Slapstick refers to a character who is made fun of by the narrative and the audience like a punching bag. Examples from this poll would be Sokka and Yusuke, who are sometimes put in troubling and awkward situations as a gag for the audience's entertainment alone. These gags are not fun for the characters yet delightful to watch
Most comic relief characters can be characterized as multiples of these. For example, Jar-Jar from Star Wars is both Slapstick and Audience Relief, and even if you don't find his jokes funny that doesn't change the fact that they were written with your entertainment in mind
If you're curious how a "The Narrative's Favorite (derogatory)" character would fit into this chart, they're likely both a Butt of the Joke and a Slapstick character, making their life absolute hell. To be honest, MK from Monkie Kid is an example of a character who fits all 5 categories, but he isn't blue so he isn't in this poll
*Ok if you've ever seen Phineas and Ferb Mission Marvel let me just say MODOK is a total Butt of the Joke and my favorite line in that special is when a TV announcer calls him a "Giant Chicken Egg with a Face" and I just had to mention that omg
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Willow: Gus, we have a big problem.
Gus: Oh, the fire?
Willow: No, it's- wait, what fire?!
Gus: Oh, forget about it, this sounds far more interesting.
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Jason Todd and Hunter Noceda-Deamonne have the same fandom problem in the sense that they have excellent writing and genuine redemption arcs but unfortunately they're surrounded by poc and women and especially woc who're important to them with pretty much bo revelant white characters that aren't their antagonists and that gives their hardcore stans media blindness thanks to seeing them as edgy white boys and nothing else so to them their casts may as well not exist and they just can't help but feel like they'd work better with other white boys and plainer white girls and for the woc to not exist outside of them-And mind you,'Noceda-Deammone' as a last name for Hunter isn't even an actual tag despite Camila and Darius being his only parental figures.This is pretty bad for Jason and Hunter themselves because it erases them as good examples for how white people should behave around and treat minorities who're constants in their lives and also just generally makes them not as interesting due to it being used to turn them into power fantasies and packaged tropes and nothing but quirks and this is exactly what white DC and Toh fans want for them since they refuse to grow up and get angry at woc and kids of color in the fandom in particularly for not caring for their behavior because they're used to us taking it lying down
Very happy to have to be the one to tell you this but Hunter never even looking in any white boys direction in favor of Gus' mutual found brotherly love with him,only ever loving Willow,being adopted into Camila and Luz's family,Darius becoming dad who never hurt him unlike Belos and never rivaling Amity over Luz because a boy and a girl looking at eachother once isn't a love triangle and Jason not giving two shits about Tim because he's too busy being bros with Duke and Damian,rejecting any white girl who tries to throw herself at him because he wants Rose,Artemis and Dana and choosing Talia and Stephanie as his mother and Batgirl without ever considering anyone else isn't 'wasted potential'.Us-meaning the people who their stories are actually about,the poc and girls and girls of color you refuse to let exist-telling you stop being bigots for your dogshit fics isn't 'harrasment'.You just don't get what you want this time so SUCK IT UP like you always tell us to after coming into OUR spaces
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