trueculprit:

this is random but I see a lot of #undertale fanwork characterize papyrus as “someone who doesn’t understand anything/is always the wacky one in a joke.” now this obviously isn’t true, since he plays the straight man to both sans semi-intentional bizarreness and undyne’s high-spirited ridiculousness

but it’s also just…plain old not as funny? humor comes from subversion of expectations, and if your joke is how wildly wrong your character is about things they need to comprehend things up until the moment when they DON’T.

a character who doesn’t get anything it is just lost. a character who gets most things but has massive, absurd blind spots in their common sense is what’s funny

the more generally competent a character is, the funnier it is when a goofy and unexpected blind spot is revealed