What is the most humorous moment in the play Fences?

This question is a matter of opinion, but the funniest part in August Wilson’s Fences might be the opening scene between Troy and Bono. It is fairly usual for the funniest part of any tragic play to be early on in the script, before more dramatic elements of the story take hold. Humor can also help to introduce characters in a favorable light and gives the play a starting point from which things can devolve—rather than being stuck in tragedy the whole time. Troy and Bono are best friends who open the script having a humorous conversation about their boss, Mr. Rand, and one his employees who was carrying a watermelon under his shirt: “[H]e wasn’t gonna get much sense out of him. Trying to hide that great big old watermelon under his shirt” (1.1). This story plays into racial stereotypes and sets up a problematic workplace that will later carry more weight in Troy’s personal story, but it is played for laughs at the beginning of the drama.

The two men go on to discuss a variety of topics, including “Florida gals” and a woman who Bono describes as having “big old legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi,” causing Troy to respond, “Legs don’t mean nothing. You don’t do nothing but push them out of the way. But them hips cushion the ride!” (1.1). This humorous back and forth also foreshadows serious themes of infidelity that will take the forefront later in the story. But Wilson uses humor to establish a sense of place, character, and cadence in the opening scene.

What is the role of humor in the play Fences?

Humor in the play Fences is shown alongside tragedy in what is a comprehensive view of the human condition.

The critic Joseph H. Wessling acknowledged that though the central character of the play, Troy Maxson, is indeed tragic, there is so much more to him than that. He is a deeply flawed human being in need of grace and forgiveness, which, Wessling argues, is the essence of true comedy.

Taking his cue from the historian Gerald Heard, Wessling uses the term metacomedy to describe Wilson's play. He defines metacomedy as a comedy that depicts the horrors of everyday life but which ultimately transcends both comedy and tragedy as they are commonly understood.

As Wessling tells us, the comic vision is one that is ultimately resolved in laughter. That being the case, the essence of metacomedy is hope, and Fences provides us with an extended lesson in hope.

If we look at Troy's life as a whole, we will see it as a tragedy. However, if we take a longer view, we can see it as part of an ongoing story, a prelude perhaps to a happier time. If this all rather sounds like wishful thinking, we only have to look at the many challenges that Troy has had to overcome in his life to see that hope often bears fruit.

Troy Maxson may well be a tragic protagonist, but by the end of the play, there is still hope that the next generation will, in the spirit of metacomedy, be able to transcend the tragedy and comedy of everyday life and enjoy the laughter that comes from hope.