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low comedy

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low comedy

–noun
comedy that depends on physical action, broadly humorous or farcical situations, and often bawdy or vulgar jokes.
Compare high comedy.


Origin:
1600–10


low comedian, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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low comedy  
n.  Comedy characterized by slapstick, burlesque, and horseplay.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia

low comedy

dramatic or literary entertainment with no underlying purpose except to provoke laughter by boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery, and other riotous activity. Used either alone or added as comic relief to more serious forms, low comedy has origins in the comic improvisations of actors in ancient Greek and Roman comedy. Low comedy can also be found in medieval religious drama, in the works of William Shakespeare, in farce and vaudeville, in the antics of motion-picture comedians, and in television.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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