the reason jarjar was there was because he was the link between the gungans and the queen, without jarjar there would have been no army to fight the trade federation, he also provies some comedy to what is if you think about it a very dark film, perhaps not on screen but certinly in the background the suffering of a people, deception, death, greed etc. If you take jarjar out the film, the film loses some of its comedy, i would not be surprised if Jarjar has not matured in the next film in line with the darker theme and it is then 3po providing the comedy.
I know there were comments. But there were ONLY comments. That doesn't make it a dark film. No emotion of suffering was transferred to the audience. THis was once of TPM's flaws. The battles meant very little emotionally. Although, the shots of the capture of Theed with all the tanks driving in and ships flying over was fairly impressive. But I saw no suffering.
I agree with sand person no 10. If you take Jar Jar out of TPM then the film doesn't work as well. He helped with the characterization. Obi-Wan is arrogant and doesn't like the "living force" always refering to pathetic life forms and Lucas used Jar Jar to tell that. I love the scene when they are returning to the ship after visiting Mos Espa and Jar Jar says "hello" to Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan just ignores him and keeps walking.
But I agree with Queeg. The lack of suffering was one of the things I didn't like about TPM. Anakin is supposed to be a slave but he has a pretty good life.