No comic relief character

[Mojochi]

He only appeared in a few episodes, but let's not forget about Barclay. He was certainly comic relief.

I don't necessarily think that's true. Most often there's a tragic quality to that character. It depends on the appearance. His cameo in the 1st Contact movie is certainly for comic purpose, & some of his hypochondia stuff in Genesis, but any other appearance like Realm of Fear his social awkwardness is kind of sad, & then in Nth Degree it goes from tragic to scary.

In fact, the only funny part of Hollow Pursuits is the effect that seeing his program has on the crew. The rest is a serious story about a crew member being on the verge of being removed/fired/transfered for being a problem

There's no such use as Data gets, where he's in drag, or reading dreadful poetry, or growing a laughable beard etc...

 

[Orphalesion]

Barclay definitely wasn't comic relief. But his episodes often had humour in them. Such as Riker's and Troi's reactions to their holo-doubles or Guinan's reactions and interactions with Barclay.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I like TNG's subtle humor that doesn't always come from the same character, I think it's great that there's no designated comic relief character - I really disliked how they tried to turn Data into precisely that in "Generations".

And besides, Jean-Luc makes me laugh SO often on TNG, and he's probably he LAST character people would think of when someone says "comic relief". But he has this special kind of dry and subtle humor while sometimes he's just an utterly adorable dork, like when he almost walks into a wall because he's so excited to go and see the horses in "Starship Mine". It's the cutest thing. I also love when he's confused about something. The look on his face. (It's a general thing with him, the faces he makes are just delightful.)

But I'm probably somewhat... biased.

 

[NCC-73515]

And besides, Jean-Luc makes me laugh SO often on TNG, and he's probably he LAST character people would think of when someone says "comic relief". But he has this special kind of dry and subtle humor while sometimes he's just an utterly adorable dork, like when he almost walks into a wall because he's so excited to go and see the horses in "Starship Mine". It's the cutest thing. I also love when he's confused about something. The look on his face. (It's a general thing with him, the faces he makes are just delightful.)

I think it was both getting away from Hutch and to the horses ASAP
One of my favorite scenes is him breaking into silly laughter, Riker being WTF, and him saying that sometimes you have to BOW TO THE ABSURD

 

[Mojochi]

I like TNG's subtle humor that doesn't always come from the same character, I think it's great that there's no designated comic relief character - I really disliked how they tried to turn Data into precisely that in "Generations".

And besides, Jean-Luc makes me laugh SO often on TNG, and he's probably he LAST character people would think of when someone says "comic relief". But he has this special kind of dry and subtle humor while sometimes he's just an utterly adorable dork, like when he almost walks into a wall because he's so excited to go and see the horses in "Starship Mine". It's the cutest thing. I also love when he's confused about something. The look on his face. (It's a general thing with him, the faces he makes are just delightful.)

But I'm probably somewhat... biased.

Yup. Picard carries the show's comedy just as well as Data & Worf. My favorite will always be In Theory, when Data is grilling his friends for relationship advice, & Picard dryly delivers

I would be delighted to offer you any advice I have on understanding women. As soon as I have some, I'll let you know

A gem in an otherwise mediocre episode

 

[Alexander Corrino]

One of my favorite scenes is him breaking into silly laughter, Riker being WTF, and him saying that sometimes you have to BOW TO THE ABSURD

YES! That is my all time favorite Jean-Luc moment, ever, out of all of them, and the line about having to bow to the absurd is my all time favorite Jean-Luc line. It's the first time we see him truly LAUGHING and Riker being like "that's the LAST thing I expected" just adds to the whole moment. I absolutely LOVE how it's the result of the whole absurdity of what has happened so far and I love how he just walks away and tries to compose himself but can't manage and then just laughs like "Imma just go with it now, I don't know wtf is happening anymore but hey, I'm here for it, lmao". It's such a cute moment and it makes me love him even more because he's utterly adorable when he stands there and just... laughs.

