The Humour Awakens

 

My first viewing of The Force Awakens was a bit overwhelming.  It could’ve been … that I was tired or that I still couldn’t believe I was seeing a new Star Wars movie, but walking out of the theater, I couldn’t quite process the movie.  It was a sensory overload.  One thing that did stick out to me though, was how funny the movie was.  I couldn’t remember seeing a Star Wars movie with so many jokes and funny moments in it.

I’ve thought about this movie a lot, turning it over in my head, and overanalyzing every piece, that I can recall from the multiple viewings.  Throughout it all, I kept coming back to the humour of the movie.  Did I not like the jokes?  Was it outside of the Star Wars tradition to be funny?

Then it occurred to me.  Until now, we’ve been watching the prequel era movies, The Clone Wars, and Star Wars Rebels.  These are essentially the story of how the bad guys win and kill all of our heroes.  Most of the humour we get is a darker, more sarcastic, almost gallows humour.  It’s hard to crack wise-jokes when you are watching the fall of a democracy and the eradication of the Jedi Order.

Humour is nothing new to Star Wars, the original trilogy has plenty of humorous moments, but it starts out as very cynical before shifting into lighter tones as hope returns to the galaxy.  Much like what we had in The Phantom Menace.  Now, not everyone enjoyed the humour of The Phantom Menace, but it matched the tone of the movie and the state of the galaxy.  This was a time before the darkness had taken over and pushed out the light.  Personally, I like Jar Jar Binks’ slapstick humour (yes, even the fart jokes) but that is another post unto itself.

Much like The Phantom Menace, The Force Awakens at the start, is a galaxy at peace.  There is a rising darkness, but for the moment, things are good.  So, we get a return of a lighter tone and a more playful attitude.  That is, of course, before things go really, really bad in the second half of the movie.

There are plenty of thematic reasons for the humour of The Force Awakens, but there are also two major real life reasons as well; JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan.  The primary people responsible for the shape and tone of the film, are also two filmmakers, known for injecting energy and a sense of fun into their projects.

Both in-universe and in reality, the factors combine to give us the fun movie that we got.  I no longer see the laugh-out-loud moments of The Force Awakens as a detractor, but rather reflective, of the state of the galaxy and Star Wars on the whole.  Judging by the end of The Force Awakens, it’s going to be a rough road for our heroes in the next films, so we should enjoy the lighthearted fun while we can.

The Cantina Cast

The wretched hive your Jedi Master warned you about!

You can find Paul on Twitter and his other contributions at FanboysTalking.com