Pythonesque

en-adj

Pythonesque (comparative more Pythonesque, superlative most Pythonesque)

more Pythonesque (comparative)
most Pythonesque (superlative)

The module works by wrapping the C-extended Tkinter module into Pythonesque classes.

2001, Andy Duncan, Sean Hull, Oracle and Open Source: Tools and Applications:

If you want to cut out a third line, you can rewrite the above with a lambda function, which turns four lines into one (how very Pythonesque).

2003, Richard Hightower, Python Programming with the Java Class Libraries:

programming language
programming language

(computing, informal) Typical of, or suited to, the Python programming language.


gag

en-noun

gag (countable and uncountable, plural gags)

→ French: gag

→ Italian: gag

→ Spanish: gag

The noun is from Early Modern English gagge; the verb is from Middle English gaggen. Possibly imitative or perhaps related to or influenced by Old Norse gag-háls ("with head thrown backwards"; > Norwegian dialectal gaga (“bent backwards”)). The intransitive sense "to retch" is from 1707. The noun is from the 16th century, figurative use (for "repression of speech") from the 1620s. The secondary meaning "(practical) joke" is from 1863, of unclear origin.

gloss

"with head thrown backwards"; > Norwegian dialectal <i class="Latn mention" lang="no">gaga</i> (“bent backwards”)

On Hacksaw Ridge, Oliver and his team of effects artisans devised gags for that spectacular flamethrower shot along with other devastating body and bullet hits, and several mortar and full-scale explosions, all aimed at communicating the reality of battle.

2016 November 3, Ian Failes, “How the King of Practical Effects Conquered ‘Hacksaw Ridge’”, in Inverse:

(film) a device or trick used to create a practical effect; a gimmick


humor

en-noun

humor (usually uncountable, plural humors)

He was in a particularly vile humor that afternoon.

For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.

1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana, PG, page 40:

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

There are two ways to become an authority on humor. The first way is to be one of the perpetrators. You know them: comedians, satirists, cartoonists, and impersonators. The second way to gain such credentials is to be the victim of their merciless talents. As such a victim, I take a backseat to no one as far as humor is concerned.

1987, Gerald Ford, “What's So Funny About the Presidency?”, in Humor and the Presidency, New York: Arbor House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 15:


humor

en-verb

humor (third-person singular simple present humors, present participle humoring, simple past and past participle humored)

humors (present singular third-person)
humoring (participle present)
humored (participle past)
humored (past)

I know you don't believe my story, but humor me for a minute and imagine it to be true.


silly

en-adj

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

sillier (comparative)
silliest (superlative)

From Middle English seely, sēlī, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ (“lucky, fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli. Equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) + -y. Doublet of Seelie.
The semantic evolution is “lucky” → “innocent” → “naïve” → “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).

onnosel

foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom

sølle

pejorative: simple, not intelligent, unrefined

Fow ȝellow ȝellow wes hir heid bot scho of lufe wes sillie.

Davie's no just like other folk... but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for.

1814, Waverley, Walter Scott, III, xvi, 237:

Mentally simple, foolish, particularly:
(Scotland) Mentally retarded.

Mentally simple, foolish
Mentally retarded.

pitomý

irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors


comical

comical (comparative more comical, superlative most comical)

more comical (comparative)
most comical (superlative)

From Middle English comicalle, from Latin cōmicus + Middle English -alle (modern -al). By surface analysis, comic + -al.

It was a comical performance.

(archaic) Originally, relating to comedy.


comic

comic (comparative more comic, superlative most comic)

more comic (comparative)
most comic (superlative)

From Latin comicus, from Ancient Greek κωμικός (kōmikós, “relating to comedy”), from κῶμος (kômos, “carousal”).

der

comic genius

a comic stereotype

Pertaining to comedy, as a literary genre.

There is a quartet of comic musicians, who perform on instruments of an inconceivable bassness […]

1954, Canadian Saturday Night: A Magazine of Business & National Affairs:

Using the techniques of comedy, as a composition, performer etc; amusing, entertaining.

As there was something excessively comique in the distress of the landlord and his wife […], I could not forbear staying a little to be amused with it.

1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 262:

Unintentionally humorous; amusing, ridiculous.


comic

She started out as a joke-writer on the radio, and first performed as a comic at the ages of 30.

A story composed of drawn images arranged in a sequence, usually with textual captions; a graphic novel.


button

→ German: Button

→ Hindi: बटन (baṭan)

→ Gujarati: બટન (baṭan)

→ Korean: 버튼 (beoteun)

→ Maori: pātene

→ Marathi: बटण (baṭaṇ)

→ Urdu: بٹن (baṭan)

From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of Biden and beat. More at butt.

Scenes usually go out on a laugh line, a stinger or a button. End your script with a twist!

2002 November 8, Jean Ann Wright, “Animation Comedy and Gag Writing”, in Animation World Network:

With our show, one thing we wanted to do was give our best effort to always put a button on the scene.

2014 June 18, Daniel Schindel, “3 Comedy Sketches that Changed Key and Peele's Lives”, in Los Angeles Magazine:

Is there a best way to end a comedy sketch? Endings — or outs, or buttons as writers call them — are notoriously difficult to nail. The ideal ending needs to be satisfying and surprising while staying true to the comedic game that preceded it.

2016 July 12, Jessica Goldstein, “How to best end a comedy sketch? It’s hard to go wrong with gruesome death”, in The Washington Post:

(comedy) The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).


sting

sting a sting (canonical)
stings (plural)

From Middle English stynge, sting, stenge, from Old English sting, stinċġ (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stangiz.

A short percussive phrase played by a drummer to accent the punchline in a comedy show.


mock

marque (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

From Middle English mokken, from Old French mocquer, moquier (“to deride, jeer”), from Middle Dutch mocken (“to mumble”) or Middle Low German mucken (“to grumble, talk with the mouth half-opened”), both from Proto-West Germanic *mokkijan, *mukkijan (“to low, bellow; mumble”), from Proto-Germanic *mukkijaną, *mūhaną (“to low, bellow, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūg-, *mūk- (“to low, mumble”). Cognate with Dutch mokken (“to sulk; pout; mope; grumble”), Old High German firmucken (“to be stupid”), Modern German mucksen (“to utter a word; mumble; grumble”), West Frisian mokke (“to mope; sulk; grumble”), Swedish mucka (“to murmur”), dialectal Dutch mokkel (“kiss”).

cog

He got a B in his History mock, but improved to an A in the exam.

mock examination
mock examination#English


edit

Back-formation from editor, influenced by French éditer (“edit, publish”) and Latin editus.

(comedy) An interruption or change to an improvised scene.


edit

en-verb

edit (third-person singular simple present edits, present participle editing, simple past and past participle edited)

edits (present singular third-person)
editing (participle present)
edited (participle past)
edited (past)
edit (infinitive)

A good rule of thumb is to edit a scene before you think, "Gosh, somebody should edit this scene."

2015, Matt Fotis, Siobhan O'Hara, The Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance, New York, NY: Focal Press, →ISBN, page 145:

(comedy) To cut short or otherwise alter an improvised scene.


hilarity

en-noun

hilarity (countable and uncountable, plural hilarities)

From Latin hilaritas, "cheerfulness", from adjective hilaris, "cheerful", ultimately from Greek, + noun of state suffix -tas.

Think it not curious if we don't seem to be as sidesplittingly impressed with the hilarities in this picture as its promotion might lead you to expect. Hilarity is in it—hilarity at its best—as would be almost mandatory in any film with Miss Holliday.

1999, Vincent Canby, Janet Maslin, Peter M. Nichols, The New York times guide to the best 1000 movies ever made:

Many other Latin imports have become staples of our diet, like the burrito, which in Spanish means "little donkey." What other food-related hilarities are we missing out on?

2005, Library journal, volume 130, numbers 8-13, page 122:

(countable) Something that induces laughter.


jibe

Uncertain; possibly from Old French giber (“to engage in horseplay; to play roughly in sport”). Compare English jib (“usually of a horse: to stop and refuse to go forward”), Old Norse geipa (“to talk nonsense”).
The noun is derived from the verb.

cog

He flung subtle jibes at her until she couldn’t bear to work with him any longer.

Alas poore Yoricke, […] where be your gibes now? your gamboles? your ſongs? your flaſhes of merriment, that were wont to ſet the table on a roare, not one now to mocke your owne grinning, quite chopfalne.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

Come, come, we / All are Friends, nor have we Time for Jibe, / Or Anger now, but 'gainſt our common Foes, / The French and Scot; there let your Pray'rs, and Jeſts, / And Blows, be levell’d.

1746, [Charles Macklin], King Henry the VII: Or the Popish Impostor. A Tragedy. […], London: Printed for R. Francklin, […]; R[obert] Dodsley, […]; and J. Brotherton, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 24:

She ran and ran / As if she feared some goblin man / Dogged her with gibe or curse / Or something worse: […]

1862, Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, London: Macmillan & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:

He bent to all the gibes and prejudices, to all hatred and discrimination, with that rare courtesy which is the armor of pure souls.

1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Alexander Crummell”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 226:

He had written two novels: one of them violently anti-Catholic, just before his conversion, and five years later another, in which he had attempted to turn all his clever jibes against Catholics into even cleverer innuendoes against Episcopalians.

1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Amory, Son of Beatrice”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 26:

[George] Carlin's opening-night monologue included some blunt gibes at organized religion which would almost certainly have been cut out of any other network show.