Yup. Picard carries the show's comedy just as well as Data & Worf. My favorite will always be In Theory, when Data is grilling his friends for relationship advice

I love the "OH NO" on Jean-Luc's face when Data is all like "sir"... his "oh no he has me now, doesn't he, he's gonna ask me about things I don't want to talk about" face adds to the whole scene. I love his dry sense of humor SO MUCH. Especially when Q appears - I love the moment when Q whines about having been sent to the Enterprise as punishment by the Q Continuum and Jean-Luc deadpans "And punish US as well, it would seem" or when Riker goes on about how he feels like "an idiot" for not realizing what Q was trying to do when he gave him Q powers and Jean-Luc just sits there and looks at him and says "quite right, so you should" - SAVAGE, Jean-Luc, SAVAGE ah I could go on for hours. I adore Jean-Luc's sense of humor so much, and with him it's always the little moments that stand out, he isn't overly loud in a funny way, it's often just the way he delivers a line, or sometimes even just his face - I HOWL with laughter when Troi makes it clear to him that HE should be the one to take care of Jono and you can literally SEE the panic creeping into his face.

 

[amp]

It's interesting that some people don't see Barclay as comic relief. To me, the comedy is in how Barclay acts compared to how a regular Starfleet officer would behave. Even in "Realm of Fear", perhaps his most serious appearance, there's a whole subplot where he self diagnosis himself with transporter psychosis instead of reporting his symptoms to Crusher.

Most often there's a tragic quality to that character.

I'd say that nearly every comic character has a sense of pathos about them. That's certainly true of Neelix and of Quark, the two characters mentioned in the OP.

 

[Mojochi]

Maybe it's just me, but I've never seen those Barclay scenes as being done for laughs, like Data's bad poetry reading, or Worf smashing Geordi's lute.

 

[HugeLobes]

Regarding Quark: Just because your character brings some comic relief, doesn't mean they're the comic relief character. When I look at Neelix I see a character purely created for laughs. I don't see Quark in the same way.

 

[NCC-73515]

YES! That is my all time favorite Jean-Luc moment, ever, out of all of them, and the line about having to bow to the absurd is my all time favorite Jean-Luc line. It's the first time we see him truly LAUGHING and Riker being like "that's the LAST thing I expected" just adds to the whole moment. I absolutely LOVE how it's the result of the whole absurdity of what has happened so far and I love how he just walks away and tries to compose himself but can't manage and then just laughs like "Imma just go with it now, I don't know wtf is happening anymore but hey, I'm here for it, lmao". It's such a cute moment and it makes me love him even more because he's utterly adorable when he stands there and just... laughs.



I love the "OH NO" on Jean-Luc's face when Data is all like "sir"... his "oh no he has me now, doesn't he, he's gonna ask me about things I don't want to talk about" face adds to the whole scene. I love his dry sense of humor SO MUCH. Especially when Q appears - I love the moment when Q whines about having been sent to the Enterprise as punishment by the Q Continuum and Jean-Luc deadpans "And punish US as well, it would seem" or when Riker goes on about how he feels like "an idiot" for not realizing what Q was trying to do when he gave him Q powers and Jean-Luc just sits there and looks at him and says "quite right, so you should" - SAVAGE, Jean-Luc, SAVAGE ah I could go on for hours. I adore Jean-Luc's sense of humor so much, and with him it's always the little moments that stand out, he isn't overly loud in a funny way, it's often just the way he delivers a line, or sometimes even just his face - I HOWL with laughter when Troi makes it clear to him that HE should be the one to take care of Jono and you can literally SEE the panic creeping into his face.

He has these moments, like him sneaking out of the turbolift, checking the corridor, to avoid Lwaxana, only to be immediately caught by her XD
Or after he saved her life with poetry, whispering to Wes: Warp 9!! XD
But he also deals with even the worst predicament with pure brilliance: Calling Data to bore her to death XD - Only after they left her quarters does he show his relief XD
And that scene in INS where he puts the pearl thing back on, looking all serious, opens the door, and puts up his fake diplomat smile XD

 

[Alexander Corrino]

He has these moments, like him sneaking out of the turbolift, checking the corridor, to avoid Lwaxana, only to be immediately caught by her XD
Or after he saved her life with poetry, whispering to Wes: Warp 9!! XD
But he also deals with even the worst predicament with pure brilliance: Calling Data to bore her to death XD - Only after they left her quarters does he show his relief XD
And that scene in INS where he puts the pearl thing back on, looking all serious, opens the door, and puts up his fake diplomat smile XD

Hahaha yeah, all of those. I don't even know how people don't think of him as funny - because he is. In his own very special Jean-Luc Picard way.

