Michael O’Connor returns to discuss Star Wars comedy and why humor is as essential to the saga as drama or tragedy.
No loose wire jokes.”
“Did I say anything?!”
Anakin Skywalker & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith
By Michael O’Connor // As The Joker once said, voiced by Mark Hamill no less, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard!” Sure, a bunch of other people said it, too, but that’s a long, complicated story. And it’s not particularly funny.
The point is that tragedy is universal. Show some people dying horribly, ratchet up the swelling, emotional music, zoom in on some grieving faces and you’ll probably get nine out of ten people to empathize. For the most part, all the same things horrify and sadden us. But comedy requires a different touch. We don’t all have the same sense of humor.
And let’s face it: Star Wars has a very particular sense of humor. It’s the kind of humor that causes some fans to groan and the rest to grin like idiots. It’s corny, it’s childish, it’s silly, but it’s also a lot of fun for anyone who doesn’t take themselves too seriously. And most importantly, Star Wars’ humor is an often overlooked ingredient in why the films have been so successful. In fact, it’s one of the most essential elements of the series.
Why So Serious?
We all want to be taken seriously. Or at least, not be ridiculed for the things we love. But let’s face it: being passionate about a fantasy franchise as an adult will often result in a funny look or two. That’s changing as greater acceptance of geek culture permeates the mainstream, but it’s only natural that some of us still feel defensive and on edge supporting our favorite childhood franchises.
For some fans that defensiveness translates into a desire for their favorite childhood properties to grow up with them. In the case of Star Wars, there is a very loud contingent of fans who insist the space saga should be gritty, violent, and dark. But of course, outside of some video games and comic books, Star Wars has never been any of these things. From the very beginning, it has always been irreverent, whimsical and weird… and sometimes very, very funny.
Even the two darkest installments of George Lucas’ saga feature plenty of laughs… or groans, depending on your tolerance. Revenge of the Sith may showcase the murder of children, an immolated hero turned evil, and the bad guys triumphant, but it also features elevator shenanigans, buzz droids, R2-D2 running into walls, idiotic battle droids, and a silly creature called a Boga. Meanwhile, The Empire Strikes Back, often lauded as the most mature installment of the saga, introduces a backwards-speaking puppet who trolls Luke with an old vaudeville act and a giant space slug that hangs out in asteroids waiting for starships to fly into its mouth.
Ultimately comedy just raises the stakes for the drama. We love our heroes because we laugh along with them; humor ultimately ingratiates us to them. Without Han Solo’s transparent egotism would we cherish him as much? Without Obi-Wan’s sassy wit would we worry as much for his wellbeing?
Comedy is yin to drama’s yang, lowering our defenses, building emotional investment in character, and then disrupting us with a tragic twist. When properly utilized, comedy actually improves the drama, serving almost as distraction for tragedy’s sucker punch.
Surprise, Surprise
When you think about your favorite comedies, there’s one thing they probably all have in common. They surprised you. You thought you knew where things were going and then you were tricked. You walked into a mind trap and were delighted to discover you had been outsmarted.
Every good joke needs a punchline. And the best punchlines are the ones you couldn’t have guessed but make perfect sense once you see or hear them. And Star Wars is one brilliant punchline after another.
Think about it. The very first shot of the very first film is an enormous spaceship flying overhead… followed by an even bigger spaceship. Our protagonists for almost the first third of that film are two robots… who bicker like an old married couple. The cool, sardonic smuggler hangs around with a tough guy… who’s a giant dog. The good guys go to rescue the princess… who ends up saving them.
The first half of those above sentences are expected genre fare. They are largely what you might expect from a sci-fi/fantasy film of this sort, but it’s those second half punchlines that make Star Wars memorable, that make it audacious, clever, and amusing. The saga doesn’t often get enough credit for being subversive since it’s couched in familiar tropes, but at every opportunity, George Lucas introduces a twist you wouldn’t see coming. It may be difficult to see that now, after so many repeat viewings of the films and with so many other franchises aping the style and structure of the Star Wars formula; as the surprises fade to a viewer, so too does the inherent humor of its concept.
But if you can go into Star Wars with fresh eyes, it’s not just an exhilarating space drama/soap opera; it’s also a tongue-in-cheek satire of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. The appeal of Star Wars isn’t as educated speculation about how a future society will function; it’s imagination and spectacle–our dreams rather than our plans. Getting hung up on why Han Solo made the Kessel Run in a measurement of distance rather than time or why explosions and sound can be seen and heard in space is like ordering a hamburger with onion rings, cheese, and bacon and asking the waitress about the caloric content.