1975 October 27, Jeff Greenfield, “Ragged but Funny”, in New York, volume 8, number 43, New York, N.Y.: New York Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 65, column 3:

A facetious or insulting remark; a jeer, a taunt.


jibe

en-verb

jibe (third-person singular simple present jibes, present participle jibing, simple past and past participle jibed)

jibes (present singular third-person)
jibing (participle present)
jibed (participle past)
jibed (past)

Why thats the way to choake a gibing ſpirrit, / Whoſe influence is begot of that looſe grace, / Which ſhallow laughing hearers giue to fooles, […]

c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

This ſet the old Gentlevvoman a Laughing at me, as you may be ſure it vvould: VVell, Madam, Forſooth, ſays ſhe, Gibing at me, you vvould be a Gentlevvoman, and hovv vvill you come to be a Gentlevvoman? VVhat vvill you do it by your Fingers Ends?

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 7:

Thus with talents well endu'd / To be ſcurrilous and rude; / When you pertly raiſe your ſnout, / Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout; […]

1730, Jonathan Swift, “To Betty the Grizete”, in The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], published 1794, →OCLC; republished in Robert Anderson, editor, The Works of the British Poets. […], volume IX, London: Printed for John & Arthur Arch; and for Bell & Bradfute, and J. Mundell & Co. Edinburgh, 1795, →OCLC, page 128, column 2:

But now her mother was speaking again: 'And this – read this and tell me if you wrote it, or if that man's lying.' And Stephen must read her own misery jibing at her from those pages in Ralph Crossby's stiff and clerical handwriting.

1928, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 27, in The Well of Loneliness, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC; republished Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 2005, →ISBN, book 2, section I, page 182:

"What's the matter with you?" the woman jibed. She called after him as he walked away: "Nuts, that's what you are!"

1953, James Hilton, “Paris III”, in Time and Time Again (An Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 216:

(intransitive) To make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer.


jibe

Origin unknown; perhaps related to chime (“to cause to sound in harmony”).

unknown

Origin unknown

That explanation doesn’t jibe with the facts.

[T]here is something wrong with your figures. They do not jibe with experience. They do not jibe with prices. They do not jibe with what we know.

1926 May 13, Henry H. Glassie (witness), “Statement of Henry H. Glassie, Member of United States Tariff Commission”, in Investigation of the Tariff Commission: Hearings before the Select Committee on Investigation of the Tariff Commission, United States Senate, Sixty-ninth Congress, First Session […] Part 1 […], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 529:

This did not jibe with the objectivist view that metaphor is of only peripheral interest in an account of meaning and truth and that it plays at best a marginal role in understanding.

1980, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, chapter 27, in Metaphors We Live By:

(intransitive, Canada, US, informal) To accord or agree.


jibe

(nautical, now chiefly US) Alternative spelling of gybe


hilarious

en-adj

hilarious (comparative more hilarious, superlative most hilarious)

more hilarious (comparative)
most hilarious (superlative)

→ Cebuano: hilaryos

/hɪˈlɛəɹiəs/

Learned borrowing from Latin hilaris (“cheerful”) + -ous, from Ancient Greek ἱλαρός (hilarós, “cheerful, merry”).

der

Rounding up the animals in the misty paddocks, with the blackbirds singing as the morning whitened, he felt hilarious, light-headed. He'd clap the cows on their rumps and shout "Come along, there! Come along there, me Irish darlint."

1944, Douglas Stewart, A Girl with Red Hair, and Other Stories, page 60:

Cold Doctor Pell here refused a very considerable fee. He could on occasion behave handsomely; but I can't learn that blustering, hilarious Doctor Rogerson ever refused his.

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:


jest

From Middle English geste (“idle tale”), from Old French geste (“acts, exploits”), from Latin gesta (“acts, deeds”). Doublet of gest.

I made that comment in jest; it wasn't serious.

Alas poore Yorick, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite Ieſt; […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 278, column 1:

(archaic) An act performed for amusement; a joke.

остро́та

not to confuse with острота́ - bitterness, sharpness


pun

en-verb

pun (third-person singular simple present puns, present participle punning, simple past and past participle punned)

puns (present singular third-person)
punning (participle present)
punned (participle past)
punned (past)

From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto-Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of "beating" the words into place.

der

We punned about the topic until all around us groaned.

(intransitive) To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.


zany

en-adj

zany (comparative zanier, superlative zaniest)

zanier (comparative)
zaniest (superlative)

From Middle French zani, zanni, from Italian zanni (“a kind of masked clown character”), from Zanni, a dialectal form of Giovanni. Doublet of John and Giovanni.


humour

en-noun

humour (usually uncountable, plural humours)

→⇒ Chinese:

Cantonese: 幽默 (jau¹ mak⁶)

Mandarin: 幽默 (yōumò)

→ Danish: humor

→ Icelandic: húmor

→ Dutch: humor

→ Esperanto: humuro

desctree

→ French: humour
→ Romanian: humor, umor
→ Turkish: humor

→ German: Humor (semantic loan)

→ Polish: humor

→ Yiddish: הומאָר (humor) (probably)

→ Greek: χιούμορ (chioúmor)

→ Italian: humour

→ Japanese: ユーモア (yūmoa)

→ Korean: 유머 (yumeo)

→ Norwegian: (also via German)

Bokmål: humor

Nynorsk: humor

→ Russian: ю́мор (júmor), гу́мор (gúmor)
→ Azerbaijani: yumor

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: ху̀мор

Latin script: hùmor

→ Swedish: humor (semantic loan)

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”).
The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.

The sensitive subject was treated with humour, but in such way that no one was offended.

Merry VVhitefoord, farevvel! for thy ſake I admit / That a Scot may have humour, I had almoſt ſaid vvit: […]

1774, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Postscript”, in Retaliation: A Poem. […], 5th edition, London: […] G[eorge] Kearsly, […], →OCLC, page 22:

A great deal of excellent humour was expended on the perplexities of mine host.

1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:

They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC, page 9:

Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.

1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

(uncountable) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.


wit

en-noun

wit (countable and uncountable, plural wits)

From Middle English wit, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).
Cognate with Dutch weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Norwegian Bokmål vett, Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin vīdī (“see (pf.)”), Bulgarian вям (vjam), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā). Compare wise.

остроу́мие

Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly

The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.

Wit is just as much put upon—blamed for a thousand impertinences over which it would not have held for a moment its glittering shield; it is like the radiant fairy doomed to wander over earth, concealed and transformed, and only allowed on rare occasions to shine forth in its true and sparkling form. It is well that wit is an impalpable and ethereal substance, or it must long since have evaporated in indignation at that peculiarly wretched and mistaken race, its imitators.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 152:

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Evelyn Peters: "Don't worry, Marge. Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing".

1996 February 4, Jennifer Crittenden, “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 14, production code 3F13:

[…] the cemetery – which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’ […]

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section III, page 26:

Humour, especially when clever or quick.


reveal

From Middle English revēlen, from Old French reveler, from Latin revēlāre (“to reveal, uncover”), from re- (“back, again”) + vēlāre (“to cover”), from vēlum (“veil”).

The comedian had been telling us about his sleep being disturbed by noise. Then came the reveal: he was sleeping on a bed in a department store.

A simple dolly or crane move can be used for an effective reveal. A subject fills the frame, then with a move, something else is revealed.

2002, Blain Brown, Cinematography, →ISBN:

Once you find out what’s going on—the girl is a “hungry,” this film’s term for zombies—it’s still interesting enough, if not quite as powerful. That’s basically what you’re in for with this British postapocalyptic survival horror tale, which starts off strong but dilutes its impact with every consecutive reveal.

2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club:

Even Westworld—based on a science-fiction novel where robots run amok—ended its second season with the ultimate reveal: human beings are simpler and more predictable than the artificial intelligences we create.

2019, Douglas Rushkoff, “Survival of the Richest”, in Extinction Rebellion, editor, This Is Not A Drill, London: Penguin, →ISBN:

(cinematography, narratology, comedy, usually informal) A revelation; an uncovering of what was hidden in the scene or story.


kid

en-noun

kid (countable and uncountable, plural kids)

From Middle English kide, from Old Norse kið (“young goat”), from Proto-Germanic *kidją, *kittīną (“goatling, kid”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰaydn-, *ǵʰaydn- (“goat”) or Proto-Indo-European *gidʰ- (“kid, goatling, little goat”). Compare Swedish and Danish kid, German Kitz and Kitze, Albanian kedh and kec.
Sense of child since 1590s as cant, since 1840s in informal use.

der

I have three pairs of kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree, but never real kid gloves with five fingers.

1912, Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs: Letter 3:


Laurel and Hardy

From the name of a famous American comedy duo from the 1920s and 1930s.

We put a Laurel and Hardy thing together. With ordinary actors I've tried this, and it's like playing music without an instrument, but these guys could do anything.

2000, Patrick McGilligan, Film Crazy: Interviews with Hollywood Legends, page 89:

Then about a hundred yards ahead, two men, one rotund the other thin and spare, leaped over a gate onto the road. They had the appearance of a Laurel and Hardy duo.

2012, Patrick C. Reidy, A Cocktail of Tales, page 14:

The session quickly devolved into a Laurel-and-Hardy skit, as an NRC bureaucrat named Lawrence Kokajko was grilled by the commissioners, particularly Hamilton, a man used to having bureaucrats tremble before him.

