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Originally Posted by Kuruharan
Focusing on the Sil...
There are certain ways that events in the Sil can be regarded as humorous. I think Hookbill's statement about the humor being situational holds here too...and your sense of humor probably has to be a bit...odd...maybe even a tad unkind.
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It is situations, not so much characters that are funny.
Although, Turin is a veritable font of comedy, if approached from a certain angle.
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So are you saying that comedy lies in the eye of the beholder? Or that it implies a distance between reader/perceiver and character, with the reader holding a superior or supercilious attitude? That would imply a readerly interpretation, or unintentional humour. That's usually typical of satire, but not necessarily of all comedy.
Some of Tolkien's humour is word play. He's maybe not as sharp as P.G. Woodhouse, but the opening of Smith of Wootten Major has aspects of Woodhouse's word play.
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Originally Posted by Hookbill
I also think he liked putting the 'well-to-do' in situations that they wouldn't like to be put into.
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So he liked to pop a little bit of a person's vanity, if that person was perhaps pompous or lacked self-knowledge?
EDIT: Whoops no time now to reply to
Aiwendil's excellent post. back later