Review of Tales of Suspense # 43: The Netherworld of Stark and Silver Age Sexism

What we are reading: Iron Man Vs Kala, Queen of the Netherworld- Tales of Suspense#43

The Spandex Iron Man

When reading through the Silver Age establishment of the Marvel universe you get to see both the very illuminating stories that set up beloved characters and the utterly atrocious, politically backward hogwash, which permeated the comics and the zeitgeist of the period. This Iron Man story is the latter. 

Before jumping into the negatives of this story let’s examine the one positive: the Atlanteans make their first appearance in this one. They are, in later arcs, subterranean threats that are in many ways apocalyptic. Here, though, their motives are flat and really not examined thoroughly. They want to take over Earth because they are angry that a geological event sank their empire. Let’s get revenge on humanity which runs volcanos or something. I don’t know. Even the one positive makes little sense. That being said, this story is a mess. Not only because it espouses backwards Sixties morals but because arc-wise, it has none.

The story begins at Stark Industries in the middle of a wind tunnel test. The tunnel stops working and turns the station into a veritable hurricane. Stark calls down and explains luckily by happenstance Iron Man is visiting the factory so he can save the windblown scientists. It is flimsy excuses like this that no doubt caused Anthony and Stan to strip the facade later.  It’s an excessively obvious and convenient piece of writing; so unintelligent a moment that it doesn’t even pass as charming camp.

After this minor incident of blowhardism at the wind tunnel, Tony climbs into his spandex iron suit and gets sucked into the center of the Earth. Sidebar: The Iron suit in this one is actually depicted as a spandex body suit. It’s stupidity like this that shows you Jack “I don’t care for plausibility” Kirby is back at the artistic helm. When Tony arrives in the in the centre of the Earth he and his spandex iron suit are embroiled in a hastily thought out thousand year old plan to take over the surface. We soon find out that Supreme General Blaxu resents taking orders from the female ruler Kala. Tony concurs  and he flies her off to the surface where she sees her complexion age in seconds. Iron Man tells her that if she wants her beauty she should stay underground. She does for “what is a women without her beauty.” 

This story is disgusting. A female leader that cares so much for her looks that she abandons her long held goal and just to nail another has to be one grossest example of female stereotype. Just to nail another peg into the chauvinist coffin Tony tells Blaxu to marry Kala so that she has proper guidance.

 ‘Women can’t lead, young Marvelites. They need a man.’ 

No wonder Sue Storm can’t get a shred of decent dialogue.

I know chauvinism has always been a part of Tony Stark, as he is a millionaire playboy with the face of Errol Flynn after all, but in later stories he is usually offset with a strong female to take him to task. It also may be unfair of me to judge a story written in a vastly different time by the ethics of today, but the sad thing is, that even under all the sexism this story is poorly constructed and frankly worthless. Nothing feels connected and no character really sticks out a vital or interesting. It feels like hastily written filler. 

At least Jack Kirby has started to draw backgrounds. That’s a plus.  

0 out of 5. 

Review of Strange Tales #111: A Confusingly Strange Tale With Far Reaching Impact on the Marvel Universe.

Story I Read: Doctor Strange: Master of Black Magic "Face to Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo" (Strange Tales #111 Aug 1963)

It is no wonder to me that when Dr. Strange debuted in 1963, as a companion piece to the solo escapades of The Human Torch in Strange Tales, Marvel fans thought Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were on drugs. Dr. Strange’s early stories are surely strange tales. So strange that they are almost incomprehensible. This being only the second story to feature the North American necromancer Strange certainly follows suit. 

A discussion of the mythology of this world is hard to launch into because the rules of the world are still heavily in flux. Let’s give it the old college try shall we? The conflict seems to involve Baron Mordo poisoning the Master to gain information about the dark arts but Strange stops him through some dream trickery and some fancy conspiracy with an amulet. All this takes place in 5 pages. Perhaps this brevity is why the story feels impotent and is almost indecipherable. 

Though, I admit, I am not entirely sure what occurred here or even why it occurred, what I am sure of is in this comic there are two major firsts. One is the creation of Baron Mordo and the other is a major change in narrative tactics for comics. 

Mordo is special because not only is this Strange’s supreme nemesis, the yin to his yang for the next 50 years, but it also amazing that this is only the second tale and a major nemesis is introduced. In the contemporary Marvel heroes of the time it often took many issues before their major nemeses were introduced. This must be because the creatives had a future plan intoned for the Doctor. Little is offered up front in origin because it will be expanded upon in a future story. The ‘Slow Burn’ as it is proverbially known. Could this be the first Marvel hero that has a future planned at its conception and wasn’t developed on the fly? We all know how on the  fly writing may have killed the first incarnation of the Hulk. 

