Comic Relief

When I was a little kid my parents would tell my big sister and I stories before we went to sleep. My dad would generally either read us a book or make up a story for us generally including us in the story whereas my mom would usually just tell us stories about life. One of my most vivid memories of a story that my mom told me was the story of her grandmother's funeral. It was hilarious.
I know that hilarity is rarely associated with death unless someone is talking about Weekend at Bernie’s but this story had something about it that really tickled me pink. That thing that really made me laugh is called comic relief, but at the time I didn’t know it. In the story my mom described the setting and told us all about this backwoods church and all of her relatives and her grandmother’s friends who were there; all dressed in black. She then went on to explain that her father, my grandfather, was one of the people who was expected to go up and speak. As he walked up onto the stage he discovered one of the fundamental laws of physics, Amontons' First Law: The force of friction is directly proportional to the applied load. To clarify, my grandfather slipped and fell on his ass. My mom said that this caused the room to enter an uproarious state of laughter and really helped to ease the mood.
In Elizabeth’s post she asked if I thought comic relief is necessary, which I have to say that I do think that, and she also asked if I think that all movies need it in order to be successful, which I have to say that I don’t. Life without comic relief would be life without peace, without calm, but a movie that lacks comic relief can easily still be successful. One has to keep in mind that comic relief implies that there is something to be relieved from so all of the successful slapstick style comedies don’t use comic relief they use other kinds of comedy. Dramas often abstain from using comic relief because it can lessen the serious tone of the film but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be successful. At the end of the day, comic relief is just like anything else; it has a time and a place.