Literature Glossary
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Comic Relief
Definition:
How do you relieve tension? Whacking golf balls? Going for a drive? Kicking some intergalactic butt in your favorite video game?
Authors relieve stress in their otherwise high-stakes stories by adding a little comic relief. Sometimes it's a funny scene, sometimes it's a clever line of dialogue, and sometimes it's an entire character.
Shakespeare (maybe you've heard of him?) is a master of taking the edge off a tragedy with a little comic relief. Characters like the Porter in Macbeth, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, and Falstaff in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 all exist to ease tension in some otherwise thoroughly tragic tales.
But comic relief isn't relegated to centuries-old British literature. Even TV dramas need a shot of concentrated chuckle power every now and then. Hank and Saul in Breaking Bad and Mad Men's Mrs. Blankenship are all examples of contemporary comic relief who inject a little levity into two of television's most sober dramas.