I also love when he gets annoyed, there are several moments when he's funny then also, like when he gets all upset that no one except him played with ships in bottles. What a nerd.

 

[JesterFace]

like when he gets all upset that no one except him played with ships in bottles. What a nerd.

What about O'Brien. Or so he claimed even after Riker didn't believe him.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

What about O'Brien. Or so he claimed even after Riker didn't believe him.

He only speaks up once Jean-Luc becomes upset tho, haha. But yeah, I'm with Riker on this one, I'd have been like "Really, O'Brien? REALLY?" also.

 

[JesterFace]

He only speaks up once Jean-Luc becomes upset tho, haha. But yeah, I'm with Riker on this one, I'd have been like "Really, O'Brien? REALLY?" also.

This discussion is great.

Picard: "It is exactly as they left it Number One, in the bottle."
(dumbfounded looks from Data and Worf)
Picard: "The ship in the bot– Oh, good Lord. Didn't anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?!"
Worf: "I did not play with toys."
Data: "I was never a boy."
(Picard sighs)
O'Brien: "I did, sir."
"(brief pause) Picard: Thank you, Mister O'Brien. Proceed."
(Riker gives O'Brien "the look" after the transport.)
O'Brien: "I did. I really did. Ships in bottles, great fun."

 

[Alexander Corrino]

^ It's ridiculously cute how Jean-Luc expects WORF and DATA of all people to get a super nerdy reference to something not even too many human children do.

 

[Herbert]

Lwaxana was a prototypical comic relief character, at least until they decided to go all dramatic and heavy with her character in those horrible episodes about her drowned daughter and the one about her relationship with Charles Emerson Winchester. Ugh

I'm glad TNG never went with a permanent comic relief character. The show had enough occasional humor to make such a character irrelevant

 

[NCC-73515]

Worf: I never played with bo...

 

[at Quark's]

Humor in TNG is often just very brief moments you easily overlook or forget in the story. The first example I can think of is not even from the show, but from the movie First Contact.

The crew are attempting to open main engineering, taken over by the Borg, and find not even manual release will work. Picard: "perhaps we should just knock?" And a second later, it's all forgotten because those Borg drones shift into action and a fight starts.

The above example is not extremely humorous, but it's typical (I think) of how seamlessly humor often was weaved into TNG's stories and situations, without a great pointer, look, you are supposed to laugh here. But I think people don't remember those moments as well as they do, say, much more blatant attempts at "humor" such as Data saying to Worf "have you noticed how your boobs have started to firm up" in Insurrection.

 

[NCC-73515]

The crew are attempting to open main engineering, taken over by the Borg, and find not even manual release will work. Picard: "perhaps we should just knock?" And a second later, it's all forgotten because those Borg drones shift into action and a fight starts.

I still don't understand what happened there. Is ripping it out the way to do it? Did he break it cause he pulled too hard?

 

[at Quark's]

I still don't understand what happened there. Is ripping it out the way to do it? Did he break it cause he pulled too hard?

Me neither. But assuming it was some kind of mechanical safety device. Break off the handle and the door will open in case of an emergeny. Or some such thing.

 

[Thomas Elliot]

DS9 has Quark, VGR has Neelix.

Are you happy or sad that there isn't this comical character in TNG?

I'm very happy.
I like TNG because it didn't feel like a conventional mainstream television show with the more over used tropes of things such as the comic relief, the precocious smart mouthed kid, the bickering couple, etc. And I know that Roddenberry's no-conflict-in-the-future characters are heavily criticized but I continue to find the approach refreshing.

When they did have a comic relief character in Barclay I hated it.

In fact, I even disliked the comedy aspect being in Star Trek for DS9, as it made it feel too familiar to other, regular television shows. With that said, I very much liked Quark and his family so it's a trade off. When Quark and his family got stranded on 1950s Earth, that was pretty funny. Quark and Grillka...great comedic chemistry.

 

[NCC-73515]

the precocious smart mouthed kid

well...

I do like that all characters have funny moments, and so the comedy role is spread out over the whole cast.