You wouldn't think about it at first, but Hannibal Lecter can be a very humorous character. Whether you read Thomas Harris' books about Lecter or see one of the movies based on them, there's a streak of dark comedy that runs through them. The comic strip below parodies and riffs on that dark comedy: https://tapas.io/episode/1143161
Someone else played James Bond before Sean Connery did in Dr. No. Someone else played Hannibal Lecter before Anthony Hopkins did in Silence of the Lambs. In a recent article for the Odyssey, I talk about these actors and others who played early versions of famous characters: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/5-actors-you-didnt-know-played-famous-roles
How do people decide whether violence is acceptable in a story? To make this broader matter, how do they decide whether sex scenes and other possibly disturbing material (I'll call this "difficult material" from now on) are acceptable in a given story? After all, some people have no problem enjoying stories that have difficult material, …
G. Connor Salter 