Silent Film Pratfalls
The Star Wars saga’s comedic sensibility is clearly a callback to the physical comedy of the silent film era and the verbal sparring of old Hollywood screwball talkies. There’s nothing modern about its sense of humor. But oddly, that lack of modernity makes the films feel timeless rather than dated, fresh rather than anachronistic.
The most obvious example of Star Wars’ physical comedy bonafides is Jar Jar Binks, the tramp of the Star Wars universe. Like Charlie Chaplin, he’s both everyman and idiot savant, getting himself into increasingly more dangerous situations through his clueless behavior and then avoiding grievous injury through pure happenstance. Perhaps it’s the Force?
Regardless, his hijinks in the battle of Naboo are one of the clearest homages to the likes of Chaplin or Buster Keaton, as he finds himself cluelessly leading an army into battle and then accidentally dismantling tanks, battle droids and even a destroyer droid. We see shades of this in the Ewok battle in Return of the Jedi with Wicket too, although he isn’t quite as lucky. He manages to hit himself in the face trying to throw a bola.
Of course, Jar Jar and Wicket aren’t the only examples of Star Wars’ silent era comedy chops. A New Hope is filled with homages, especially in the hallways of the Death Star. The stormtroopers may look imposing but they’re the space opera equivalent of Keystone Kops, banging their heads into doors, firing wildly at our heroes and in one scene, calling for the closing of blast doors to trap their prey, only to instead trap themselves as our heroes slip through the closing door. In another scene, Han Solo chases a few troopers around a corner only to run into a whole squadron of them who start chasing him back.
And of course, the droids are constantly getting into these kind of hijinks as well. In A New Hope, C-3PO and R2-D2 shuffle down a hallway in the Tantive IV rife with blaster fire as they interrupt the battle of two armies shooting at one another; somehow, like Jar Jar, they avoid getting so much as a scorch mark. Then in The Empire Strikes Back, Threepio gets blown apart and reassembled with his head on backwards thanks to Chewbacca’s questionable mechanical skills.
Screwball Bickering
Despite the ubiquitous presence of physical comedy in all six films of the saga, some fans decry the abundance of such scenes in the prequels, especially in The Phantom Menace. Far superior, they argue haughtily, is the verbal bickering between Han and Leia in the original trilogy, a callback on Lucas’ part to the screwball comedies during the early talkie generation.
The style of two actors talking in rapid succession at each other, trading puns and barbs, wittily scoring verbal jabs against one another became the hallmark of films like His Girl Friday, The Awful Truth, and Bringing Up Baby. Han and Leia’s back-and-forth needling clearly drew its inspiration from such films and is best exemplified in the hallways of the Death Star in A New Hope and at Echo Base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.
The prequels feature very little of this style of banter, especially between the two romantic leads. However, there’s some of this snarky wit on display in Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan, whether he’s dressing down Anakin for another gaffe or talking smack to Count Dooku or General Grievous. And the animated series The Clone Wars would inject this element more forcefully into the prequel era with the introduction of Anakin’s sassy padawan Ahsoka Tano.
Visual Gags That Bring The Giggles
My two favorite types of humor in the Star Wars saga are both the easiest to overlook, but they are actually hugely important in selling us as an audience on the reality and breadth of the Star Wars universe.
The first of these is the visual gag. It’s usually a small moment, a quick idea executed amidst other actions. A perfect example is the Magna Guard scene in Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan and Anakin battle these intimidating looking droids briefly but memorably. After Obi-Wan beheads one of them, he turns away thinking it’s defeated, only to discover it’s still going like a deranged Energizer Bunny.
It’s such a small moment, but it gives the robotic henchman a defining characteristic and usually elicits a laugh. Like every perfect Star Wars punchline, it’s a surprising moment that makes perfect sense within the warped rules of the galaxy. Why would a robot need a head to fight? It wouldn’t, of course.
The Star Wars saga is rife with these quirky moments: the mouse droid scurrying away in fear from Chewbacca’s roar in A New Hope; Artoo plugging into the electrical socket instead of the computer terminal in Empire; Han Solo trying to hotwire the door to the Endor bunker only to inadvertently add an extra layer of security in Jedi; Qui-Gon catching Jar Jar’s tongue at the dinner table in Phantom; Obi-Wan scoring a direct hit on the Acklay with a spear in Clones‘ Geonosian arena, only to watch the beast pull it out with its teeth and snap it in half; Obi-Wan and Anakin escaping destroyer droids in Revenge only to walk into an elevator filled with battle droids.
