Spoilers Increased Comedy in Star Trek (SFA spoilers)

[Mudd]

Everything works better in SNW than SFA, including the humor.

Someone thinks swallowing a combadge is funny.

That said, Trek benefits from adopting a tongue-in-cheek tone ala DW or The Orville. It's people dressed in carnival colors pretending to fly spaceships, for gods' sake. Klingons have long since become pop culture punchlines.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

When they start getting self-conscious about how silly their fantasy looks to people and fail to commit to it, the fantasy starts to collapse and all that's left is a TV show.

 

[Starflight]

Yeah I think there's a distinction between humour arising from characters and situations, and humour arising from the writers winking at the viewer about the nature of the setting/premise.

Recent Trek can sometimes slip into the latter because of the issue that runs through all these shows, which is that they're obsessed with Star Trek as a cultural phenomenon and of the idea that they belong in a wider "canon", hence the constant callbacks and having characters turn to the camera to tell you what Star Trek is about or w/e.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Everything works better in SNW than SFA, including the humor.

None of the humor in Four and a Half Vulcans worked until the end tag. It was quite possibly the least funny Star Trek "comedy" episode ever produced.

 

[fireproof78]

Not as long as there is the Outrageous Okona.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Not as long as there is the Outrageous Okona.

Touche.

 

[Attentive Senpai]

I dunno, humour's always been part of Star Trek. Look at how many episodes of TOS ended on lighthearted notes or friendly jokes at the expense of Spock or McCoy. At least half of Lwaxana Troi's presence on the show was meant to be funny. The strength of Star Trek has been its ability to move between the casual and the serious. More comedy in the modern stuff is fine by me.