Why was Damon's character basically doing stand-up comedy in space?

Agreed. That always bugged me. A stranded motorist is more serious.

I found this pseudo-funny banter by Damon's character, using swearwords, cool jokes (e.g. "science the *beep* out of this thing Haha", "disco music sucks amirite", "Plutonium is dangerous LOL") to be extremely annoying. Took me right out the movie. It was so out of character for a scientist struggling to survive on Mars, because it was sooo overdone being a constant barrage of zingers - I'd have said nothing if they had him say such things once or twice to show he's a sarcastic person who doesn't lose his sense of humour even in the face of death, but to have him basically do stand-up up there on Mars was way overdone. Can't believe this kind of hack writing is the best Hollywood can do nowadays.

But I guess the dum-dums in the theatres thought it was comedy gold and didn't even understand why it was a lost chance to make the main character believable.

The history of the space program (and before that, high-performance test piloting) is full of wise-ass get-er-done macho humor (i.e. see "The Right Stuff," which was indeed very true to character).

You notice also in the really crunch time moments (the wind storm/abort, the ascent and rendezvous) they ditch the humor and get down to nuts and bolts and number (how many meters apart, what is their closing rate).


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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

why he can't do stand up in space ? WHY ANY ASTRONAUT CAN'T DO THAT ? IS THERE A RULE ? A RESTRICTION ? HE'S NOT YOU MAN .STOP PROJECTING YOUR LIFE INTO CHARACTERS .THEY ARE NOT LIKE YOU .THEY WOULD NOT DO WHAT YOU WOULD DO ON MARS...people are different ..you nerds are to narrow minded

Uh boredom perhaps.

Maybe they should have cast Jerry Seinfeld instead:-

"What is the deal with these potatoes anyway? Grow damn you!!!"

I hated the movie because of the weak comedy.

Back when IMDB existed, I wrote the film should have had a laugh track. At least then it would have been interesting.

Figured it was the product of solitude.
Being alone, not knowing when or if anybody is gonna figure out he's alive (and then come to rescue him), all contributed to him losing it a bit. Talking to a camera, cracking jokes, maybe even imagining there's an "audience" to it - was all stuff he did to keep going.
That's my interpretation.
I'm not sure what him being a scientist has to do with having a dumb sense of humor.