2012, Richard Martin, SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, page 180:

[…] when someone has a Laurel and Hardy moment where they slip on a banana skin […]

2012, The Black & White Photography Book:

She was heavy: not fat, but solid, and it looked good on her; still, we must have seemed a Laurel and Hardy match, the two times we would have been observed together in public, me being whichever comedy star was the lanky one.

2013, David Hale Smith, Dallas Noir, page 211:

When he got up to answer, I noticed the boy at the other end of the desk was partially standing. This happened every time. So I quietly walked around and noticed that the long bench they were sitting ^([sic]) had a leg missing at the end. Sensing a Laurel-and-Hardy situation, I could not resist the temptation.

2014, Paul "Monty" Choy, The Flying Dragon, page 45:

Variety (February 22)reported, “Ward and Scott have sketched out plans for the production of Green Hopper, a 30 minute show revolving around a frog, wolf and bear; Simpson and Delaney—a Laurel and Hardy animated duo, and Super Chicken.

2014, Keith Scott, The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose:

Any duo who are so inept at practical tasks as to be humorous.


joker

From joke + -er, but in the sense of a playing card possibly by alteration of Jucker, also the origin of the name of the card game euchre.


sketch

→ German: Sketch

→ Italian: sketch

desc

→ Portuguese: esquete (Brasilian), sketch (European)

→ Turkish: skeç

From Dutch schets or German Skizze, from Italian schizzo, from Latin schedium, from Ancient Greek σχέδιος (skhédios, “made suddenly, off-hand”), from σχεδόν (skhedón, “near, nearby”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “I hold”). Compare scheme.

скеч

brief musical, dramatic or literary work etc.

I have to write a character sketch for a novel study.

A brief description of a person or account of an incident; a general presentation or outline.

A brief, light, or unfinished dramatic, musical, or literary work or idea; especially a short, often humorous or satirical scene or play, frequently as part of a revue or variety show.

A brief musical composition or theme, especially for the piano.

A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or short story.


antic

Probably from Italian antico (“ancient”), used to describe ancient wall paintings from classical times, from Latin antiquus (“venerable”). See also grottesco (“grotesque”). Doublet of antique.

The Grave-maker, like the professional fools and Falstaff, and like Hamlet himself, is an antic, a grotesque, one who demonstrates to men how foolish and

1978, Walter C. Foreman, The Music of the Close: The Final Scenes of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, page 90:

A grotesque performer or clown, buffoon.


meme

Shortened from mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme.
Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai) with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitation, copy”). The concept was later applied to the Internet by Mike Godwin.

coin

This meme generator lets you make your own memes by adding a caption to existing images, or by uploading your own image.

I'm always posting memes on the groupchat.

(Internet) A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text.


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

A leaping food fish (Elagatis pinnulatis) of Florida and the West Indies; the skipjack, shoemaker, or yellowtail.


knock-knock joke

en-noun

knock-knock joke (plural knock-knock jokes)

Knock knock.

"Who's there?"

(The teller of the joke says a name.)

(The person to whom the joke is being told repeats the name, followed by "who?")

(The teller of the joke says a pun based on the name.)

One of a class of childish jokes told as a dialog, and usually including a pun, in the following form:


whoopee cushion

whoopee cushion (plural whoopee cushions)

An inflatable bag containing a valve at its neck that retains the air in the bag until pressure is put on it (usually by someone unintentionally sitting on it after it has been placed on a chair by someone else as a practical joke), when the air is expelled with a sound similar to that of someone farting (breaking wind).


practical joke

The class put a whoopee cushion on the teacher's chair as a practical joke.

This is a street of elegant stucco terraced houses, two of which (numbers 23 and 24) straddled the mouth of the canyon. [...] they were knocked down and replaced with fake houses [...]. So began 150 years of practical jokes, with coal merchants sending young apprentices to deliver coal to the façades, or letters addressed to Mr N. O. Body, 24 Leinster Gardens. (There is no letterbox).

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 58:

A playful trick done for amusement to the detriment of someone else.

惡作劇

something done for amusement to the detriment of someone else


parody

parody (countable and uncountable, plural parodies)

From Latin parōdia, from Ancient Greek παρῳδία (parōidía, “parody”), from παρά (pará, “besides”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).

der

The lively parody which he wrote […] was received with great applause.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

A work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony.


clown

From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”). likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc.
Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above.
Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

cog

Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown

2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:

A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.


joke

→ Danish: joke

→ French: joke

→ Persian: جوک

→ Japanese: ジョーク, → Japanese: 冗句

→ Welsh: jôc

From Latin iocus (“joke, jest, pastime”), from Proto-Italic *jokos (“word, (playful?) saying”), from Proto-Indo-European *yokos (“word, utterance”), from ultimate root Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak, utter”) (of which distant cognates include Proto-Celtic *yextis (“language”) (Breton yezh (“language”) and Welsh iaith (“language”)) and German Beichte (“confession”)). Cognate with French jeu, Italian gioco, Portuguese jogo, Spanish juego, Romanian joc, English Yule, Danish Jule, Norwegian Bokmål Jul, Swedish Jul, and Norwegian Nynorsk jol.

der

Or witty joke our airy senses moves / To pleasant laughter.


bon mot

Borrowed from French bon mot (“good word”).

But ſo it is: our Writer has met with a Bon Mot of this Cato’s; which, according to his ſhallow Underſtanding and ſilly Interpretation, he preſages will ever live as a noble Free-thinking Saying.

1725, “Phileleutherus Lipsiensis” [pseudonym; Richard Bentley], chapter LII, in Remarks upon a Late Discourse of Free-thinking [by Anthony Collins]: In a Letter to N. N. … Part the Second, 6th edition, Cambridge: Printed for Cornelius Crownfield, printer to the University, →OCLC, page 64:

―In England, dear Sir, ſaid I, we ſit all at our eaſe. The old French officer would have ſet me at unity with myſelf, in caſe I had been at variance,—by ſaying it was a bon mot—and as a bon mot is always worth ſomething at Paris, he offered me a pinch of ſnuff.

1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], “The Dwarf. Paris.”, in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 197:

And if a few of these bon mots so selected be well known, they possess such acknowledged excellence, that the compiler would be justly censured, were he to deprive his readers of the pleasure of seeing them inserted in a work of this kind.

1814, Henry Kett, “Introduction”, in The Flowers of Wit, or A Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both Antient and Modern; with Biographical and Critical Remarks. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Lackington, Allen, and Co., […]; at the Weybridge Press, by S. Hamilton, →OCLC, page xvi:

M. de Pomponne conjures her not to let Mme. Cornuel's bons mots perish, but to keep a register of them. Saint-Simon describes Mme. Cornuel as a "vieille bourgeoise du Marais," who was "full of bons mots, but of bons mots that are apophthegms."

1858 September, “Sir Nathaniel”, “Readings in Current Literature. By Sir Nathaniel. [Victor] Cousin’s Key to the ‘Grand Cyrus.’ History of the French Academy.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CXIV, number CCCCLIII, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 47:

In the lone novel of his career, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the goading Lord Henry cannot seem to help himself from delivering bon mot after bon mot. Word-play and paradoxical summation was a compulsion for [Oscar] Wilde.

2012, “Introduction”, in Bob Blaisdell, Odette Blaisdell, editors, The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page viii:

Summing up a complex analysis [...] we can say that [Peter] Pilz succeeds in turning Mayr's fierce endeavours of enforcement against himself, and his bonmot about the state of politics during socialist rule becomes widely cited in the next day's press.

2016, Emo Gotsbachner, “Asserting Interpretive Frames of Political Events: Panel Discussions on Television News”, in Richard Fitzgerald, William Housley, editors, Media, Policy and Interaction, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 56–57:

A clever saying, phrase or witticism; often, a witty riposte in dialogue.


sardonic

en-adj

sardonic (comparative more sardonic, superlative most sardonic)

more sardonic (comparative)
most sardonic (superlative)

From French sardonique, from Latin sardonius, from Ancient Greek σαρδόνιος (sardónios), alternative form of σαρδάνιος (sardánios, “bitter or scornful laughter”), which is often cited as deriving from the Sardinian plant (Ranunculus sardous or possibly Oenanthe crocata), known as either σαρδάνη (sardánē) or σαρδόνιον (sardónion). When eaten, it would cause the eater's face to contort in a look resembling scorn (generally followed by death). It might also be related to σαίρω (saírō, “I grin”).

Another manifestation, significantly reaching its apogee in the midst of Antonine virtues, was the growing popularity of adoxographical exercises. Mock panegyrics were dashed off, not just by sardonic intellectuals such as Lucian, but also by trained courtiers and polished encomiasts of the stamp of [Marcus Cornelius] Fronto.

1979, Carl Deroux, editor, Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History [Collection Latomus; 164], volume 1, Brussels: Latomus, →OCLC, page 111:


butt

en-verb

butt (third-person singular simple present butts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

butts (present singular third-person)
butting (participle present)
butted (participle past)
butted (past)

From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to push, butt, strike”), from Frankish *bautan (“to hit, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push, strike”). Cognate with Old English bēatan (“to beat”). More at beat.

һөҙөшөү

(intransitive) to strike bluntly with the head

Teacher! He just butted me!