The little paneling devoted to Mordo's back story. 

The second rather astounding stride fourth is the fact this is the first villain whose tactic is death. No bones about it. He holds death, not only defeat, over The Master. Astounding. Reality is, however small, beginning to seep into the Marvel world. If only the motives and action of the story could be understood this would be a fantastic yarn. As I slog my way through the universe and truly get to know Strange I should reevaluate this story. It just feels that I am missing some part of the narrative. 

Out of 5 this is a 1. The reason I give it a 1 is because I am unclear what went on in the story. Though at face value it made sense, after further thought it ultimately left me confused. I do give the story appreciation because of the firsts in both Mordo’s introduction and the boldness of the changing evolution in what constitutes a character story in the Marvel Universe.

P.S. Ditko’s inking is detailed but largely uninteresting because the depiction of dream characters is so white and bland. 

  

A Review of The Human Torch’s Story in Strange Tales #111- “Fighting To The Death With Asbestos Man.”

When looking at the solo adventures of The Human Torch in Strange Tales I am always struck by the haste in their construction. It is obvious in the early days of the establishment of the Marvel Universe Stan Lee wanted to capitalize on the possibilities of having a teenage hero and cranked out countless unfocused stories. The speed in the development is obvious in the disregard in canon. It would be ideal way look at Torch as a rough draft for Spider-Man but it cannot really be done. In the early period there was triple the development on Storm, who had both the Fantastic Four issues and the solo adventures, and there was little examples for Pete who only had his own solo adventures.

Accepting that Torch doesn’t work on his own, as evidenced by the more and more prevalent cameos of the other 3 Fantastic members in the solo stories, let’s dive into the story at hand offered in Strange Tales # 111. 

Today's Story. 

The first thing that strikes me about this story is the brilliance of the villain. Up until around this point, in the Silver Age comics, little focus had been given to the villain’s motives. Often they had been reduced to a simple melodramatic thought process of:  “let’s kill the hero because he is good and I am not.” Orson Kasloff, on the other hand, is one of the first truly human villains. A good third of the story is devoted to the sad thoughts of a scientist who feels disrespected by his employer and this makes his need to destroy Torch that more believable. When he attempts to rob said employer it predictably blows up in his face as he does not expect the alarm to go off. I will admit I chuckled at this. 

Long story short Kasloff becomes Asbestos Man and all the time spent on establishing Kasloff; the man, goes up in flames in the nauseating arrogance of Torch’s snap vendetta. When the villain challenges the flaming teenager Johnny haphazardly flies to battle and is easily defeated. Again, Torch’s powers are wildly pliable, suddenly he’s too weak to combat a man in an asbestos suit when in an earlier publication he burnt so hot that he melted through an asbestos lined wall. Perhaps this is Stan Lee’s way of equalizing the earlier wild creativity of the Marvel heroes.

This disregard or fluidity in character development is also present in Sue Storm who makes yet again another aimless cameo. This time playing John’s spirit guide. Sue is looking more and more matronly in every issue. Perhaps Stan is wishing he actually made her into Johnny’s mother rather then sister. The wild sexism and disrespectful way the creatives treat Sue is better suited to full other article but I just need to mention banality of her in this issue. 

One of the greatest aspects of this story is it’s art. Inked by Dick Ayers this story is beautiful. No longer are there the empty blue backgrounds of the Jack Kirby drawn  comics thus far. Background detail is present. The contouring on Kasloff’s face or the fire veins (for what else do we call those dark lines on Torch) are fluid and ably move when Torch does. The New York presented here is gritty and even evokes the detail neo-Noireish renderings of Gotham in DC’s Batman. Marvel is truly coming into its own over the DC behemoth.

When looking at this story as whole it is easily a 3 out of 5 story mainly for the time spent on the detail of a new villain and the environment he exists in. The negatives exist in the rather shoddy writing that peaks its head on many occasions. Ably obvious in this rather cheap redundant piece of dialogue spouted by Kasloff early on ““What is all the excitement about? Why is everyone so excited??” 

Changes are afoot but there are still many obstacles. 

P.S. Think of all the cancer Kasloff will suffer because of his alter-ego. 

Kasloff, the man who will most likely die of cancer. 

