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Description
So, you've got a story/movie/game with a lot of scary or dramatic moments, but you don't want your reader/viewer/player to expect every second to be frightening or dramatic. The solution? A comic relief character! This guide is to help you make a comic relief character correctly. First, let's take a look at the varieties of CRC (Comic Relief Characters).

The Average Comic Relief
This is your average CRC. While not necessarily helping save the day, s/he is there to make a joke after a scary or dramatic moment to ease the audience for the calmer moments ahead. S/he is often attacked by an enemy, but just dodges it. These characters are usually frightened when they are attacked, not brave or cocky.

The 'Sokka'
This is the CRC that is an important part of saving the day. The reason I've called this type 'Sokka' is that Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender, while being goofy and silly (ex. In the first episode, he refers to waterbending as 'playing with magic water' and in another episode he calls Fire Nation birds 'enemy birds'), but he ends up stopping the Fire Nation army from getting to Aang. This is a fairly common kind of relief character.

The 'Chip'
This is the kind of CRC you want to avoid. While I have nothing against the character Chip, he was funny during the scary moments and not after like he should be. This is worsened by cartoon sound effects that are used, particularly in the scene where he discovers he's Light Gaia. He looks at the wall and it starts glowing and pulls him in. As he tries to fight it, he's pulled back with a cartoon-y "Woop!" sound. You might as well cue a drumroll in that somewhat scary and mysterious scene that was ruined by Chip being goofy during and not after.

So it's established that there are three basic types of CRCs, one of which should be avoided. See you in part two!

Description
So, you've got a story/movie/game with a lot of scary or dramatic moments, but you don't want your reader/viewer/player to expect every second to be frightening or dramatic. The solution? A comic relief character! This guide is to help you make a comic relief character correctly. First, let's take a look at the varieties of CRC (Comic Relief Characters).

The Average Comic Relief
This is your average CRC. While not necessarily helping save the day, s/he is there to make a joke after a scary or dramatic moment to ease the audience for the calmer moments ahead. S/he is often attacked by an enemy, but just dodges it. These characters are usually frightened when they are attacked, not brave or cocky.

The 'Sokka'
This is the CRC that is an important part of saving the day. The reason I've called this type 'Sokka' is that Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender, while being goofy and silly (ex. In the first episode, he refers to waterbending as 'playing with magic water' and in another episode he calls Fire Nation birds 'enemy birds'), but he ends up stopping the Fire Nation army from getting to Aang. This is a fairly common kind of relief character.

The 'Chip'
This is the kind of CRC you want to avoid. While I have nothing against the character Chip, he was funny during the scary moments and not after like he should be. This is worsened by cartoon sound effects that are used, particularly in the scene where he discovers he's Light Gaia. He looks at the wall and it starts glowing and pulls him in. As he tries to fight it, he's pulled back with a cartoon-y "Woop!" sound. You might as well cue a drumroll in that somewhat scary and mysterious scene that was ruined by Chip being goofy during and not after.

So it's established that there are three basic types of CRCs, one of which should be avoided. See you in part two!