Additionally, kids are pinched, fondled, propositioned, and hit; and it all goes unseen amid the general confusion and nonspecific orders from the cafeteria supervisors who are yelling things like, "Keep it down, you people!" "No butting!" "Wait your turn, boys!" All of which sound as though there is law and order, just no actual justice to the victim.

2016, Chandler, Dan, Bullying in Plain Sight: How Inattentive Adults Encourage the School Bullies, Mustang, O.K.: Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, →ISBN, page 45:

(transitive, eastern Canada, parts of the northeastern US) To cut in line (in front of someone).


prank

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English pranken (“to adorn, arrange one's attire”), probably from Middle Dutch pronken, proncken (“to flaunt, make a show, arrange one's attire”), related to German prangen (“to make a show, be resplendent”), Dutch prangen (“to squeeze, press”), Danish pragt (“pomp, splendor”), all from Proto-Germanic *pranganą, *prangijaną, *prag- (“to press, squeeze, thring”), from Proto-Indo-European *brAngh- (“to press, squeeze”). Or, perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *brahtaz, similar to Dutch pracht (“splendor”), Swedish prakt (“glory, pomp”) (loaned from Low German).
Cognate with Middle Low German prunken (“to flaunt”), German prunken (“to flaunt”), Danish prunke (“to make a show, prank”). Sense of "mischievous act" from earlier verbal sense of "to be crafty or subtle, set in order, adjust". See also prink, prance, prong.

der

(obsolete, slang) Full of gambols or tricks.


doge

From dog, probably as a sensational spelling of doggy like monke. First attested in the 2005 episode "Biz Cas Fri 1" from Homestar Runner.

Bobsled wasn't the only Dogecoin-backed sporting success. Fans of Nascar will recognise the car driven by Josh Wise, emblazoned, as it is, with the adorable little doge on its bonnet (pictured above).

2015 July 23, Dave Lee, “Six times Reddit wasn't completely awful”, in BBC:

(Internet slang, humorous) Specifically, a Shiba Inu, as in the doge meme.


quip

From a shortening of earlier quippy, perhaps from Latin quippe (“indeed”), ultimately quid (“what”).

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles.

He was full of joke and jest, / But all his merry quips are o'er.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Death of the Old Year”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

He wrote it down, remembering a quip of Pym's, paraphrased from Clemenceau: "Military intelligence has as much to do with intelligence as military music has to do with music.”

Nobody could ever be bothered to imagine the Sand Snakes beyond personalized weaponry and fake-aggressive quips, none of which were very convincing, and now they don’t even register as dead weight.

2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

A smart, sarcastic turn or jest; a taunt; a severe retort or comeback; a gibe.


stooge

Perhaps an abbreviation of Russian студе́нт (studént) [stʊˈdʲent]; the original meaning was “stage assistant, actor who assists a comedian”. It may have been a Yiddish vaudeville term.


caper

From Latin capparis, from Ancient Greek κάππαρις (kápparis).


farce

en-noun

farce (countable and uncountable, plural farces)

Borrowed from Middle French farce (“comic interlude in a mystery play”, literally “stuffing”). Doublet of farse.

bor

The farce that we saw last night had us laughing and shaking our heads at the same time.

Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language[…]; his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

(countable) A motion picture or play featuring this style of humor.


jape

From Middle English japen (“to deceive, play tricks on; act foolishly, joke; have sex with”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old French japer (“to bark, howl, scream; chatter, gossip”) (possibly conflated with Old French gaber (“to mock, deride”), see gab), related to Old Occitan japar, jaupar (“to bark, yelp, yap”), probably of Proto-Germanic origin, related to Old Saxon galpōn (“to cry loudly, make a noise, brag”) (Low German galpen (“to bark, howl, scream”)), Middle High German gelpfen (“to scream, bark, boast, proclaim”), Old Norse gjálpa (“to yelp”) (dialectal Swedish galpa (“to cry, screech”)). More at yelp, yawp, yap.

cog

[H]e clapped hand to thigh, and laughed and laughed until the air rang again.
"Oho, a jape—a jape indeed!" he roared.

1920, Jeffery Farnol, The Geste of Duke Jocelyn, Fytte 9


jape

en-verb

jape (third-person singular simple present japes, present participle japing, simple past and past participle japed)

japes (present singular third-person)
japing (participle present)
japed (participle past)
japed (past)

Now the Lond of Egypt longeth to the Soudan, yet the Soudan longeth not to the Lond of Egypt. And when I say this, I do jape with words, and may hap ye understond me not.

1886, Andrew Lang, “To Sir John Manndeville”, in Letters to Dead Authors:

Nay, brother, lay hand on him soon; / For he japed my wife, and made me cuckold.

1510, Hycke Scorner; “Hickscorner”, in Robert Dodsley, William Carew Hazlitt, editors, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, 4th edition, volume 1, London: Reeves and Turner, 1874, page 171:

I jape a wench […] it is better to jape a wenche than to do worce.

1530, John Palsgrave, L'esclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse, Paris: Impremierie Nationale, published 1852, page 589:

Thair is ane hundreth heir sittand by / That luiffis geaping als weill as I.

1540, Sir David Lyndsay, Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, lines 323–324; republished in The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay, volume 2, 1879, page 23:

Sum gois so gymp in gyis / Or sche war kissit plane, / Sche leir be japit thryis.

c. 1550, Alexander Scott, Poems, published 1821, page 26:

Fottere. To jape, to sard, to fucke, to swive, to occupye.

(obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.


sarcasm

en-noun

sarcasm (countable and uncountable, plural sarcasms)

/ˈsɑːɹˌkæzəm/

/ˈsɑːˌkæzəm/

From Late Latin sarcasmus, from Ancient Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmós, “a sneer”), from σαρκάζω (sarkázō, “I gnash the teeth (in anger)”, literally “I strip off the flesh”), from σάρξ (sárx, “flesh”).

uder

Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

(uncountable) Use of acerbic language to mock or convey contempt, often using irony and (in speech) often marked by overemphasis and sneering.


ad-lib

en-verb

ad-lib (third-person singular simple present ad-libs, present participle ad-libbing, simple past and past participle ad-libbed)

ad-libs (present singular third-person)
ad-libbing (participle present)
ad-libbed (participle past)
ad-libbed (past)

desc

Korean: 드립 (deurip, “inappropriate or risqué joke”)

Hope’s onstage ad-libbing generated more humor and attention than the show’s lacklustre libretto.

I watched Jeb Bush as his brother spoke. He paid attention, grinned and laughed, even ad-libbed when called upon.

To improvise all or part of a speech or other performance, especially in comedy.


screwball comedy

en-noun

screwball comedy (countable and uncountable, plural screwball comedies)

(uncountable) A genre of motion picture or play where opposites were juxtaposed; characterized by snappy dialog, and a blend of sophistication and slapstick

(countable) A motion picture or play of this genre.


wheeze

wheeze The sound of a man's wheeze (canonical)
wheezes (plural)

From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”).

An ordinary whisper exaggerated so as to produce the hoarse sound known as the "stage whisper"; a forcible whisper with some admixture of tone.


stand-up

stand-up (countable and uncountable, plural stand-ups)

→⇒ Finnish: stand-up-komedia

⇒ Icelandic: uppistand

→ Japanese: スタンドアップ (sutandoappu)

→ Korean: 스탠드업 (seutaendeueop)

desc

סְטֶנְדְּאָפּ

→ Hebrew: סְטֶנְדְּאָפּ (sténdap)

→ Hebrew: סְטֶנְדְּאָפּ (sténdap)

→ Polish: stand-up

→ Russian: стенда́п (stendáp)

→⇒ Spanish: standupero

→ Swedish: ståuppare (calque)

Sometimes the club has music, sometimes stand-up.

(uncountable) A performance of stand-up comedy; jokes delivered standing on a stage


tomfoolery

en-noun

tomfoolery (countable and uncountable, plural tomfooleries)


toilet humour

(euphemistic) Scatological or vulgar language intended to be amusing.

poep-en-pieshumor

a scatological or vulgar phrase intended to be amusing


Thalia

From Ancient Greek Θαλία (Thalía) or Θάλεια (Tháleia); from Ancient Greek θάλλω (thállō, “flourish, to be verdant”).

uder

(Greek mythology) The Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry.


chunk

Variant of chuck; or alternatively a diminutive of chump (“chunk; block”) + *-k (diminutive suffix) (compare hunk from hump, etc.).

You begin gathering two hours of dependable comedy by developing that first three-minute chunk. When you're satisfied with it, you create another three minutes of laughs, then another three minutes.

1994, Gene Perret, Successful Stand-up Comedy: Advice from a Comedy Writer, page 80:

If you're gigging outdoors for the Society of Catholic Gardeners, don't close your set with your "Papa Beelzebub" chunk (no matter how life affirming you think it is!).

2012, Jay Sankey, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy, page 168:

(comedy) A segment of a comedian's performance.


funny

en-adj

funny (comparative funnier, superlative funniest)

funnier (comparative)
funniest (superlative)

When I went to the circus, I only found the clowns funny.


sitcom

كُومِيدِيَا اَلْمَوْقِف

situation comedy — see also situation comedy


limerick

From the Irish town name Limerick, Irish Luimneach [ˈl̪ˠɪmʲənʲəx].

The limerick, it would appear,
Is a verse form we owe Edward Lear;
Two long and two short
Lines rhymed, as was taught,
And a fifth just to bring up the rear.

Description of the limerick in limerick form

Take a look. That’s Buffy, Muffy, and Fluffy.
Do they have anything in common other than names you could write a limerick around?

