Since trailers started rolling out, entertainment bloggers have made AKOTSK’s gestures at humor a key element of their coverage. The headline on Savannah Salazar’s Vulture post about the first trailer calls it a “Game Of Thrones buddy comedy”; when the second trailer (above) came out last month, Nina Starner wrote at SlashFilm that the new prequel “looks…funny?!”

If one’s main point of comparison is typical GOT marketing—like this dour season 7 trailer, for example—then yes, AKOTSK is a shocking departure into levity. For starters, there’s the central duo. An adult flummoxed and annoyed by a child he’s forced to spend time with is a comic premise that echoes through screen history, from It’s a Gift to The Bad News Bears to Punky Brewster to Arya Stark and The Hound in GOT. In this case, Dunk is justly insecure about his status, so he’s especially wounded by Egg’s various undermining questions (“Was [Ser Arlan] a shit knight?”) and rude observations (“Your belt’s made of rope”). It doesn’t take long, though, before Egg and Dunk are close enough to do fondly snarky impressions of each other. Between having a kid as co-lead and multiple episodes’ pretty decent snot, poop, and fart gags, I wondered whether this might be targeting younger viewers, like the Star Wars franchise’s recent flirtation with TV comedy, Skeleton Crew; then I got to the episode that flashes back to how Ser Robyn Rhysling, “the maddest knight in the seven kingdoms,” lost his eye—and no, it wasn’t from a very bad infection. The show has more Family Guy-worthy flashback cutaway jokes than you’d probably expect for events that frequently involve political operators like the Baratheons and Tyrells.

Another supposed point of departure for the show is its focus on what Martin calls “the small folk” who aren’t “going to get the iron throne unless everybody else in Westeros died.” But the standard GOT players remain in the picture to a significant extent. Dunk still has to beg high-born knights and lords to admit him to the tournament. Targaryens are still plotting against each other for position (and generally known as “incestuous aliens”). Dragons still figure in the story, even if only as elaborate puppets in stage shows by Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford), another notably tall character who enraptures Dunk. Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), Dunk’s first new knight friend, could be mistaken for an average-height Tyrion Lannister (played in GOT by Peter Dinklage), including that, like Tyrion, half Ser Lyonel’s personality is “drunk.”

The pity is that opportunities to inject more comedy into this comedy-sized half-hour show keep flying past. The quick flash to Ser Robyn Rhysling’s ocular mishap is a tease of how funny the action scenes could have been. (Anyone who doesn’t believe action sequences can be funny obviously hasn’t seen Kung Fu Hustle or Jackass.) And while the juxtaposition of big guy/little guy isn’t particularly innovative, when you name your lead Ser Duncan the Tall and pair him with a kid, writing one sight gag about their incongruous height disparity is allowed. Dunk’s crush on Tanselle feels like it could go in a Princess Bride-ish “twue wuv” direction; then she is assaulted by a man, suggesting that there are some plot points no GOT-branded story is ever likely to exclude.

If A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms producers decide to go for harder laughs with these characters, they’ll get the chance: the show was renewed for a second season well ahead of its series premiere, and Martin has told showrunner Ira Parker he has story outlines for as many as 12. If the show’s writers are still only willing to go hard after snot, poop, and fart gags, I guess it won’t be a huge surprise; I just hope they come up with a lot more in the years to come.