Berserk/Funny
Berserk, being a cesspool of gloom, doom, and utter suckiness, doesn't have fun-filled adventuring with joyous laughter as you may have guessed. But when laughter does happen (which is usually in the form of deadpan humor used as a coping mechanism for living in this world), you had better take advantage of it while it lasts. So laugh damn you, LAUGH!
Anime examples:
- Berserk. Outtakes. That is all. These have to be seen to be believed.
- From the Volume 2 bloopers: Griffith (or rather, his VA) singing. What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?
- He does it again in the Volume 3 outtakes - TWICE - that makes three times total (along with - for some reason - impersonating Dr. Evil), and again in Volume 5. AND AGAIN IN VOLUME 6!
- From the Volume 2 bloopers: Griffith (or rather, his VA) singing. What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?
- Episode one where a bartender looks at his ruined bar area and states "Aww, what a mess. I'm too old for this kind of bullshit."
Manga examples:
- It says a lot about Berserk that some of the most amusing moments are courtesy of a thoroughly broken, traumatized and insane Cute Mute Casca. A case in point: Isidro, Wrong Genre Savvy kid, is attempting to save Casca and a prostitute named Nina from a cult of pagans planning to sacrifice Nina and rape Casca. He drives the cultists off with rocks, jumps down... and botches the landing. Casca's response is to wave, at which point he sheepishly waves back.
- Casca had the tendency to fall off cliffs a lot during the Golden Age arc, either deliberately or by accident. When Casca dropped from a cliff telling Guts to take care of the Band of the Hawk, Guts' response after grabbing her and hoisting her back up was "Look, you! Don't you EVER go near a cliff again!"
- There was quite a bit of humor in the Band Of Hawks arc before It Got Worse. Like Judeau throwing a knife nonchalantly and breaking a bathing merc's bucket and getting that knife thrown right back at him.
- Pippin, The Big Guy of the Hawks, gets one after Guts is instrumental in the Hawks' victory in an early battle. The rest of the Hawks are celebrating, but Guts is in his usual spot between one of Wyndham's battlements. Pippin wants Guts to join the others in the festivities, but Guts says that he's happy right where he is, thank you very much. So Pippin picks Guts right up and hauls him over his shoulder before carrying him kicking and screaming back to the rest of the crew in perhaps the only time Guts's aversion to being touched is Played for Laughs.
- The next day, Guts gets thrown into the moat by Rickert who opened the door right behind him. Rickert tried to help him up, and enter Pippin through that very same door...
- He also gets into a very childish water-fight with Griffith earlier for no reason.
- Casca and Guts fell down a cliff, into a river. Casca is having her period and has a fever. Cut to Guts looking absolutely pissed while holding a naked Casca.
YouTube commenter: Never has a man looked so unhappy holding a naked woman
- To be fair, Guts could have been in Heroic Safe Mode since they were in enemy territory... But even when you think of it in that context, it's still pretty funny.
- Adon deserves a mention for being spectacularly useless and hammy about it in every appearance he got.
Adon: WHAT?! YOU WERE HAVING 'THAT' WHEN WE FOUGHT?!
Casca: Not so loud, you idiot!
Mercenary: Well, that explains it...
- I remember one particular scene that was not in the manga, where after the Hawks successfully take over a Tudor-controlled fort, Adon makes his escape on a raft in a moat... only for some of his surviving soldiers to try and get on the escape raft as well!
- How Serpico realized who his father was in his flashback: he mentioned his mother to Farnese's father, the man briefly reminisced about her, and Serpico thought, "Oh... it's him." Serpico: Deadpan Snarker from childhood.
- Being a Deadpan Snarker, just about every other thing that comes out of his mouth is funny. Take for instance in volume 32, after an exhausting but kickass fight with Emperor Ganishka while teaming up with Zodd, Guts collapses flat, face first, onto the pavement (which is sorta funny in itself). Serpico's commentary?
"Goodness, he seems to have gotten up solely for the sake of trash-talking."
- Guts's absolutely dumbfounded expression when he sees Casca in a very pretty ball gown.
- And Puck - how can we forget about the little elf whose sole purpose is to bring SOME amount of comedy into Guts's life and our reading experience, and to break the fourth wall every step of the way? One crowning moment was when Guts was held prisoner by the Holy Iron Chain Knights and was locked in a cage, right when the demons were coming out to play with him for the night. Luckily, Puck comes in time with the keys - but will only unlock the cage if Guts says, "Pretty please with sugar on top." And Guts actually complies. But swears revenge later. Does this guy really need anymore reasons to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge?