2006 May 24, Rhonda Smiley, “Sis-KaBOOM-Bah!”, in Totally Spies!: Undercover, season 4, episode 15, spoken by Jerry Lewis and Samantha “Sam” (Adrian Truss and Jennifer Hale), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:

A humorous, often bawdy verse of five anapaestic lines, with the rhyme scheme aabba, and typically having an 8–8–5–5–8 cadence.


black humor

Black humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.

A subgenre of comedy and satire that deals with subjects that are believed to be serious or controversial, such as death, divorce, drug abuse, etc.


gallows humor

1931, "German Falstaff" (review of The Mirror of Fools by Alfred Neumann), Time, 16 Jan.,
Author Neumann defiantly admits why he wrote this historical-romantic farce: "Because I wanted to fight against the general and my personal depression, and because in hard and bad times there is always one tragicomic feeling in place—gallows humor."

The term was part of the language before Freud wrote an essay on it -- 'gallows humour.' This is middle European humour, a response to hopeless situations. It's what a man says faced with a perfectly hopeless situation and he still manages to say something funny. Freud gives examples: A man being led out to be hanged at dawn says, 'Well, the day is certainly starting well.' It's generally called Jewish humour in this country. Actually it's humour from the peasants' revolt, the thirty years' war, and from the Napoleonic wars. It's small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness. Jewish jokes are middle European jokes. And the black humourists are gallows humourists, as they try to be funny in the face of situations which they see as just horrible.

1971, Kurt Vonnegut, “Running Experiments Off: An Interview”, in Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut:

True enough, there are such things as laughless jokes, what Freud called gallows humor. . . . While we were being bombed in Dresden, sitting in a cellar with our arms over our heads in case the ceiling fell, one soldier said as though he were duchess in a mansion on a cold and rainy night, "I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight."

2005, Kurt Vonnegut, A Man without a Country, →ISBN, page 5:

Mattis, it turned out, was meeting with Trudeau at NATO headquarters. Already engaging in gallows humor, I wondered if Mattis was defecting.

2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened, →ISBN, page 142:

(American spelling, idiomatic) Comedy that still manages to be funny in the face of, and in response to, a tragic or hopeless situation.

絞架幽默

comedy that still manages to be funny in the face of a perfectly hopeless situation


satire

en-noun

satire (countable and uncountable, plural satires)

From Middle French satire, from Old French, from Latin satira, from earlier satura, from lanx satura (“full dish”), from feminine of satur. Altered in Latin by influence of Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos, “satyr”), on the mistaken notion that the form is related to the Greek σατυρικόν δράμα (saturikón dráma, “satyr drama”).

(uncountable) A literary device of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change or highlighting a shortcoming in the work of another. Imitation, humor, irony, and exaggeration are often used to aid this.


comedy

comedy (countable and uncountable, plural comedies)

drama

antonym(s) of “light, humorous, or satirical work”

→ Japanese: コメディ (komedi)

→ Korean: 코미디 (komidi)

From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “I sing”). Doublet of commedia.

comedie

often affected as such for humorous effect

A Midsummer Night's Dream is among Shakespeare's most famous comedies.

(countable) a light, amusing play with a happy ending


spoof

spoof (countable and uncountable, plural spoofs)

Coined by the English comedian Arthur Roberts (1852–1933) in 1884 as the name of a card game involving deception and nonsense.

On Broadway, where it opened in 1949, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a spoof of the madcap Twenties which gave Carol Channing her first starring role; on the screen, it was an up-to-date spoof of sex which gave Marilyn Monroe her first starring role in a musical.

1999 August, Stanley Green, Elaine Schmidt, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, in Hollywood Musicals Year by Year, 2nd edition, Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard Corporation, →ISBN, page 177:

The final piece of the country puzzle is found at the corner of Brisbane Street and Kable Avenue, where the Hands of Fame cornerstone bears the palm-prints of more country greats. A glorious spoof, the Noses of Fame memorial, can be savoured over a beer at the Tattersalls Hotel on Peel Street.

2003, Margo Daly, Anne Dehne, David Leffman, Chris Scott, “New South Wales and ACT”, in The Rough Guide to Australia, 6th edition, New York, N.Y., London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, pages 330–331:


sarky

en-adj

sarky (comparative sarkier, superlative sarkiest)

sarkier (comparative)
sarkiest (superlative)

Full of Coxon's trademark sarky lyricism, this 14-track concept album celebrates and laments the bittersweet nature of love, avoiding being dull or mawkish by being so gorgeous and satisfyingly coherent.

2006 February 19, Nosheen Iqbal, “Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds”, in The Observer:

It would seem that during his Bournemouth team’s recent 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, referee Jon Moss gave the hosts some “soft fouls” and made “little sarky comments” that “didn’t help”.

2020 February 12, Scott Murray, “Dan Gosling, Jon Moss and breath-freshening hard candy”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Sarcastic.


slapstick

en-noun

slapstick (countable and uncountable, plural slapsticks)

From slap + stick, calque of Italian batacchio. The pair of sticks was used by the comic character Harlequin in the commedia dell'arte.

(uncountable, comedy) A style of humor focusing on physical comedy, such as slipping on a banana peel, and with foolish characters who get into humiliating situations.


Merry Andrew

Originally associated with a specific act at Bartholomew Fair; later said to have come from the name of Andrew Boorde.

Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry-Andrew [...]

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 438:

The games of the circus—the wild-beast fight and the gladiators, the rope-dancers, the merry-andrews, and the posture-masters,—were more to their taste than clever intrigue and brilliant dialogue.

1873, William Lucas Collins, chapter III, in Plautus and Terence, page 31:

One of them, the eldest, was a sort of merry andrew and was not above dressing the part with a weird cap of jackal's skin with many hanging tails and tassels.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 155:

(idiomatic) A person who clowns publicly; a buffoon; an entertainer's assistant.


jocose

en-adj

jocose (comparative more jocose, superlative most jocose)

more jocose (comparative)
most jocose (superlative)

From Latin iocōsus (“humorous”), from iocus (“jest, joke”).

Adde to this diſsipated and diſtracted ſtate of Miniſters, their private diſtreſſes and poverties, together with the publick neglect and indifferency of people toward them; who can wonder if they look pitifully one on another, which no jocoſe or juvenile drolings can relieve?

1659, John Gauden, chapter XXXI, in Ίερα Δακρυα [Hiera dakrya]. Ecclesiae Anglicanae Suspiria. The Tears, Sighs, Complaints, and Prayers of the Church of England: […], London: Printed by J[ohn] G[rismond] for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC, book II (Searching the Causes and Occasions of the Church of England’s Decayes), page 251:

Jocose flesh-eaters take a malicious delight in pointing out and enumerating to Vegetarians the many animal substances now in common use, and in taunting them with inconsistency in using them.

1886, Henry S. Salt, “VII: On Certain Fallacies”, in A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays, page 80:

The American people, / With grins jocose, / Always survive the fatal dose.

1941, Ogden Nash, “Look What You Did, Christopher!”, in The Face Is Familiar, Garden City Publishing Company, page 223:


smart aleck

Aleck is a nickname for the male given name Alexander. The phrase "smart aleck" is possibly derived from the name of Aleck Hoag, a 19th-century American con man and thief.

One who is given to obnoxious or insolent humor.


wiseacre

From Middle Dutch wijssegger (“soothsayer”), from Old High German wīzzago, wīzago (“wise man, prophet, soothsayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītagō (“wise one; prophet”). Cognate with Old English wītga (“wise man, prophet”). See also German Weissager (“soothsayer, seer”).

der

That other class of wiseacres who twist prophecy in such a manner as to make it promise the destruction and desolation of the same city, use judgement just as bad, since the city is in a very flourishing condition now, unhappily for them.

1869, Mark Twain, the Innocents Abroad, Random House, published 2003, pages 298–299:

One who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.


witty

en-adj

witty (comparative wittier, superlative wittiest)

wittier (comparative)
wittiest (superlative)

From Middle English witty, witti, from Old English wittiġ, witiġ, ġewittiġ (“clever, wise”), from Proto-West Germanic *witīg, *witag, from Proto-Germanic *witagaz, *wītagaz (“knowing, wise, clever”), equivalent to wit + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German wittich, gewittich (“knowing, clever, wise, understanding”), German witzig (“funny, witty”), Norwegian Bokmål vettig, Norwegian Nynorsk vittig (“witty”).

His frequent quips mark him as particularly witty.


witticism

From witty + -icism; coined in the 1670s by John Dryden, by analogy to criticism.

"Take any shape but that!" is what I always feel tempted to exclaim when dulness attempts a joke; striving to pervert some poor innocent and ill-used word from its lawful meaning till it ceases to have any at all—worrying some unfortunate idea till, like the hunted hare, it is worried to death—dealing in witticisms whose edge has long since been worn off by constant use; and truly to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151:

Shock of the witticism is a powerful one; while mere fun will have no power over them if it jar on their moral taste.

1883, George Eliot, chapter 4, in The Essays of George Eliot:

While the occasional wry witticism seeps through, overall Shipler is painfully conscientious about trying to offer both sides of any debate.

2015, Hans Rollman, “Freedom of Speech: It’s Complicated”, in PopMatters:


coxcomb

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-coxcomb.wav

(historical) The cap of a court jester, adorned with a red stripe.


probe

For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). Doublet of prove.
For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.