Review of Journey Into Mystery #94

"This is a review of The Mighty Thor's Story-  Journey Into Mystery #94 that I wrote for The Marvel Comic Wiki." 

Once again that old trickster brother:Loki attempts to beguile Thor. Interestingly Loki’s plot                           at hand is not one that attempts to unseat him as the proper heir to Asgard but to gain Thor as an ally to Loki’s plans. 

Journey Into Mystery #94 (July 1963)

Though the science behind Thor’s loss of memory and personality change is quite hilarious it begs to the question the true two dimensionality of the Early Silver Aged heroes. Thor’s character, unlike his Silver Age counter parts the Fantastic Four and Anthony Stark, still remains basic in that he is a god who wishes to protect humanity. Essentially he is the Jesus figure that DC had reveled upon for so long with Superman.  There is nothing to him other then valor and responsibility. Loki is again the vice figure who wants chaos and revenge. Evil for the sake of evil and in this story he does his job admirably. He is actually quite wry in his sense of humour about the whole thing. An aspect of his developing personality that comes to the forefront in later characterizations.  This story begins to shine light on the shear power of the Asgardians and that they are a frightening possible threat to Earth. If death was allowed in this comic writing period bloody humans would litter the landscape. Alas, only tomfoolery occurs. 

Even though the story is quite simple and light this story does alot to set up Loki as something more then the ultimate foil to Thor. There is desperation and dare I say loneliness here. Loki needs a partner in crime. It could be read that Loki is attempting to besmirch Thor and ruin his golden boy image but I prefer to read it as a need to be vindicated by his own kind. Thor vindicates him in his confused amnesiac way as  being rightfully an equal. Something he has not done until this story. This is bittersweet in its own way. 

As for Dr.Don Blake and the alter-ego blah blah blah I can see that Stan Lee may be getting tired of that. This has to be least page time Thor’s alter-ego gets and Jane does not even appear. Perhaps he see’s his error in following the Superman model and perhaps there is more to this character?

The inking is really quite entertaining and sleek in this one. The images of the landmarks being blasted into the sky and the museum Dinosaurs being animated are classic Silver Age melodramatic images.  

All these positives aside, it is a shame that Odin wipes the action from the consciousness of Earth. If this were a later publication, something would be made of the disregard and threatening power of the Asgardians versus Midgardians. 

Overall, out of 5 stars, Journy Into Mystery #94: Thor and Loki attack the human race”  is a 3. It has a great sense of humour and begins to expand upon the relationship of Loki and Thor but the ending is simple and ultmitately empty. 

Muddy Waters - My Trek Through Trek (Part IV)

What we’re watching: Mudd’s Women Episode 6 of Season 1 TOS (October. 13, 1966)

My Rating Out of 5 Tribbles: 1 Tribble which thinks that a miner’s kitchen is liberation. 

My After Episode Thoughts: “Original Series Sexism at it’s best with a space pedophile to boot.”

Pros: Wonderful cinematography, The Venus Drug. 

Cons: Harry Mudd, The Space whores, soliloquizing for no reason, just about everything.

Today my trek takes me to Mudd’s Women, the fourth produced TOS episode and, dear god, what a mess!

The Space Whores!

Star Trek is famous for its strides in feminism with the inclusion of women in places of power yet judging by this episode you would never know it. The plot concerns a space pimp and his three whores. I use the word whore because that is what these women are. They do not even resemble real women. Somehow these space whores don’t even seem to breathe and what really grinds my gears is that they walk the same halls with Uhura and the liberated women of the Federation. It is strange to note that Uhura appears in the cold open yet disappears from the bridge entirely for the rest of the episode. Are we to believe that she was not needed for the four or so days in which this story takes place? Has she been given an extended vacation because there are now other women on board? I think not. Perhaps Stephen Kandel and Gene Roddenberry (the writers of this one) were somehow embarrassed to have her on the same ship with these gross over sexualized caricatures. Perhaps, and probably more accurately, they just plain forgot about her. 

Blatant sexism aside there are plenty more faults in this one. The episode veers wildly from tragedy to comedy: one moment I’m (meant) to laugh at a humorous quip from McCoy and the next moment I am (meant) to feel the turmoil of three lost women who are used as a commodity in a transaction for Lithium crystals. Excuse me? One must first be presented humans to feel for not gratuitous ‘butt-shots’ with a semblance of emotions. I am not even sure what Shatner is doing with his performance in this one. I am sure he didn’t even know. At a particularly tense moment of the story Kirk tears Scotty to bits over the Scotsmen’s need to present the facts about orbital time and how long the core has power. Two lines later Kirk inexplicably and easily apologizes. Why was this written into the episode?  Scotty is the ship’s engineer for Christ’s sake! It is his job to look out for the ship and therefore the crew inside of it. The majority of Kirk’s motives in this episode are bipolar. One minute he is as cold as a Klingon prison moon the next he is as warm as a supernova. 

