Most of the rest of the characters, except for the Lovers, are Zannis. Zannis are the normal blue-collar workers whom the actors tried to appeal to. The Zanni is the servant to all the other characters. The term Zanni is applied to a variety of characters so it is hard to generalize them too much.

Zanni the character:

            Not only is Zanni a character term, but Zanni is also a character himself. Zanni as a character is one of the lowest of the low servants. Zanni has two soul motivations: Food and sex, sex and food. It is hard to blame Zanni for these because he is constantly hungry from Pantalone starving him. Zanni is way too stupid to understand the concept of money, and doesn’t have that much more comprehension of sex. He is motivated solely by what feels good.

            Zanni is primarily a porter, and therefore has a low center of gravity. His back is constantly arched from any baggage or heavy objects he carries. When standing still, Zanni constantly is switching feet like a chicken, but without bobbing his head. The types of walks that Zanni can do depending on the situation are numerous but for now, we are just going over the basic walk.

            Zanni’s mask was meant to resemble a chicken, which explains the long beak as a nose. Zanni’s mask helps lead me to a key rule in Commedia masks: The longer the nose to a character’s mask, the more stupid that character is.

            Zanni is frequently the bungler of the Commedia plot. When something goes horribly wrong, it will more often than not be Zanni’s fault. Due to this, Zanni is frequently punished and starved, making him hungrier.