сонда

any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc

You know, XR178.9, we haven't done any anal probes in a while.

2004 August 2, Bayard Russell, nonemorecomic:

You listen here! We don't do anal probes like other aliens, but I'm about to make an exception!

2009 September 14, Ryan Hudson, “Can I Abduct You?”, in ChannelATE:

(surgery) Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc.

(comedy, fiction) An anal probe, a fictional instrument commonly used by aliens on abducted humans.


Monty Python

A former British comedy troupe known for surreal and absurd comedy.


humorous

en-adj

humorous (comparative more humorous, superlative most humorous)

more humorous (comparative)
most humorous (superlative)

From Middle English humorous (compare Medieval Latin hūmorōsus), equivalent to humor + -ous.

The waiters were so humorous - one even did a backflip for us, when we asked him.

Full of humor or arousing laughter; funny.

snaaks

full of humor or arousing laughter; funny

[S]uch is now the Duke's condition
That he misconstrues all that you have done.
The Duke is humorous; what he is, indeed,
More suits you to conceive than I to speak of.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], lines 380-83:

It is a melancholy humor[…]that firſt put this humorous conceipt [translating resverie] of writing into my head.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of the affection of fathers to their children”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 212:

I felt at this time as if I could have been fond of him too, if he would have let me; but I was timid from my childhood, and before long my dread of his displeasure […] conquered my humorous inclination to love one who was so handsome, so accomplished, so indulgent and devoted.

1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

(obsolete) Dependent on or caused by one's humour or mood; capricious, whimsical.


sarcastic

sarcastic (comparative more sarcastic, superlative most sarcastic)

more sarcastic (comparative)
most sarcastic (superlative)

a sarcastic quip

the teacher's sarcastic tone

The unhappy Jew eyed their countenances and that of Front-de-Bœuf, in hope of discovering some symptoms of relenting; but that of the Baron exhibited the same cold, half-sullen, half-sarcastic smile which had been the prelude to his cruelty; […]

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

The sarcastic bitterness of his conversation disgusted those who were more inclined to accuse his licentiousness than their own degeneracy, and who were unable to conceive the strength of those emotions which are concealed by the jests of the wretched, and by the follies of the wise.

1850, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Machiavelli:

He smiled to himself, and threw a glance of fine sarcastic meaning towards Hepzibah.

1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:

In men’s clubs such celebrations were, though expiring, less uncommon; but either the natural shyness of the softer sex, or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives, had denuded such women’s clubs as remained (if any other did) or this their glory and consummation.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter II, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

Her eyes slanted a little... and were sometimes full of fiery determination and sometimes dull and opaque. Her expression was never altogether amiable; was often, indeed, distinctly sullen, or, when she was animated, sarcastic.

(of a person) Having the personality trait of expressing sarcasm.


AYBABTU

all your base are belong to us
all your base are belong to us#English

(Internet slang) Initialism of all your base are belong to us.


punch line

1910s, probably American. It was probably meant to be likened to a quick, sharp punch.

The final, the Munich-based liberal newspaper writes, was a “fitting punchline” to a great tournament.

2014 July 14, Philip Oltermann, “World Cup final press reaction: Germany’s win a ‘fitting punchline’”, in The Guardian:

(by extension) A final, concluding statement that an explanation has been leading up to; a conclusion.


top banana

He was hilarious, and remained the top banana on the tour for years.

(idiomatic, dated) The principal comedian in a vaudeville or burlesque show.


comedian

comedians (plural)
comedienne (feminine)

→ German: Comedian

→ Indonesian: komedian

From comedy + -ian. From Middle French comédien, from comédie (“comedy”).

(by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.


satirical

satirical (comparative more satirical, superlative most satirical)

more satirical (comparative)
most satirical (superlative)

/səˈtɪɹɪkəl/

Spitting Image was a famous satirical television program.

Given his remarks in The English People about the dangers of Standard English, and the fact that the satirical Newspeak of Nineteen Eighty-Four is an engineered language[…]

2000 October 15, John E. Joseph, Limiting the Arbitrary: Linguistic Naturalism and Its Opposites in Plato's Cratylus and Modern Theories of Language, →ISBN, page 155:

Of, pertaining to, or connected with satire.


pasquinade

en-noun

pasquinade (countable and uncountable, plural pasquinades)

From Middle French, from Italian pasquinata, from Pasquino, name given to a statue in Rome on which lampoons were posted.

I thought the whole tale would shortly be served up in racy pasquinade—but Catherine, who might have said anything, didn't say a word.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter IX, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 196:

A lampoon, originally as published in public; a satire or libel on someone.


jocular

en-adj

jocular (comparative more jocular, superlative most jocular)

more jocular (comparative)
most jocular (superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒɒkjʊlə/

/ˈd͡ʒɑkjəlɚ/

From Latin iocularis, from ioculus (“a little jest”), diminutive of iocus (“a jest”).

He was in a jocular mood all day.

All we had was a short and jocular conversation.

From the tone of the speaker, the last words might be understood to be jocular.

1865, Horatio Alger, “chapter IV”, in 'Paul Prescott's Charge:

Sometimes he would notice it, pat it, call it half-mocking, half-jocular names, and so make it caper with extraordinary delight.

1896, H. G. Wells, “chapter 15”, in The Island of Dr. Moreau:

Then papa began to get very tired of Jones, and fidgeted and finally said, with jocular irony, that Jones had better stay all night, they could give him a shake-down.

1910, Stephen Leacock, The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones:


takeoff

en-noun

takeoff (countable and uncountable, plural takeoffs)

Weird Al's song "Lasagna" is a takeoff on the popular song "La Bamba".

I came across a little pamphlet of the period, yellow and almost undecipherable, which, on examination, I found to be a rather amusing skit or satirical take-off on the profit system.

1897, Edward Bellamy, “ch. 23”, in Equality:

A parody or lampoon of someone or something.

I'll give you an estimate after I do the quantity takeoffs for the trusses and structural steel.

A quantification, especially of building materials.

(printing, UK, historical) The removal of sheets from the press.

Encyclopaedia of Sport
The take-off should be selected with great care, and a pit of large dimensions provided on the landing side.

The spot from which one takes off; specifically, the place from which a jumper rises in leaping.


humorously

en-adv

humorously (comparative more humorously, superlative most humorously)

more humorously (comparative)
most humorously (superlative)

He always managed to make people laugh at the tea table - he could pull faces so humorously.


satirically

satirically (comparative more satirically, superlative most satirically)

more satirically (comparative)
most satirically (superlative)

From satiric + -ally or satirical + -ly.


satiric

en-adj

satiric (comparative more satiric, superlative most satiric)

more satiric (comparative)
most satiric (superlative)

From Middle French satirique, from Late Latin satiricus.


double talk

From double + talk. Compare Middle English twispeche, Old English twīspǣċ, twīsprǣċ.

[Sid] Caesar's vaudeville format included burlesques—in the nineteenth-century meaning of parody—featuring silent-film and film noir send-ups; Italian opera produced in Caesar's ad-libbed, faux-Italian double-talk;[…]

2014, Rick DesRochers, The Comic Offense from Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 15:

(comedy) Speech which combines English (or some other language) and native-sounding gibberish for humorous effect.


sarcastically

en-adv

sarcastically (comparative more sarcastically, superlative most sarcastically)

more sarcastically (comparative)
most sarcastically (superlative)

`Sprung!' cried Jeff Basin, the local dubbo. 'Oh, der,' moaned Boardie sarcastically.

1979, Gabrielle Carey, Kathy Lette, Puberty Blues, page 46:


auguste

From French auguste, from German (dumme) August.

It had been used for clownish mock-disappearences, one auguste looking for another through endlessly circling blackness, an apparatus not now much in use.

1971, Anthony Burgess, M/F, Penguin, published 2004, page 93:

(theater) A kind of clown, usually serving as an anarchic foil to the whiteface.


one-liner

(computing) A command or small program consisting of a single line of input.


second banana

He grew disenchanted with playing second banana and never getting credit for the laughter.

(idiomatic) A comedian who plays a secondary or supporting role, especially as straight man and traditionally in vaudeville or burlesque theatre.


all your base are belong to us

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-all your base are belong to us.wav

Mistranslation of Japanese 君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた (literally “we (CATS) have taken all of your bases”). This grammatically incorrect "Engrish" phrase originated in the English subtitles of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the 1989 Japanese arcade game Zero Wing and became a catchphrase/meme on the Internet in the early 2000s.

der

君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた

(Internet slang, humorous) Used to tout victory over an opponent, or simply as a humorous catchphrase.


barrel of monkeys

en-noun

barrel of monkeys (plural barrels of monkeys)

/ˌbæɹəl‿əv ˈmʌŋkiz/

Possibly influenced by barrel of fun or barrel of laughs.

He thinks he’s a barrel of monkeys, but he’s not particularly entertaining.

(idiomatic, informal) Someone or something very amusing or funny, fun, mischievous, etc.

naurattaja

someone or something very amusing or funny, fun, mischievous, etc.


monologue

dialogue

antonym(s) of “a monopolizing utterance”

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “soliloquy, monologue”).

der

(comedy) A long series of comic stories and jokes as an entertainment.

monologi

comedy: long series of stories and jokes


comedic

en-adj

comedic (comparative more comedic, superlative most comedic)

more comedic (comparative)
most comedic (superlative)

It was done for comedic purposes


skit

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse skjúta (“to shoot, dart, move quickly”), variant of skjóta. Compare flytja (“to move”). Alternately, perhaps a back-formation from skittish, which in turn may derive from Old Norse or another North Germanic language.


burlesque

en-noun

burlesque (countable and uncountable, plural burlesques)

Borrowed from French burlesque, from Italian burlesco (“parodic”).

Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people.

1711 December 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, December 15, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 249; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

The dull burlesque appeared with impudence, / And pleased by novelty in spite of sense.

“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

A derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody.


jocund

en-adj

jocund (comparative more jocund, superlative most jocund)

more jocund (comparative)
most jocund (superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒəʊkənd/

From Old French jocond, from Latin iūcundus (“pleasant, agreeable”).

Nights candles are burnt out, and iocond Day / Stands tiptoes on the myſtie mountaine tops.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure, / Let vs be iocond. Will you troule the Catch / You taught me but whileare?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2:

There was once a widdow faire, young, free, rich, and withall very pleaſant and iocund, that fell in loue with a certaine round and well-ſet ſeruant of a Colledge: […]

1612, [Miguel de Cervantes], Thomas Shelton, transl., “Which Treates of the Strange Aduentures that Hapned to the Knight of the Mancha, in Sierra Morena: And of the Penance He Did there, in Imitation of Belti Nebros”, in The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC, part 3, page 243:

First in his train is jocund Health,
Content, who o'er her distaff sings,
And from the plough that honest Wealth
Which scorns the tear-bought robe of kings.—

1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, Toil, page 107:

I was feeling blithe, almost jocund.

1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic:

Jovial; exuberant; lighthearted; merry and in high spirits; exhibiting happiness.

весел

jovial, exuberant, lighthearted; merry and in high spirits


running joke

“I Love Lisa” opens with one of my favorite underappreciated running jokes from The Simpsons: the passive-aggressive, quietly contentious relationship of radio jocks Bill and Marty, whose mindless happy talk regularly gives way to charged exchanges that betray the simmering resentment and disappointment perpetually lingering just under the surface of their relationship.

2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in The A.V. Club:

These deadpan repeated phrases that cannot quite decide whether they are part of a running joke or a half-abandoned philosophical dictum produce, as Michael Wood has argued, a comedy of the intellect that becomes a comedy of ignorance: […]

2012, Laura Salisbury, Samuel Beckett, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 37:

Her obvious favoritism has become a running joke among the staff. A joke that I'm the butt of. She's at least twenty years older than me, not to mention married.

2013, Colleen Hoover, This Girl, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

An ongoing joke, one that is regularly repeated or continued.


dramedy

en-noun

dramedy (countable and uncountable, plural dramedies)

(uncountable) A genre of film or television that lies somewhere between drama and comedy.


situation comedy

situation comedy (plural situation comedies)

situation comedies (plural)
as sitcom (abbreviation)

[…] in a time of peril and opportunity, the old complacent, unbalanced fare of action-adventure and situation comedies is simply not good enough.

1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, Television and the Public Interest:

An episodic comedy radio or television program with a plot or storyline based around a particular humorous situation with the same set of characters.

情景喜劇

episodic comedy radio or television program — see also sitcom


harlequinade

A pantomime-like comedy featuring the harlequin or clown.


jester

From Middle English gestour; equivalent to jest + -er.

A person in colourful garb and fool's cap who amused a medieval and early modern royal or noble court.


lampoon

en-verb

lampoon (third-person singular simple present lampoons, present participle lampooning, simple past and past participle lampooned)

lampoons (present singular third-person)
lampooning (participle present)
lampooned (participle past)
lampooned (past)

Antonin Nompar de Caumont
Dictionnaire de la langue française
James II of England
Émile Littré

From French lampon (“satire, mockery, ridicule”), built on French lampons (“let us drink — a popular refrain for scurrilous songs”), from lamper (“to quaff, to swig”).
: Littré quotes a satirical song mocking King Jacques II Stuart, fleeing Dublin, in 1691, and returning to France under the escort of Lauzun:
:: Prenez soin de ma couronne, J'aurai soin de ma personne ;
("Take care of my crown, I will take care of my person")
Lampons ! lampons !

interwikt

lampon on the French Wiktionary.Wiktionary ᶠʳ


humourous

en-adj

humourous (comparative more humourous, superlative most humourous)

more humourous (comparative)
most humourous (superlative)

[W]hatever Perſon vvould aſpire to be completely vvitty, ſmart, humourous, and polite, muſt by hard Labour be able to retain in his Memory every ſingle Sentence contained in this VVork, […]

1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page xiv:

(chiefly UK, uncommon, proscribed) Alternative spelling of humorous


send-up

1998, Wing Chun, "The Reluctant Hero," televisionwithoutpity.com, 24 Nov,
The clever send-up of the horror genre shows a profound understanding of the traditional Hollywood machinations.

The tired storyline, centered on a lesbian couple's search for a sperm donor, is irritatingly spoofish and lacks the subtlety that makes for great send-ups.

2006, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Blood Moon's Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film, page 115:

A satirical imitation of a work of art or a genre.


comedienne

Borrowed from French comédienne. Compare doyenne.


crosstalk

en-noun

crosstalk (countable and uncountable, plural crosstalks)

From cross- + talk.
Usage in reference to the Chinese comedic performance is probably a loose calque from Chinese 相聲／相声 (xiàngsheng).

A traditional Chinese comedic performance in the form of a dialogue.


repartee

repartee (countable and uncountable, plural repartees)

/ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/

/ˌɹɛpɑːˈtiː/

From French repartie, deverbal of repartir (“to retort”).

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.

1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:


harlequin

From earlier Harlicken, from Middle French Harlequin (in Italian Arlecchino, the name of a popular servant character in commedia dell'arte plays), from Old French Harlequin, Halequin, Herlequin, Hellequin, Hierlekin, Hellekin (a demon, malevolent spirit), probably of Germanic origin, connected to the Old English figure of Herla Cyning (“King Herla”, a mythical figure identified with Woden) or possibly to Old Frisian helle kin, Old English helle cyn, Old Norse heljar kyn (“the kindred of Hell”). Related to Middle English Hurlewain (“a mischievous sprite or goblin”).

cog

Brightly colored, especially in a pattern like that of a harlequin clown's clothes.


jocularity

en-noun

jocularity (countable and uncountable, plural jocularities)

/ˌd͡ʒɑkjəˈlɛɹɪti/

It should seem he had that day been in a humour for jocularity and merriment, and upon such occasions I never knew a man laugh more heartily.

1791, James Boswell, “(please specify the year)”, in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 494:

[…] Cristal Nixon at that moment rode up to them, and said, with an affectation of jocularity which sat very ill upon his sullen features, […]

1824 June, [Walter Scott], “chapter 5”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 156:

All were armed with pistols, and there was a small armoury of rifles against a wall. “Guns,” I said with fearful jocularity, “in a holy place?”

1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 74, in Earthly Powers, London: Hutchinson:

Madouc was neither pleased nor impressed by Prince Bittern’s mannerisms, and remained pointedly unresponsive to his lame jocularities.


put-on

I think this is all a big put-on.

(informal) A deception, hoax, or practical joke.


amusing

en-adj

amusing (comparative more amusing, superlative most amusing)

more amusing (comparative)
most amusing (superlative)

An amusing incident on the first of these journeys was the checking by signal of the flyer about 3 miles out of Paris, with the result that it was overhauled by the 6.25 p.m. semi-fast from Paris to Montargis, to the unconcealed delight of passengers in the latter.

1952 December, 'Mercury', “Modern French Locomotive Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 808-809:


MST

Mountain Standard Time
Mountain Standard Time#English


light bulb joke

en-noun

light bulb joke (plural light bulb jokes)

Any joke of the form "How many X does it take to change a light bulb?" followed by a witty riposte, where X is some usually stereotypical class of people.


class clown

He was always the class clown, constantly telling jokes and attracting everyone's attention in school.

(idiomatic) A student who frequently makes jokes or pokes fun; a wiseacre.


hacky

en-adj

hacky (comparative more hacky, superlative most hacky)

more hacky (comparative)
most hacky (superlative)

(comedy, informal) Hackneyed (lacking significance through having been overused; unoriginal and trite)


comedically

en-adv

comedically (comparative more comedically, superlative most comedically)

more comedically (comparative)
most comedically (superlative)


joking

Twenty euros cover charge? You're joking me!

(British, US, Ireland, colloquial, transitive) Kidding, trying to fool.


clownish

en-adj

clownish (comparative more clownish, superlative most clownish)

more clownish (comparative)
most clownish (superlative)

Even worse, the zombies' clownish makeup, with a stark white base and black shoe polish around the eyes, looks amateurish.

1998, Bryan Senn, Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema:

Once again, City's defending was clownish. James McArthur drove into the area on the left and pulled a low cross towards the far post, where the horribly timid Gaël Clichy allowed Perch to bundle the ball past Costel Pantilimon.

2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:

Indeed, when in close quarters to Rooney, it must prove almost irresistible to stick a plastic moustache and silly clownish shoes on the potato-headed fool.