Sidebar... I have noticed when the writing becomes particularly bad, like the aforementioned Scotty dress down, Shatner’s iconic choppy melodramatic rhythm becomes prevalent. This must be how he muscles through the writing abortions that sometimes are present in Star Trek. Shatner is not a terrible actor as so many believe, on the contrary, he is one of the very best. He knows how to make terrible writing interesting and bold. The dress down, though it makes no sense, is a piece of damn interesting interaction. Kudos, Shatner, you magnificent bastard!

Lest this post become a bitch fest I’ll talk about the pros of the episode and there are some. While this episode may be a mess thematically it is shot fantastically. In the cold open there is a brilliant tracking shot that sinks from the science station to Sulu at helm. Magnificent. Worthy of the cinematography of Michael Ballhaus. There are some equally interesting shots throughout the halls and in the prison even though it is capturing an odd soliloquy where Harry expounds his dastardly plans to dupe the Captain. Not to mention this all happens within ear shot of two security guards. 

Uh... Harry they can hear you. You may not wish to share your half baked plan in front of two guys that can walk over to the Captain and say “Sir, that space pirate dressed like a Quentin Crisp Australian cowboy fantasy is trying to con you.” 

Let us look at this Harry Mudd. On paper he is interesting. A space pirate who is wanted for fraud that inexplicably gets

The Space Pedophile!

caught in an asteroid field (wait a minute... Han Solo? Is this your fabulous alter ego?) Alas, interpreted by Roger C. Carmel, this space rogue becomes a jolly joke with a huge Santa Clause belt buckle that evokes more space pedophile then dangerous fraudster. He talks literally like a pirate. No kidding. Carmel borrowed the West Country dialect of Robert Newton to form Mudd’s annoying cadence. Someone should have seen that this episode is all too hokey and Carmel is at least 50% to blame.

I should also note the fascinating idea of the Venus Drug: a drug that makes you grow younger or appear younger or uh... act younger (this is confusing as different characters say different things about it.) The way the Venus Drug is used reminds me of the actual way pimps and sex traders use heroin and other drugs to placate their victims into staying in the trade. This is a marvelous observation about the sex trade and were this episode shot in 1996, instead of 66, something would have been made of it. Though they get close. One of the only enrapturing moments occurs when the women first go into withdrawal and realize the hold Mudd has over them. This is a startling moment and shows that this jolly Mudd is not all he is cracked up to be. 

I could go on for pages about what is wrong with this episode. It is certainly bottom of the barrel. I wont. Instead I leave you with a summation that Paula M. Block presents in her and Terry J. Erdman’s massive reference book Star Trek: The Original Series 365 when she addresses the disgusting anti-feminist theme of “How to marry a millionaire” which is prevalent through out the original series:

“Take Eve, the most rational of the three women. After spending most of her life cleaning up after a bunch of unappreciative male siblings, all she wants is the opportunity to connect with a good man. Even after learning that she doesn't need the Venus drug to appear desirable, Eve can't foresee a future that doesn't involve snaring a man. The thought of serving aboard a starship never occurs to her – except perhaps as the captain's wife. So she consigns herself to life on barren Rigel XII, cleaning up for another unappreciative male (miner Ben Childress) and listening to the winds blow day and night.”

It is hard to believe that this is the same world that would later give us Captain Janeway. 

Bailey, Bones and Balok - My Trek Through Trek (Part III)

What we’re watching: The Corbomite Maneuver. Episode 11 of Season 1 TOS (Nov. 10, 1966)

A far more fascinating version of Balok.

My Rating Out of 5 Tribbles: 2 1/2 Tribbles who you think are cool when you first meet them but turn out to be Clint Howard in a silver poncho. 

My After Episode Thoughts: “Brilliant premise ruined by an acid fueled reference to the Wizard of Oz”

Pros: Dr. Leonard Fing Bones McCoy is in the house. Kirk’s salad. Spock’s daddy issues. Nuclear Allegory.  Fine early character development. 

Cons: Clint Howard. Ensign Bailey. Cheap, easy ending. Did I mention Clint Howard?

