Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Squared Circle: Make 'Em Laugh!

I have always tended to cheer for the villains ("heels") rather than the good guys ("babyfaces") in wrestling. Part of the reason is that the heels by their very nature tended to be more interesting, more flamboyant. But another reason for my preference for the bad guys has to do with how entertaining a good heel is in the ring. The job of the heel is to make the good guy look good, to put him in a position to make the big comeback and pull out a win (or lose by cheating).

In order to accomplish this, a heel has to have tremendous timing, feeding off the audience to know when the right time is to let the babyface make his comeback. And another key component to a good heel is a sense of comedic timing. A great bad guy makes the hero look good by making himself look comically incompetent.

Notice this classic Ric Flair move-



How can you not laugh when you see that? And how can you not love a performer who can make you laugh? That's one reason I like the "bad guys."

1 comment:

  1. I object to your use of the term "babyfaces"
    :)

    -Ken

    ReplyDelete