Violence in Puppetry

On the topic of violence in puppetry, there is a wide array of forms it can take. It can range from the very docile and comical, such as a muppet on sesame street bonking another one on the head with a rubber hammer, to the very harsh and gruesome, like one puppet murdering another on stage. This great variety allows for violence to be used in a lot of different ways. Whether the purpose is to entertain, inform, or frighten, the manner in which the violence is portrayed makes all the difference. If you had the intent of being funny you wouldn't set the action to eerie, suspenseful music with ominous lighting. If you wanted to inform the viewer on the harsh reality of spousal abuse, you wouldn't have the husband puppet bop the wife puppet on the head with a frying pan. There are merits to each form that violence can take in puppetry, but the one I will be discussing is violence for the sake of comedy.

      In creating acts of violence in a comedic fashion using puppets there are things you can do that can help  make it successful: exaggerate the characters or the movement style, use puppets which are ridiculous or non-human, add comical sounds or music, and so on. In Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" there is lots of violence that is shown for comedic effect, which fits in the general goofiness of the movie itself. The example I'll discuss is a scene which depicts goblin soldiers who've captured a large, dopey ogre named Ludo. As they taunt him and jab at him with weapons fashioned from little sharp-toothed animals tied to sticks, the protagonist Sarah hears Ludo's cries. We discover Ludo possesses the ability to summon rocks and boulders with his voice when he lets out a deep hum and a rock rolls to Sarah's feet. She picks it up and tosses it at one of the soldier's heads. It knocks his helmet around and sets in motion a ridiculous display of the soldiers all swatting at each other, biting each other on the bum with their weapons, and scrambling away "three stooges" style. Ludo is suspended upside down, bound with rope, so when Sarah lets him down he lands on his head with an "Oof!"
     This scene is funny because of how it is portrayed. The characters are cartoonish, they speak in exaggerated voices, there are silly sound effects every time someone gets hurt. Also, the fact that Ludo is a big, loveable, furry lummox and the goblin soldiers are angry, masked, armored goons lets you side with Ludo emotionally and laugh when his enemies are harmed. The lack of any gore or life-threatening injuries also makes this more lighthearted. When Ludo lands on his head, we laugh because he makes a funny sound when he falls, and we see immediately that he gets up and is unharmed. This movie is full of scenes like this and serves as a good example for comical violence in puppetry.