- Before that, when Guts sees the demons emerging around his cage, he asks how things could get worse. Then Puck arrives. His response?
"That's a good answer."
- This troper's favorite moment with Puck actually involved his first meeting with the deadly-serious Skull Knight. "Who'd have though Guts would be friends with a monster? Er-no offense! This guy's so terribly lonely, please be his friend!"
- While staying at Wyndham Castle, Griffith invites Guts to his study, and talks about all of the lengthy books that he engaged himself in, to which Guts finds absolutely no interest in. Then Griffith pulls out a book depicting pornographic images - to which Guts does find interest in - and asks if Guts wants to borrow it. And that's how Guts became a dedicated bookworm.
- Moments later, Griffith nonchalantly tells Guts to assassinate the king's brother. Griffith sure does have his ways of convincing his teammates to do his dirty work.
- Every time the pirate captain makes an appearance.
- When Guts encounters the Holy Iron Chain Knights for the first time and they are about to apprehend him, Guts says this in his defense:
"Look, I don't remember doing anything to any priest... not without reason. Very often."
- Persuasive Ability = ZERO.
- Magnifico's epic fail moment upon trying to announce Roderick and Farnese's marriage to a huge assembly of nobles, including his father complete with Roderick facepalming.
- Chapter 252 of the manga has all sorts of hilarity ensuing. First, Schierke struggles to bathe Casca while Isidro is tied to a chair to prevent him from peeping in. When she fails and Casca starts running around the room naked, Schierke then tries to wrap her in a towel...only for Casca to take off Schierke's towel and send her toppling, butt naked...onto a bed-ridden Guts.
- Towards the end of it, despite his protests, Schierke insists on feeding Guts some soup herself...before realizing what this may imply. Her face is priceless.
- The way Wyald allways does more damage to his own men then to his targets can be strangely hilarious.
- Laughter doesn't just stop with the content within the volumes, but on the outside as well. The summaries on the back of each volume (in the English editions, at least), are hilarious. You might not think much after reading the description on the back of volume one's cover, but they get funnier as they progress - and you have over thirty-five volumes to choose from. My personal favorite is the back of volume six:
"... Berserk is a bloodstained manga juggernaut, equal parts savage violence, gruesome horror, and black humor packed inside a flaming powder keg and rolled downhill into a crowd of terrified civilians. Let the weak-kneed get out of the way, 'cause Berserk ain't about to give up any ground!"
- Griffith rescuing Charlotte and her attendant Annie via flying bed. Annie's reaction? Go back to sleep.
- After fighting each other which ends in Isidro's face getting revamped into a ball:
Mule: I'll remember you, Ijidodo!
Isidro: It's Ijidodo!
- Puck takes advantage of his Invisible to Normals status to play pranks to Farnese, pulling her lip among other things. When he does it again to a random soldier later after Farnese was able to see him:
Farnese: ...Why does that seem familiar?
- Isidro stating that he chose to be what he is now because of the Band of Hawk's raiding commander whose name he can't remember...who's Guts...who's standing right behind him.
Guts: *While Isidro lists his deeds* It's been embellished...
- Spank that cutie butt, Guts!
- Isma's Cry Cute moment [dead link] is surprisingly funny, since it felt like it came right outta nowhere. There's also the many, many, many Male Gaze moments she gave Isidro, which prompted Schierke to go "Guh?" when she tried to contact him via telepathy and saw her assets.
- Puck attempted to use Becchi a.k.a. Mr. Behelit as fish bait. "Do you best not to get eaten".
- In chapter 312 Isidro meets the enthusiastic Isma. Who leans over to talk to him. With her chest standing on the height of his eyes. There's even an arrow pointing from his eyes to her breasts.
- Princess Charlotte has quite a uncharacteristic temper tantrum at the thought of not going with the now-exiled Band of the Hawk in order to stay with Griffith. To shut her trap, Casca, Guts, Judeau, and her maid Anna all put their hands over Charlotte's mouth.
- Inspector Mozgus can be strangely funny when he's not busy dealing with heretics. Specifically when he gets all emotional and just looks absurd, or does something ridiculous like smash his face in. It becomes difficult to take him seriously.