In the last Trek Through Trek, I wrote about how a gripping story can be cheapened by a hasty final act. The Corbomite Maneuver once again demonstrates this. If I were to look at the this episode based on its strides in character development, it is easily a 5 Tribble episode. The iconic crew is finally in place: Sulu takes his seat at the helm, Uhura in all her sexy revolutionary glory sits at communications and hails frequencies and most importantly, my favourite character of all the Star Treks, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy makes his first of many excuses to be on the bridge and not in sickbay. I swear he is the only doctor who seems to rarely want to be involved in medicine. 

Kirk: Captains don't eat no salad.
McCoy: They do if they want to fit into their velour. 

It is a misconception that the original Enterprise crew was held together by the relationship of Spock and Kirk. Some will even claim that it is the interaction of the ensemble that makes this show. I believe it is the trio of Spock, Bones and Kirk that hold this crew together. Spock is coldly logical, Bones is almost pure feeling and Kirk is the instinctual arbiter. Bones is essential to the original Enterprise. Red blooded Humanity runs through him like green blooded logic streams through Spock. McCoy is the moral centre always standing up for the little guy. Sometimes advocating so much that he allows his emotional nature to get in the way of the mission at hand. Bones is the connection we as a 20/21st century audience have with 23rd century issues. His distrust of technology parallels our unease in storm of technologic advance that we deal with everyday. It is only fitting a that a great Western character like DeForest Kelley brings him to life.  Spock is the brain, Bones is the heart and Kirk, well... he has to be the crotch.  The sex as it were. If one examines each Star Trek crew, one can find this dynamic. Apply this triumvirate to TNG: Data is the brain, Picard the heart and Riker the sex. I am sure I can do this with Voyager and DS9 and I will surely apply this when I reach those episodes. 

McCoy’s debut is not the only first in this episode. Just head on over to Memory Alpha if you want to see how many grounds are broken in these 50 minutes. The list is endless. 

Perhaps it is all this establishment that hampers the main trajectory of the episode. 

For the first three acts, Corbomite, has a lot going for it. It is a tale of first contact. The first of many such tales. It points out how fear of the unknown can severely derail future events and relationships. The episode solidifies the adage that first impressions are everything. When that poor greenhorn Ensign Bailey coaxes Kirk into firing phasers at Balok’s Fasarius ship, Kirk sets off a reaction that nearly turns the five year mission into a five minute jaunt.  Events like these have happened in our own history.  For example when Captain Cook first landed on the islands of Hawaii something he did left him dead in the sand. Magellan too. Countless explorers have by accident caused war without them knowing why. When the Zulu first saw the tall ship’s sails on the horizon, they mistook the white tapestry for clouds and thereby thought the pasty men that landed on the their shores arrived from the skies. This belief caused all sorts of repercussions for the history of Southern Africa.  It is not inconceivable that Balok would think that the humans were attempting war when they destroy his explorer buoy. This is a fascinating idea and it gives the episode real teeth. Until the end. 

This is how I feel about the Fourth Act. 

What must it be like to be Ron Howard’s younger brother? How can one ever find a name for oneself if one’s older brother is such an extraordinary young child actor, writer and oscar winning director? It must suck to be Clint Howard. His claim to fame, aside from Austin Powers innuendos, has always been his involvement in Star Trek. He has been involved in three different episodes that span the 60s, 90s and 2000s. Clint’s most iconic moment is probably his portrayal of Balok in this episode. However I don’t think it is because of his stunning performance. Trekdom’s fascination with Clint  is more likely the result the absurdity of his character. Balok is a child, alien, scientist with the voice of a muppet. He might as well have been a puppet like his alter ego. Better yet, if this puppet was the only incarnation we encounter, Balok would be far more fascinating. 

Speaking of fascinating, this episode is the first moment when Spock uses this catchphrase.

I really dislike when a story is full of potential and suspense only for it to be undercut by some extremely odd character choice. Corbomite embodies this disappointment. The whole episode goes to great lengths to set up a brilliant threat to the Enterprise. Only to turn out that the action was a master plan coined by an oddly overdubbed child. I understand that the creatives surely wanted to create a “nothing is what it seems” theme yet it turns the episode into a farce. This is often a reoccurring problem with early Trek. The creatives don’t seem to trust their material. More likely they don’t yet understand what they can do with Star Trek. Hell! This is only the third episode. They come so very close to genius. The Corbomite Maneuver has such a gorgeous message but only ends up being slaughtered for a cooky creature shot and a hip sequence. Perhaps, this is a fan words looking back at the early episodes from a position of enlightenment. Perhaps, I am being to harsh on the episode. Nevertheless it is a shame that beautifully written scenes of Kirk and McCoy are all but forgotten for Space Whimsy. 

