Teen Lit Rocks

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters Who Make Us Laugh

April 22, 2014 By Diana 7 Comments

This week the Top Ten is top ten characters who X (our choice). Sandie and I decided that we could use more laughter in our lives and wanted to list the characters who’ve made us laugh, even if they aren’t always funny. In almost every book, there’s always a character who provides that “comic relief” that is often necessary in tense moments. Here are ten characters with a great sense of humor:

1. Capt. Carswell Thorne from the “Lunar Chronicles”: From the moment Cinder dropped into his cell in Scarlet until the end of Cress, Thorne is a wise-cracking, sarcastic barrel of laughs.  -Diana

“Captain,” she murmured.
“I think I’m in love with you.”
An eyebrow shot up. She counted six beats of his heart before, suddenly, he laughed.
“Don’t tell me it took you two whole days to realize that. I must be losing my touch.”   

2. Sam LaCroix from “Hold Me Closer, Necromancer” series: There are few protagonists as funny as Sam; usually authors make the sidekicks and best friends the funny ones, but Lish McBride made her awesome beta male necromancer one of the most memorably comical main characters in the genre. -Sandie

There were no windows in my bedroom, so I had to sit up and read my clock to figure out how angry I should be at my visitor. Eight A.M. I hated whoever woke me up. Had they come an hour earlier, I would have also hated their families and any household pets.

3. Fred and George Weasley from the “Harry Potter” series: Throughout the years at Hogwarts there was no one who provided more amusement than the Weasley twins, who were even appropriately born on April 1st. It didn’t matter what was going on, they always knew exactly what to say to make us laugh.  -Diana

‘We won’t be seeing you,’ Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.
‘Yeah, don’t bother to keep in touch,’ said George, mounting his own.
Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd.
‘If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley — Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes,’ he said in a loud voice, ‘Our new premises!’
‘Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat,” added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.

4. Ron Weasley from the “Harry Potter” series: One of the if not the best thing about Ron is how he adds levity to Harry’s impossibly dangerous years at Hogwarts. He may not think himself as openly funny as his twin brothers, but without Ron the Golden Trio is pretty sad and serious. -Sandie

“Don’t talk to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to fix that in my memory for ever. Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret…”

5. Will  Herondale from the “Infernal Devices” trilogy: Will is the whole package, he has amazing good looks, he’s smart, well-read and has an amazing sense of humor.  -Diana

“That was enterprising,” Will sounded nearly impressed.
Nate smiled. Tess shot him a furious look. “Don’t look pleased with yourself. When Will says ‘enterprising’ he means ‘morally deficient.’”
“No, I mean enterprising,” said Will. “When I mean morally deficient, I say, ‘Now, that’s something I would have done’.”

6. Audrey Cuttler from “Audrey, Wait!”: I love Robin Wenway’s main character Audrey. She’s funny and angry and sarcastic and all around bad-ass, even as she’s humiliated by her ex boyfriend’s hit song named after her. -Sandie

“That would make a fantastic college entrance essay. ‘I Killed My Boyfriend and Still Managed to Maintain a 4.2 GPA and the Lead in the Spring Musical.”

7. Zuzana from the “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” trilogy: Zuzana is one of my favorite characters from this trilogy. Even in the midst of war battles, this tiny fireball could still manage to put a smile on everyone’s face. -Diana

“I might try that one thing, you know, that thing people do when their eyes get all wet and stupid—what’s it called? Crying?
Or NOT. I might PUNCH you instead and trust that you won’t punch me back because of my endearing smallness. It would be like punching a child.”

8. Peeta from “The Hunger Games”: It’s easy to overlook with so much going on, but Peeta’s actually really funny when he’s not trying not be killed. His humor complements Katniss’ intensity. Ah, the boy with the bread, you made us laugh and smile, and then you made us cry. -Sandie

“Yes, and I’m sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people.”

“Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave your sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping”

9. Tim Mason from “My Life Next Door”: A lot of what Tim says is not necessarily funny, but rather the ramblings of a messed up kid.  However, even in the midst of his problems he still manages to have a sense of humor and we begin to see that there’s more to this so called “bad boy.” -Diana

“I’m thinking I’ll talk to gorgeous Grace about politics. I like politics. You get to manipulate people and lie and cheat and it’s all good…with my track record, I’ll probably be able to screw up all three branches of government in about a week and half.”

10. Drew Leighton from “The Sea of Tranquility”: I love this book so much, but it can be really intense, and hot and clever Drew is wonderful at inserting the humor. -Sandie

“It’s an age old story … Boy meets girl. Boy asks girl to touch him inappropriately. Girl dazzles boy with her impressive knowledge and proper use of profanity.”

As always, thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting, as always.