"Comedy is tragedy plus time" they say. The two are intrinsically linked.
But too often, for my taste at least, I find the tragedy element is overplayed in comedy. Take, for instance, Scrubs, a show which is for the most part zany and knockabout, but insists on having a 'sad bit', which isn't at all funny. It's as if they felt obliged to add in some mawk.
I can see that there might be a benefit from using the heart-tugging just to contrast the side-shaking, but I feel the sad-bits detract from the comedy, rather than enhance it. Extremely sad things would happen in Fawlty Towers, but they were always hilarious.
More recently, we have Free Agents, a commendable show, but I don't 'get' the point of all the tragedy. She has endless images of her dead partner everywhere; it's not funny. He breaks down and cries routinely, and it's a great portrayal of a sad and desperate character. Maybe it's for an audience who enjoys a gratuitous display of loneliness?
So is there something else I'm missing, some extra reason to have unfunny sad bits?
