Laughing All the Way to the Bank

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 175984

Potioncat wrote:
> 
> > Whatever might be said of her, JKR does have a sense of humour.
There are some very funny lines in the books. Sometimes there are
scenes or lines that could be (maybe) JKR teasing her fans; an "I know
what you're saying," sort of joke. For example, at some point in DH,
LV makes a comment about DD controlling Harry's strings (does anyone 
recall that scene, or have I made it up?)
> 
Geoff responded:
> No, you haven't. The relevant canon is:
<snip>
> "One of us?" jeered Voldemort and his whole body was taut and his
red eyes stared, a snake that was about to strike. "You think it will
be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident and because
Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"'
> 
> (DH "The Flaw in the Plan" p.591 UK edition)
<snip>

Carol responds:

The narrator also refers to Harry as "Dumbledore's puppet" in a scene
from Voldemort's perspective right before he talks to Lucius Malfoy:

"He was confident that the boy would not find the diadem . . .
although Dumbledore's puppet had come much further than he had ever
expected . . . too far" (DH Am. ed. 641, ellipses in original). The
reference is, of course, to DD's using Harry to find and destroy the
Horcruxes. Harry himself has expressed a similar view earlier in the
book (though he doesn't use the word "puppet" or any puppet imagery):
"Risk your life, Harry! And again! and again! And don't expect me to
explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I'm
doing, trust me even though I don't trust you! Never the whole truth!
Never!" (362).

Exactly the view of many readers still have after reading and
rereading DH (and very similar to Snape's "You refuse to tell me
everything, yet you expect that small service of me!" with regard to
killing DD in "the Prince's Tale." That and similar remarks about DD
suing him to lie, spy, and risk his life must have struck home with
Harry, DD's other instrument for the triumph of "the greater good").

BTW, I know this isn't exactly what Potioncat had in mind, but DH is
the most self-referential of the books, with Rita Skeeter's highly
anticipated biography of DD standing in for DH. It also contains
little references to the films (also seen in Slughorn's reference to
Ron as "Rupert" in HBP), such as Ron's complaint about Krum's "stupid
little beard."

I'd rather she didn't do that as I'd rather live in the WW as a
self-contained universe (and when I'm already filtering out *grazing*
Thestrals and other inconsistencies). I did appreciate other instances
of her sense of humor, especially given all the death and violence and
terror and horror (*Na*gi*ni*!) in the book. Even Harry had a funny
line or two though I don't recall them. 

Favorite comic relief moments that I can recall off the top of my
head: Ron's response to Hermione's statement that she could run him
through with a sword and his soul would survive unharmed ("Which would
be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," 104) and Kreacher's saucepan
standing in for Mrs. Figg's catfood cans with regard to Mundungus. I
don't like violence in general, but the comic violence that Mundungus
suffers, first from a Squib and then from a house-elf, always seems
well-deserved and funny. 

Maybe I'm a hypocrite; I don't know. I didn't feel the same way about
Umbridge and the Centaurs (and I hate Umbridge!) or about Marietta's
pustules (which I still don't approve of because of the sneaky way the
hex was placed and its being a punishment rather than a deterrent) or
about the Twins tempting the dieting Dudley with a ton-tongue toffee
(which I think was reprehensible given the Muggles' helplessness),
much about less Sirius daring Severus to enter the Whomping Willow
knowing that he wouldn't refuse the challenge (which could have
resulted in dire consequences not only for Severus but for Remus,
whose needs and feelings Sirius didn't take into account).

Somehow, for me, imagining Mundungus receiving his nonmagical
punishments is funny in a way that these other examples of revenge or
self-imposed "justice" aren't. Instead of reading like "a revenge
narrative" (which, BTW, I *don't* think JKR is writing), the Mundungus
scenes read like slapstick comedy--except when Harry chokes Mundungus
in HBP, which isn't funny at all. It must be because he's the hero and
ought to behave heroically, not to mention that he's more than
Mundungus's equal as a wizard and in terms of physical strength,
whereas Mrs. Figg and Kreacher are minor characters regarded as
inferior by wizards in general, both rather small and scrawny and
probably nowhere near as strong as an angry sixteen-year-old boy
(Harry in HBP), with or without a wand. At any rate, I'm quite sure
that the theater audience will roar with laughter in the DH film when
Kreacher brings his saucepan down on Mundungus's head and then says
"Perhaps just one more, Master Harry, for luck?" (221).

Carol, muddying the waters by bringing in her own reactions but still
grateful for humor of any kind as a relief from tension and terror in
this darkest of JKR's books