diff --git a/tildes/tildes/enums.py b/tildes/tildes/enums.py
index bc294bb..4648783 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/enums.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/enums.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ class CommentSortOption(enum.Enum):
     VOTES = enum.auto()
     NEWEST = enum.auto()
     POSTED = enum.auto()
+    RELEVANCE = enum.auto()
 
     @property
     def description(self) -> str:
@@ -28,6 +29,8 @@ class CommentSortOption(enum.Enum):
             return "newest first"
         elif self.name == "POSTED":
             return "order posted"
+        elif self.name == "RELEVANCE":
+            return "relevance"
 
         return "most {}".format(self.name.lower())
 
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
index 1283cc7..ab4c5d9 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
@@ -250,3 +250,18 @@ class Comment(DatabaseModel):
     def tags_by_user(self, user: User) -> Sequence[str]:
         """Return list of tag names that a user has applied to this comment."""
         return [tag.name for tag in self.tags if tag.user_id == user.user_id]
+
+    def is_tag_active(self, tag_name: str) -> bool:
+        """Return whether a tag has been applied enough to be considered "active"."""
+        tag_weight = self.tag_weights[tag_name]
+
+        # all tags must have at least 1.0 weight
+        if tag_weight < 1.0:
+            return False
+
+        # for "noise", weight must be more than 1/5 of the vote count (5 votes
+        # effectively override 1.0 of tag weight)
+        if tag_name == "noise" and self.num_votes >= tag_weight * 5:
+            return False
+
+        return True
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
index 849b4bc..6e1b148 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 """Contains the CommentTree and CommentInTree classes."""
 
 from datetime import datetime
-from typing import Iterator, List, Optional, Sequence
+from typing import Iterator, List, Optional, Sequence, Tuple
 
 from prometheus_client import Histogram
 from wrapt import ObjectProxy
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ class CommentTree:
             tree = sorted(tree, key=lambda c: c.created_time)
         elif sort == CommentSortOption.VOTES:
             tree = sorted(tree, key=lambda c: c.num_votes, reverse=True)
+        elif sort == CommentSortOption.RELEVANCE:
+            tree = sorted(tree, key=lambda c: c.relevance_sorting_value, reverse=True)
 
         for comment in tree:
             if not comment.has_visible_descendant:
@@ -177,11 +179,7 @@ class CommentTree:
             if comment.user == self.viewer:
                 continue
 
-            # Collapse a comment if it has weight from noise tags of at least
-            # 1.0 and the vote count is less than 5x the weight (so 5 votes are
-            # "stronger" than each 1.0 of noise and will prevent collapsing)
-            noise_weight = comment.tag_weights["noise"]
-            if noise_weight >= 1.0 and comment.num_votes < noise_weight * 5:
+            if comment.is_tag_active("noise"):
                 comment.collapsed_state = "full"
 
     def uncollapse_new_comments(self, threshold: datetime) -> None:
@@ -274,3 +272,26 @@ class CommentInTree(ObjectProxy):
 
         for reply in self.replies:
             reply.recursively_collapse()
+
+    @property
+    def relevance_sorting_value(self) -> Tuple[int, ...]:
+        """Value to use for the comment with the "relevance" comment sorting method.
+
+        Returns a tuple, which allows sorting the comments into "tiers" and then still
+        supporting further sorting inside those tiers when it's useful. For example,
+        comments tagged as offtopic can be sorted below all non-offtopic comments, but
+        then still sorted by votes relative to other offtopic comments.
+        """
+        if self.is_removed:
+            return (-100,)
+
+        if self.is_tag_active("noise"):
+            return (-2, self.num_votes)
+
+        if self.is_tag_active("offtopic"):
+            return (-1, self.num_votes)
+
+        if self.is_tag_active("joke"):
+            return (self.num_votes // 2,)
+
+        return (self.num_votes,)
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/views/topic.py b/tildes/tildes/views/topic.py
index d7257e4..16d2997 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/views/topic.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/views/topic.py
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ def get_new_topic_form(request: Request) -> dict:
 
 
 @view_config(route_name="topic", renderer="topic.jinja2")
-@use_kwargs({"comment_order": Enum(CommentSortOption, missing="votes")})
+@use_kwargs({"comment_order": Enum(CommentSortOption, missing="relevance")})
 def get_topic(request: Request, comment_order: CommentSortOption) -> dict:
     """View a single topic."""
     topic = request.context