Gintamais easily one of the funniest anime ever made, but if you’ve watched it all the way through, you know that laughter is just the cover. Almost every major character uses humor as a shield — some more desperately than others. It can be in the form of a sarcastic quip, a ridiculous face, or a full-blown gag routine.But the jokes are how they keep the world from getting too close. And sometimes, they even fool themselves.
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These are the characters who made us laugh the hardest and then broke our hearts when we finally saw what they were carrying. Because inGintama, the most painful truths usually show up with a smirk. These characters hid their pain behind too many jokes, and somehow, that made it hurt even more.
10Taizou Hasegawa (MADAO)
Jokes That Only Kept Him Visible
At first glance,Hasegawa’sentire existence is a gag. He’s the ultimate “MADAO”, middle-aged man down on his luck, and nearly every scene he’s in plays up his joblessness, his pathetic luck, and how far he’s fallen. But beneath the cigarette smoke and slapstick is a man who genuinely lost everything and never found a way back.
He used to be a government official. A respectable one. And that loss of purpose haunts him. The jokes are his only way of staying in the picture, even if he knows he’s become the butt of them. What makes it sadder is how often he tries to pretend he’s fine with it. He’s not.He’s just convinced no one wants to hear the truth anymore.
9Catherine
Sass That Hid the Question She Was Afraid to Ask
Catherine is loud, chaotic, and often a comedic side character, especially when she’s robbing someone or turning the snack shop into a disaster zone. But behind that rough exterior is someone who’s always been reaching for belonging, and never quite sure if she deserves it.
Her past as a thief isn’t just comic relief. It’s a reminder of the life she thought she had to live. Her loyalty to Otose is deep, and the way she clings to her role at the shop shows how badly she wants to stay part of something. Her sass and aggression are defense mechanisms.Because if she stopped joking, she might have to ask if people really want her around.
8Sagaru Yamazaki
Missions That Didn’t Match the Heart
Yamazaki is the joke of the Shinsengumi. He’s constantly teased, sidelined, and stuck on ridiculous missions involving anpan and badminton. It’s easy to forget he’s actually good at his job. But that’s part of the sadness. The fact that he knows no one takes him seriously, and instead of pushing back, he plays along.
There are moments where his exhaustion breaks through. You see it in his quiet loyalty to the team, even when he’s being humiliated. You see it in his rare serious expressions when things actually fall apart.Yamazaki laughs with the rest of them, but you get the feeling he’s just waiting for someone to finally see that he’s more than a background joke.
7Shinpachi Shimura
Normalcy Built on Yelling Too Loud
Shinpachi is usually the straight man in Gintoki’s wild mess of life. He yells, corrects, and complains, and that becomes his whole bit. But for all his exasperation, Shinpachi’s holding on to a lot. His parents are gone. His sister is his only family. And the dojo they’re trying to keep alive is a constant reminder of how much they’ve lost.
He makes jokes, sure. But it’s his way of keeping things normal. If he stops, even for a second, the weight of how hard he’s working to keep everything together might crush him.He pretends he’s just annoyed. The truth is, he’s scared. He doesn’t want to lose anyone else.
6Ayame Sarutobi (Sa-chan)
Connection Chased in All the Wrong Punchlines
Sa-chanis one of the most exaggerated characters in the show, a deadly ninja who becomes a clumsy, masochistic Gintoki-stalker. But her obsession, her awkwardness, even her over-the-top masochism all feel like overcompensation for something deeper: a lifetime of rejection.
She constantly tries to connect, but does it in the most self-defeating ways possible. Her humor is painful because it’s desperate. She thinks if she makes herself ridiculous enough, maybe someone will keep her around.Sa-chan is someone who turned herself into one to survive being alone.
5Kotarou Katsura
Disguises That Protected the Ruin
Katsura is a walking contradiction. He’s a brilliant strategist and rebel leader, and also the guy who puts on a wig and tries to sell jump-rope DVDs. His absurdity is so consistent that it becomes part of his character’s mythos. But there’s pain in the ridiculousness.
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Katsura lost people. He lost ideals. He watched the world he believed in crumble. The jokes? That’s how he stays human in a world that’s forgotten what he’s fighting for.He makes people laugh so they won’t see how often he’s on the edge of falling apart. That’s survival.
4Toshiro Hijikata
Aggression Masquerading as Discipline
Hijikata pretends to be all edge and intimidation, but he leans into the mayonnaise gags and over-the-top threats more than he probably realizes. What’s harder to spot is how much of that behavior is covering deep insecurity. He carries the weight of leadership, loyalty to Kondou, and guilt over the people he’s failed.
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Even his obsession with rules is a way of keeping control over a life that often feels like it’s slipping. Hijikata jokes because if he didn’t, he’d be stuck with the version of himself that’s too tired to keep fighting. He masks grief with aggression, then masks the aggression with absurdity.And only rarely does he let that mask drop.
3Isao Kondou
Loyalty That Rarely Took a Break
Kondou is the guy everyone calls a gorilla. He’s constantly turned into a joke, a stalker, a goofball, the idiot leader. But that’s not the real Kondou. He’s a man who leads with his heart, who built the Shinsengumi from nothing, and who’s always looking out for the people under him.
The way he throws himself into jokes is part of his personality, but it’s also how he hides the pressure. He’s terrified of losing his team. Of becoming obsolete. Of failing his ideals. He acts like nothing gets to him, but you see it in the quiet moments, especially during the serious arcs.Kondou isn’t laughing because he’s carefree. He’s laughing because the alternative is falling apart.
Laughter That Feels a Bit Too Loud
Kagurais all energy, jokes, and food. She’s the comic relief in nearly every scene she’s in, until she’s not. Because when the story slows down, and her past creeps back in, you see a child who grew up watching death, struggling with strength she didn’t ask for, and aching for a family that could stay whole.
She plays the fool to keep people close. To keep them from seeing the cracks. Her childishness is protective and a refusal to let the world take more than it already has.The thing is, Kagura isn’t immature. She’s just hurting. And every joke she makes is one step away from breaking.
1Gintoki Sakata
A Smirk That Stopped the Flood
No one hides pain better than Gintoki. He’s the clown, the lazy bum, the guy with a sugar addiction and no rent money. But underneath all of that is a man who saw too much and survived too much. His past as a soldier, his guilt over Shoyo, his fear of losing the people around him, none of that ever fully goes away.
He cracks a joke in every situation because silence is unbearable. When things get serious, he pretends they’re not. When people try to connect, he plays dumb. But Gintoki’s not numb. He’s terrified. And he knows that if he lets himself really feel what’s underneath all the laughter, he might not come back from it.He carries everyone else’s pain on his shoulders. And then makes a fart joke to hide the weight.
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