Midsummer's Night Dream can be absolutely hilarious.
But not because the lovers are terribly likable. I don't think this lack of likability is a mistake on Shakespeare's part. He was fully capable of creating likable lovers. Despite the far greater social stigma, Katherine and Petruchio are delightful.
But the lovers in Midsummer's Night Dream are kind of jerks. And they bring up the uncomfortable possibility that romantic feelings are entirely arbitrary and significant others entirely replaceable. Although everyone ends up at the end with the significant other that everyone started out with, that pay-off is little more than a contrivance.
I suggest again that Shakespeare was entirely aware of what he was doing. One appealing aspect of Shakespeare's plays is how many genres they fall into. Philosophy? Sure. Historical reenactment? Sure. Family drama? Sure. Horror? Sure. Romance? Sure. Raunch? High-jinks? Sure. Sure.
Okay!
Midsummer's Night Dream feels like Shakespeare took Romeo & Juliet, which he wrote about the same time, and turned such emotional excess on its head. You want angst? Heh heh heh. The fairies will give you ANGST.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Touchingly enough, the one couple who aren't totally mocked is Bottom and Tatiana. At the very end of the play within the play, he has a moment of greatness as an actor--and all due to spending a night in the otherworld, with the queen of the fairies.
1982 Midsummer Night's Dream, Part 1
1982 Midsummer Night's Dream, Part II