P.S. Am I to believe that Bailey became an Ambassador for all of humankind? One moment he was an green ensign and then only a few short hours later he is worthy of inter world diplomacy. What a cheap little ‘explain away ending.’ Thank the stars the show gets better. 

Owning Absurdity

Tonight my good friend and I decided to take in a movie. We tossed

The Wolf Pack. See that's a funny picture.

around many ideas of what to see as we had no plans and this has become an almost weekly outing. We the merits of venturing to the latest Shyamalan travesty; After Earth. That was an early veto when it became clear that neither one of us could stomach a foray in to the twisted travesty that surely another Shyamalan piece would be. We ultimately decided to venture into the abyss of a threequel and went to see Hangover III. 

Both of us, many winters ago, went to see the dark sequel to the original masterpiece and we were fascinated by the prospects of further adventures of the Wolf Pack. We had heard that this new film was dark and quite unforgiving. Some critics had suggested that devoid of humour. When the projector (do they use projectors anymore?) began to roll and the audience was taken by the flashing wallpaper to become distracted from their mouthfuls of popped corn, I was surprised to find a very odd experience. This Hangover rejected the premise of the last two other films and decided to go on a kind of screw ball fantasy journey. This film decided to follow the North By Northwest premise and place its heroes in a state of unknown persecution.

Somehow this is less funny. Hangover III Wolf Pack.

In the past two films, the group was already in a position of play as they had awoken from a night that was forgotten in a drunken (roofie) filled nightmare. The room around them was nothing but a mishmash of evidence from the last night’s escapades.  The Wolves had to become ‘Morning After Sherlocks. This led them on a series of odd adventures and scenarios that not even Hunter S. Thompson could imagine. This was a situation that focused around one of there greatest foils from the last two films played by that brilliant Korean-American comedic force, from CBS’ Community, Ken Jeong. All of these changes to classic narrative of the two last films added a refreshing take on the gritty drug-filled chaos of the last two films. 

The comedy, in the previous two movies came from the hunt to track down the previous night’s goings on. III is focused on the present. This should have worked and nearly did. It ultimately failed.

When walking along the squalid streets of Toronto’s answer to San Francisco’s multicultural hellhole Chinatown, Spadina and Dundas, we, my diminutive but nevertheless brilliant friend and I arrived at the conclusion that it was not the failure in chaotic humour that hurt this movie. Its failure stemmed from the need to instill an unneeded and depressing reality into the film’s world. When the flurry reached a moment of true chaos the film pulled back into the very real reaction. There was always some very real consequence to the absurd action. A character would make an outrageous move then suddenly shocked by realistic results of his action. So the audience followed suit. They could sense a comedic payoff coming but it was suddenly and cruelly slaughtered like a pack of humourless butchered cows. For example, death is hilarious. A child crying out of grief is not. Hell, at one point a character witnesses a death and has an outrageous childlike reaction which is befitting his man/boy status, but then is immediately undercut when he wets his pants. The wetting of the pants should be uproarious but because of his choice to play genuine embarrassment (or the director’s) served to only undercut the comedy and make it not okay to laugh.

In comedy a commedian must embrace the absurdity of the situation and

One, very accurately, can see the dynamic. 

not comment on it. In Michael Caine’s second memoir, which I’m reading like a bat out of hell at current, that old Cockney brings this very point up. When he was shooting with Steve Martin on set of the brilliant film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Michael was forced to play opposite to Steve Martin in his prime. A man who was right the middle of Steve Martin’s epoch of comedic genius. Michael found this insanely difficult so he soon found that he was drowning. Therefore Michael resolved to play everything completely straight. He partnered Steve, sometimes stealing scenes from him, by making no comment on the performance and treating his behavior as being completely normal. What this did for the film was create a relationship that was even more absurd. It was and is an instant of comedic genius. 

Likewise, in the first Hangover film, the Wolf Pack did the same, they did not explain the insanity. They had bigger fish to fry then exposition. Hell there was a baby lying on the plush vomit covered carpet of the Las Vegas bachelor suite! They excepted the absurdity and added. They went with it.

Comedy is ‘owning it.’ Going with it no matter how absurd. Tragedy is fighting against the environment and finding that you can’t win. Comedy is freedom. Tragedy is rules. Freedom is tougher then Rules.