How did caricature make comic strips more focused on comedy?

Caricature played a fundamental role in shaping the comedic nature of the comic strip by providing a visual vocabulary for satire and humor. By seizing upon and exaggerating salient features or characteristics of a subject, caricature allowed artists to transform individuals and social types into figures of ridicule or amusement.12

This focus on comedy was achieved through several key developments:

• Visual Wit and Distortion: Early pioneers like Rodolphe Töpffer utilized caricature to experiment with physiognomy and movement, creating absurdist antiheroes who struggled against irrational situations. This departure from realistic, three-dimensional drawing allowed for a more fluid, farcical narrative style.1
• Social Satire: Caricature enabled artists to mock specific social classes, professions, and human foibles. By creating recognizable "types"—such as the scheming loafer or the pompous official—cartoonists could engage in social commentary that was inherently humorous.31
• Graphic Vocabulary: Artists like Wilhelm Busch developed conventional signs to express emotions like shock or pain, creating a "stenographic" language of forms that made comic situations instantly readable and consistently funny.1

Ultimately, these techniques shifted the emphasis from purely narrative or didactic storytelling toward a focus on comic situations, predicaments, and visual puns.41