Shakespeare did have some humorous elements in Hamlet. Now, Hamlet is a far cry from a slapstick comedy, and most of the humor goes over our heads, so I shall try to explain just a few of Shakespeare's jokes.

When Hamlet has finished talking to the ghost, he tells everyone (Horatio and the guards) to swear not to tell anyone about what they saw that night. He makes them swear by his sword and then the voice of the ghost tells them to swear by his sword. Hamlet says "Well said, old mole." Okay, first, this sounds like a funny thing to call the ghost of your father. Second, it might refer to the fact that the king is buried (in the vault, underground), and therefore is like a mole, which is also underground. Thirdly, remember what I said about special effects? Well, if the actor playing the ghost dropped through a trap door, this puts him under the stage. Therefore, the mole comment might be referring to that.

Okay, I know that pun wasn't the funniest thing you've ever heard, but as I said, this wasn't supposed to be a funny play. That, and it probably didn't take much to make people laugh back then. Anyway, let's have another example or two. Probably the funniest line in the whole play is when Hamlet calls Polonius a fishmonger. That one was pretty funny. I mean, Hamlet just called Claudius's right hand man a fishmonger. Also, when Polonius asks Hamlet what he's reading, Hamlet tells him "words". Unfortunately, things got kind of humdrum after that, but the shot of humor was much appreciated, anyway.

Remember that trap door the ghost fell down? Well, when Hamlet and Horatio are walking through the graveyard, guess where the "clowns" are digging. And remember what I said about how the people were buried and the clowns were digging up bones? Well, what Shakespeare probably did was have a couple of guys under the stage throwing bones out onto the stage. And the way the "Wooden O" was designed, they could easily have thrown some bones at the audience. I think that's kind of funny. I know if I was under the stage tossing up bones, I'd get a big kick out of chunking a couple at the audience.

Well, now you should have a good idea of what to look for as far as humor goes. One last note before I finish this section: Remember that back in Shakespeare's time, all roles were performed by males. That means the women of the play were performed by young boys that had not gone through voice changes, or men that still had high voices. The reason that men played the roles of women is that women were not allowed to be actresses. I believe the reason behind that is because acting was considered to be the lowest profession for someone. If you were acting, you were pretending to be someone else. If you were pretending to be someone else, then there must be something wrong with you. My, but times have changed.

Just one last comment before I close up shop.  Notice that Hamlet's dad was killed by poison.  At the end of the play, poison manages to claim numerous lives, being both used in the drink and on the sword tip.  Ever wonder why Hamlet didn't think to use poison to kill Claudius.  I mean, he could have dropped something in his drink while Claudius wasn't looking, or he could have poisoned the food.  Think about it.