Hamlet/Funny

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• It depends on the production, but Polonius's death and Hamlet hiding the body has a piquant element of Black Comedy.

"Good night, mother."
Exeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in Polonius

• Followed by Hamlet saying that if they don't find Polonius's body, by next month, going up the stairs to the lobby they'll "nose him".
• Polonius' death. Upon being slain by Hamlet (read: stabbed through a window curtain), Polonius feels the need to exclaim "I am slain." Something that this made this troper reconsider the play's genre. It just feels like a comedy after that (in most adaptations, if not proven in the text) over-fed, noble man points out his own demise as it's happening.
• This exchange:

Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord.
Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia: Ay, my lord.
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?

• • The actor playing Hamlet will often add to the performance by emphasizing the first syllable.
    • "Do you think I mean CUNT...rrrrrrry matters" - David Tennant as Hamlet
    • Plus, it's widely agreed that this was entirely intentional on Shakespeare's part. The man had an absolutely filthy mind.
• Whenever Hamlet is messing with people, especially Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
  • When he calls them sponges
  • Being roundabout and unhelpful as to the location of Polonius' body - "The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing-" *cut off by Guildenstern*
• The First Quarto ^[1] has a variation on the graveyard scene. Only a few lines after "Alas, Poor Yorick", Hamlet jumps into Ophelia's grave after Leartes, who attacks him:

Hamlet: I prithee take thy hand from off my throat,
For there is something in me dangerous
Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!
I loved Ofelia as dear
As twenty brothers could. Show me what thou
Wilt do for her. Wilt fight? Wilt fast? Wilt pray?
Wilt drink up vessels? Eat a crocodile?

• Depending on how it's played, Polonius' escalating frustration with Hamlet's "antic disposition". ("You seek the Lord Hamlet? Well there he is!")
• Hamlet is just generally underrated where humour is concerned. Hamlet spends much of the first half of the play and some of the second half gleefully and hilariously messing with Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Claudius.

• The RSC's version of Hamlet with David Tennant had the point where Hamlet whistles along to the theatre troupe's triumphant fanfare, including a vibrato high note at the end.
  • Also the face he makes for the final 'than death' when Polonius takes his leave.

1. ↑ Once considered to be the 'bad version' of Hamlet, but now seen as snappier and more logical in the scene order