How Many Ridiculous Comic Relief Characters Is Too Many?

[AudaciousVagabond]

My main writing project that I've been working on for a couple months is currently in the the main concept stage of "write down all your ideas and concepts and make them work" that comes before the dreaded "alright, now actually make them work as a cohesive narrative" stage that soon follows and have been having some issues with character design. My story is centred around a trio of three main protagonists with a group comprised of six main "villains" that they periodically encounter (both separately and together) throughout their journey that as the antagonists. After fleshing out 5 of the 6 "villains" I've run into some problems regarding the sixth and final ne'er-do-well.

One of the very first villains I created was made intentionally ridiculous and psychotic with a Deadpool-esque demeanour to counter-act the seriousness of all the other villains for a bit more diversity. Between breaking the fourth wall, disregarding the laws of physics, and summoning giant trains out of thin air, they're a beloved character of mine and always fun to write about.

Now as I started creating my sixth villainous character to be a cruel sorceress donning high-heels with an attitude that you'd expect from the head of a cheer-leading team in some cheesy 90s movie. Although I'm already despising her (in a good way), and the fact that she's got a great 'grude-match nemesis' thing going with one of the protagonists, I've started to worry that my fantasy story might start to veer towards satire/comedy. Despite not breaking the third wall or summoning props out of thin air, she still has a sense of 'not fitting in' within the medieval fantasy world that on one hand makes her an interesting character, but on the other, one that might end up not blending well with the overall style of the world.

So my question would be, can I get away with having two 'ridiculous' antagonists or characters without putting off the reader or destroying the authenticity and atmosphere of my fantasy world?

 

[Feo Takahari]

I thought this was going to be about ridiculous protagonists, which I'm more familiar with. A story has no minimum number of ridiculous protagonists, but I've seen up to four, all funny in different ways, so I don't think there's a maximum number, either. What harms a story is useless protagonists--even funny characters should serve a narrative purpose and accomplish things within the story. The same should be true of antagonists--make them a credible threat, and it shouldn't matter whether they're ridiculous.

 

[Penpilot]

If you need that many characters, you need that many. But I would suggest thinking about if you really need that many. As Feo was saying, what purpose does each serve? And if they're both serving pretty much the same purpose, there's a very good chance you could or should axe one.

Imagine a story with Superman and Shazam. If the only purpose each serves in the story is to be the guy with super strength, and there's no real reason for having both of them there, then one is redundant. It becomes a situation where it's like they have to take turns. It's Superman's turn to punch a tank. Now it's Shazam's.

The situation becomes different if the story needs Superman's heat vision and Shazam's magic lightning as key story elements.

 

[Gurkhal]

Considering what kind of phase you are in, just write them into the story, and then when you have moved to the next story I would think that you have a grasp about how much comic relief you want and need, and then should also have a fair few characters to selected between for that role.

Personally I'm not much for comic relief however.

 

[AudaciousVagabond]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It's been really helpful in terms of reviewing my characters and ideas

 

[Wormtongue]

I prefer believable characters. If you can write ridiculous believably then there is no hard limit. But if you can't write ridiculous believably then one is far too many.

I also dislike comic relief in fantasy, but that is because it's difficult to do believably and usually distracts more than anything.

Example of well written comic relief: C3PO

Example of horribly written comic relief: Jar Jar Binks