So I'm looking through clips again for another edit and I've noticed that, despite Carmen thinking he's not funny, he actually is (at least before s3 he was hilarious) but, just like everything else about him, it's subtle. His humor is unbelievably dry and observational in nature. It's also very *snaps fingers rapidly* quick! quick! His exchanges with Syd (and others but primarily Syd) are fast, choppy, interrupted and the jokes aren't even jokes as much as they are deadpan understatements and fatalistic asides. He's not witty though, Sydney is witty, and she's as dry and sarcastic as him but she's more theatrical and performative with it, more self aware and verbose and seemingly more meta about it — aka she knows she's making a joke, but Carmy doesn't tell jokes, his natural reactions are the joke the vast majority of time. When he does tell a joke it's in the vein of "isn't whatever's happening right now crazy?" Additionally, a lot of the humor in the dialouge lies in his breaking of that quick! quick! pattern to be confused about something that's common sense to most people, most notably simple math problems but also other stuff. You can't really guess what he does or doesn't know about the world and I'm inclined to believe that this is a deliberate writing choice.
My favorite lines of his:
- Where did you grow up, Arizona?
- Math then, I think it would be math.
- That’ll do it. (As answer to Sydney not having a great relationship with her mom bc of the whole dead thing.)
- And there’s probably more but yeah!! He’s actually so funny he just doesn’t know
-"You're about as Italian as a f_cking McDonald's!"
-"Richie, I'm not gonna drop this ass"
-That whole conversation about Disney movies with Ted. To think it was Carmy making the scene funny and not Fak, who's supposed to be comedic relief.
And the great thing about Carmy is, like OP says, he already "knows" he's not funny so he's not trying to make a joke, he's being serious AF but is so unintentionally hilarious.
The Bear season 5 poster featuring Sydney and Carmy (x)
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS???? WHAT IS THISSSSSSSS!!!!!
@sonoranbumblebee said in one post they didn't hear that guy saying "Sydney" here, so I deleted the track with the music. I think it sounds pretty clear now, and maybe he's not actually saying "Sydney", but it really sounds similar. And the way the camera then zooms into his face, then the way Carmy jerks up his head tells me that Carmy heard it as well.