The comic relief is not the guy trying to be funny. It’s the guy being himself who is inadvertently funny. scriptshadow.net
The reason this works is that comedy built on trying collapses the moment the audience senses effort; we laugh at truth, not performance, and a character who is simply, fully himself has no idea he's being watched, which is exactly what makes him funny. Think of the overly formal accountant who treats a zombie outbreak like a budget meeting, calmly requesting receipts while the world ends. He isn't cracking jokes. He's being consistent, and the gap between his nature and the chaos around him is the joke. The caution is that sincerity can tip into caricature if you lean too hard on the quirk. The moment he starts winking at his own rigidity, or the script repeats the bit past its welcome, he becomes a jokester in disguise, and the magic trick stops working.
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