And of course, that’s just the tip of the Hoth iceberg; Star Wars is bursting with other examples. These comedic injections often provide a moment of relief from dramatic action or tension, but they also add personality and depth to the characters, creatures and settings of the Star Wars universe. Ironically, these humorous moments don’t distract or shatter our suspension of disbelief but instead strengthen it. What could come across as cliched or as one-dimensional in other, less skillful hands, actually becomes the exact opposite: the unexpected and the unconventional, the charming and the whimsical.
The Mundane and The Epic
Star Wars’ enormous scope requires its audience to believe in larger-than-life stakes. One of the best things about the saga is its ability to frame the small and personal familial drama as an epic saga with galactic ramifications. But in order to do so, we have to believe the characters, and we have to see ourselves in them. Lucas’ trick for achieving this is actually counterintuitive; he injects the mundane into the epic.
For instance, in the midst of a rescue attempt to save the Chancellor of the Republic in an enormous space battle waged over the Republic planet of Coruscant, Obi-Wan and Anakin are stuck in an elevator. Aboard a space station with the power to destroy an entire planet with the fate of the entire galaxy resting in their hands, Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie get locked in the garbage room. The Chosen One of the Jedi Order who will destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force keeps losing his lightsaber like it’s a set of car keys.
Ironically, rather than strike us as absurd, these moments ingratiate us to the characters, the situations, and the galaxy. We can see ourselves in these situations, as ludicrous as they are, because they are problems and obstacles and frustrations that we all share, whether we’re a Jedi Knight or a 9-to-5er.
There’s Nothing Funny About Evil
The one area where Star Wars never jokes around is when an iconic villain is onscreen. The key secret to the balance of humor and tragedy in the Star Wars saga is never undercutting the malevolence or fearsomeness of the villains.
The Phantom Menace may be the only Star Wars film with both a fart joke and a poop joke, but when Darth Maul is onscreen, it’s as serious as a heart attack. This guy is no clown; he will totally kill the most empathetic, charming Jedi of the prequel era without even a hint of remorse.
Similarly, it’s all fun and games aboard General Grievous’s flagship in Revenge of the Sith until Anakin and Obi-Wan find the Chancellor. A silence comes over the soundtrack; all we can hear are the distant sounds of battle raging outside the ship. Then, the footsteps of Darth Tyranus a moment before he enters. Palpatine warns the Jedi they are no match for The Count; and for once we know he’s not lying; Tyranus mopped the floor with them in Clones. All of a sudden, battle droid shenanigans are a distant memory; the stakes are all too real.
And of course, it should go without saying, Darth Vader is the stuff of nightmares. We don’t see him tripping over his cape, banging into walls or engaging in colorful pratfalls. When the Dark Lord of the Sith is onscreen, someone’s probably going to die, get tortured or get tortured and then die.
Oh and don’t forget Boba Fett… and well, okay. Fine. He’s the one exception to the rule.
Star Wars Comedy
I have a confession to make: I find Jar Jar hilarious, and I’ve never understood those who didn’t. I should bookend that opinion with the admission that I’m a huge fan of older Hollywood comedies, everything from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to Abbott and Costello, Peter Sellers and John Belushi. But here’s the thing: you can’t teach anybody a sense of humor; either you find something funny or you don’t.
The point of this piece is not to argue whether Star Wars is or isn’t funny, or whether certain characters or moments work or don’t; that’s all subjective. Instead it’s to disprove this notion that the best Star Wars is the darkest Star Wars. Lucas always looked for ways to inject humor into his narrative and did so in a number of smart and clever ways, from the over-the-top obvious to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nuanced. Comedy is as much a part of the saga’s legacy as lightsaber battles and lost limbs, blown up planets and murdered younglings.
So let’s decapitate this ridiculous notion that the best Star Wars dwells solely in darkness and tragedy; a little humor always lights the way.
Power to the Prequels is an ongoing column that aims to critique and analyze the Star Wars prequels and demonstrate their worth as individual films and also as components of a larger saga. The goal is neither to blindly praise these films nor condemn them. Rather, the aim is to specifically and respectfully consider the artistic decisions made by director George Lucas and draw conclusions that may differ from the mainstream consensus.
Laugh it Up, Fuzzball: Star Wars Comedy