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ANNCast - Funny Ha Ha

Comedy where it doesn't belong:

For examples of this (and I realize most will probably disagree with me), I felt like Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist could have been greatly improved if they had been more serious. I found myself having a difficult time taking the "serious" elements of those shows seriously, particularly in the latter, where it seems like every time they would begin to build up to something really dramatic and interesting they would break it off with some goofy scene of Ed freaking out after someone called him midgit. It is almost as if they didn't expect their audience to be able to handle dramatic weight of a certain situation unless they cut away to a joke shortly thereafter.

However I disagree on Trigun as don't think it would be the same without the early comedy as it worked since it was pure "Vash." Particularly the early stuff like the first battle where, at least in the dub, JYB makes the "I gotta go to the potty sir" joke in a perfectly hilarious tone and then after turning away for a moment it hits the guy and he shoots at him. I think it was pretty naturally part of a mostly serious show due to Vash himself's great comedic timing/expressions. I don't want all my action shows to start light and then get darker just for emphasis but I think it worked well with Trigun because of Vash, not to mention Wolfwood and the insurance girls all worked pretty well comedically particularly when they just had reactions and didn't even need to say anything or moments of dark or ironic humor like Vash's "Total Slaughter".

DangerMouse wrote:

However I disagree on Trigun as don't think it would be the same without the early comedy as it worked since it was pure "Vash." Particularly the early stuff like the first battle where, at least in the dub, JYB makes the "I gotta go to the potty sir" joke in a perfectly hilarious tone and then after turning away for a moment it hits the guy and he shoots at him. I think it was pretty naturally part of a mostly serious show due to Vash himself's great comedic timing/expressions. I don't want all my action shows to start light and then get darker just for emphasis but I think it worked well with Trigun because of Vash, not to mention Wolfwood and the insurance girls all worked pretty well comedically particularly when they just had reactions and didn't even need to say anything or moments of dark or ironic humor like Vash's "Total Slaughter".

Thanks for responding.

To clarify, I actually responded very well to Trigun's humor early on in the series (the first three or four episodes), but in general I found it distracting how even after the show went into "serious mode" around the halfway point, it was apparently still necessary to continuously remind the audience that Vash is the quintessential "lovable goofball." Also, as I forgot to mention this in my original post, I think Trigun's over-saturation of humor made it extremely difficult to take any of the mid-level villains seriously (with the notable exception of Legato), and I found myself more often than not wanting to chuckle at these supposed "bad guys" rather than be frightened of them (perhaps this was in fact the point?).

All in all, my reaction to Trigun was fairly lukewarm; that is, I wish the comedy had been funnier and the drama more serious. I think the best way to describe it is that, while knowing pretty well on a theoretical level what the creators going for, I simply did not connect with it on an emotional level nearly as much as I could have. However, having actually just finished the series a couple weeks ago, I do admit it is something which I would definitely consider revisiting (in Japanese this time: I found the dub in fact to be rather mediocre and mostly poorly-acted) in another year or so to see if it sticks more effectively. The same goes for Fullmetal Alchemist, one of those series which is more or less universally deemed a "masterpiece" by everyone who has seen it which simply did not generate in me the same reaction.

I think the anime which comes closest in these respects is probably Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, which would probably be my second choice.

Comedy where it doesn't belong:

For examples of this (and I realize most will probably disagree with me), I felt like Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist could have been greatly improved if they had been more serious.

One anime that's my #1 comedy that no one else has mentioned is Skip Beat! - I laughed so hard all through that show.

Did I miss the mention of comedy extras? While the Maria-sama ni wa naisho are hit and miss, some of them are funny ~ and since they are only a minute or two, if the jokes misses, you've not wasted a lot of time on it.

I think my favourite comedy anime would be Gintama. Gintama is a show where I still laugh at jokes that need to be explained via translation notes, as well as a series that I find really funny because of the voices (oh man, I just loooove Sugita Tomokazu). And it is chock full of parodies too and a lot of puns as well (gintama, kintama anyone?)

I don't know quite what this falls under, comedy shorts?, but how about Tono to Issho? Total Japanese language/historical/parody/pun references jokes that seem nearly impossible for a non-Japanese to find humorous without a lot of explaining. An episode format of 1min short story + 30sec ED seems to add to its oddity.