2005 May 14, Laura Barton, The Guardian:

Resembling or characteristic of a circus clown; comical, ridiculous.


planking

en-noun

planking (countable and uncountable, plural plankings)

[…] but, like planking, horsemanning, Tebowing, Hadoukening, and other viral photography memes, as a genre of public performance, dance in public is greatly facilitated by the channels of distribution that social media offer, […]

2020, Harmony Bench, Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common:

The practice of lying face down with arms to the sides, in unusual public spaces, and taking photographs to record the act.


humourously

en-adv

humourously (comparative more humourously, superlative most humourously)

more humourously (comparative)
most humourously (superlative)

(UK, Canada, uncommon, nonstandard) Alternative spelling of humorously


jocularly

jocularly (comparative more jocularly, superlative most jocularly)

more jocularly (comparative)
most jocularly (superlative)

He was in such a good mood that he even managed to take out the rubbish jocularly.

She was not embarrassed at all so she told the story jocularly.

Sullenly, jocularly, resentfully, or derisively, names and addresses were extorted from the company, and each member given a jerk of the head to get out of this.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 160:


rimshot

(colloquial) A percussive sting or flourish used to punctuate a joke in a cabaret or vaudeville act.


jocosity

en-noun

jocosity (countable and uncountable, plural jocosities)

(uncountable) The state of being jocose.


joky

en-adj

joky (comparative jokier, superlative jokiest)

jokier (comparative)
jokiest (superlative)


jokey

jokey (comparative more jokey, superlative most jokey)

more jokey (comparative)
most jokey (superlative)


cream pie

en-noun

cream pie (countable and uncountable, plural cream pies)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cream pie.wav

A pie filled entirely with cream, used as a prop in slapstick films and television.


punchline

Arguably, without Jones, Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74) would not have revolutionised British TV comedy. He was key in developing the show’s distinctively trippy, stream-of-consciousness format, where each surreal set-up (the Lumberjack Song, the upper-class twit of the year show, the dead parrot, or the fish-slapping dance) flowed into the next, unpunctuated by punchlines.

2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian:


sense of humor

US standard spelling of sense of humour.


gallows humour

(British spelling) Alternative form of gallows humor


sense of humour

sense of humour (plural senses of humour)

I prefer to think that birds have a sufficiently developed sense of humour to enjoy the spectacle of a human being hunched beneath a bush kissing the back of their hand.

1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 112:

The man’s right leg had been completely crushed in the crash, and he was losing a lot of blood.
“Mr Goodie,” began the doctor as soon as Dad had been rushed into the Accident and Emergency department at the hospital. “I have some very bad news. We have to amputate your leg.”
“Which one?” replied Dad, not losing his sense of humour at this dark time.
“The right one, of course. If we don’t operate straight away, there is a very real chance you will die.”

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “Crushed in the Crash”, in Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 16:

A person’s faculty for finding certain things funny.


humorist

(medicine, now rare, historical) Someone who believes that health and temperament are determined by bodily humours; a humoralist.

She and the duke used to rally me upon my fondness for lord W—m, who was a sort of an humourist, and apt to be in a pet, in which case he would leave the company, and go to bed by seven o'clock in the evening.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

I called on him and found him a contemporary of Beauclerk and Langton at Trinity College, Oxford, and a man of reading and animation, but a kind of humourist.

1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 175

(obsolete) Someone subject to whims or fancies; an eccentric.

Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia's mother was not a humourist.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

Art Buchwald, who satirized the follies of the rich, the famous and the powerful for half a century as the most widely read newspaper humorist of his time, died Wednesday night in Washington.

2007 January 18, Richard Severo, “Art Buchwald, 81, Columnist and Humorist Who Delighted in the Absurd”, in The New York Times:

But when it comes to conveying what made these people funny, what impact they had in their day and, especially, what debt they are owed by present-day humorists, Johnson doesn’t put much meat on the old bones.

2010 December 24, Neil Genzlinger, “What’s So Funny?”, in The New York Times:

A humorous or witty person, especially someone skilled in humorous writing or performance.

One who studies or portrays the humours of people.


merry-andrew

Alternative spelling of Merry Andrew; clown; buffoon.


jokester

/ˈd͡ʒəʊkstə/


callback

When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator. But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog (including “Love Is Not The Answer,” a watery echo of the epic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” from 2003’s Permission To Land), Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself. And, despite Hawkins’ inveterate crotch-grabbing, there was never that much meat there to begin with.

2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(comedy) A joke which references an earlier joke in the same routine.


capitano

capitano (plural capitanos or capitanoes or capitani)

capitanos (plural)
capitanoes (plural)
capitani (plural)

From Italian capitano. Doublet of captain and chieftain.

One of the four stock characters of commedia dell'arte who typically appropriated the name "captain" for himself but was not one; he was often a blowhard and a swaggerer who could maintain his self-important claims only if none of the locals knew him.


clownishness

clownishness (usually uncountable, plural clownishnesses)


comically

en-adv

comically (comparative more comically, superlative most comically)

more comically (comparative)
most comically (superlative)

Masters and Johnson wanted their work to be taken seriously, and wanted to stay a step ahead of the morality police, so they tended to write in almost comically dense medicalese.

2009 June 26, Dwight Garner, “Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic”, in The New York Times:


funniness

en-noun

funniness (countable and uncountable, plural funninesses)

(uncountable) The quality of being funny.


one-percenter

one + percent + -er. After Thomas Edison: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." The motorcycling sense comes from a supposed 1948 statement by the American Motorcycle Association that 99% of motorcyclists are good people enjoying a clean sport, and it is only 1% who are antisocial.

(comedy) An esoteric joke which is unlikely to be appreciated by a general audience.


running gag

→ German: Running Gag

Some groaners are converted into running gags, as when Joel and his brother (Max Greenfield) get in a duel of parting, one-last-thing-before-you-go affirmations.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

An ongoing joke, one that is regularly repeated or continued.


humourist

Humorologists study humour and humourists, smile therapists believe in the therapeutic value of cheer and humoropathists promote a 'cacchination (guffawing) cure' for serious illness ('Vitamin C and Laurel and Hardy').

2002 January 12, “What's the word?”, in The Guardian:

I only met the late and much-missed humourist once, but he had an impact on my life that hasn't been mentioned in the other fond tributes.

2007 October 30, Ali Catterall, “Alan Coren launched my criminal career”, in The Guardian:

(British) Alternative spelling of humorist


straight man

For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.

Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.

2010, Caroline Graham, A Ghost in the Machine, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

She was the straight man, he was the comedian, and their audience was “standing room only” when they stepped up to the microphone.

1982 April, Pam Hait, “Sandra Day O’Connor: Warm, Witty and Wise”, in The Ladies' Home Journal, volume 99, page 46:

(idiomatic) A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.

hétköznapi embert/figurát játszó/alakító komikus

бе́лый кло́ун m (bélyj klóun, literally “white clown”)


seriocomic

en-adj

seriocomic (comparative more seriocomic, superlative most seriocomic)

more seriocomic (comparative)
most seriocomic (superlative)

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a seriocomic romp through the summer of a group of teenagers.

In the N-Town Passion Play I, Lucifer is an implied presenter of the play and an implied controller of its events. He addresses the audience directly and confidentially in an extraordinary 124-line adoxograph which is part social satire and part seriocomic plea for our commitment to his suzerainty […]

2005, John W. Velz, “Adoxography as Mode of Discourse for Satan and His Underlings in Medieval Plays”, in Clifford Davidson, editor, The Dramatic Tradition of the Middle Ages [AMS Studies in the Middle Ages; 26], New York, N.Y.: AMS Press, →ISBN, page 102:

Having both serious and comedic qualities or tendencies.

serio-comic

having both serious and comedic qualities or tendencies


romcom

Shortening of romantic comedy. Probably based on the earlier sitcom.


hilariously

en-adv

hilariously (comparative more hilariously, superlative most hilariously)

more hilariously (comparative)
most hilariously (superlative)

a hilariously funny joke

In a hilarious manner; so as to amuse greatly.


clown shoe

A comedically oversized shoe, usually brightly colored and with a bulbous front.


hilariousness

The characteristic of being hilarious; hilarity.


tragicomedy

en-noun

tragicomedy (countable and uncountable, plural tragicomedies)

/ˌtɹædʒɪˈkɒmədi/

Borrowed from Middle French tragicomédie (whence French tragicomédie), itself borrowed from Italian tragicommedia, from Latin tragicōmoedia, tragicocōmoedia. By surface analysis, tragic + comedy, with haplology.

bor+

(uncountable) The genre of drama that combines elements of tragedy and comedy.

(countable) A drama that combines elements of tragedy and comedy.


antithalian

en-adj

antithalian (comparative more antithalian, superlative most antithalian)

more antithalian (comparative)
most antithalian (superlative)

Mr Toobad described her as being […] altogether as gloomy and antithalian a young lady as Mr Glowry himself could desire for the future mistress of Nightmare Abbey.

1818, Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey:

an ascetic component that has caused many postrevolutionary societies, whatever their ideology, to become so unspeakably antithalian after the initial period of creative euphoria is over.

1990, Houchang E. Chehabi, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini, I.B.Tauris, →ISBN, page 82:


prop comic

Carrot Top is a well-known prop comic; he often comes on stage with a huge box of odd objects.

A comedian whose performances use common or unusual objects as physical aids to help achieve a humorous effect.


prop comedy

In his zany prop comedy Gallagher would sometimes smash watermelons and splatter the front rows of the audience.

A style of comedic performance in which common and/or unusual objects are used as physical aids to help achieve a humorous effect.


stand-up comedy

comedy performed on stage by a single comedian.