low comedy

American  

noun

1. comedy that depends on physical action, broadly humorous or farcical situations, and often bawdy or vulgar jokes.

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low comedy British  

noun

1. comedy characterized by slapstick and physical action

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Other Word Forms

• low comedian
  noun

Etymology

Origin of low comedy

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

low comedy

Beckett, who miraculously balanced high literature with low comedy, is too complex for single-minded interpretations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2019

But he’s now knocking 70 and suffering through an undignified low comedy of back problems, tinnitus and spiritual malaise.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2019

Through its narrow canon, the tone of “Star Wars” has always been determinedly self-serious, whereas the Marvel movies, like the decades of comics they sprang from, veer wildly from high drama to low comedy.

From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2017

Despite the borderline low comedy of the outhouse dialogue, Friedenberg is more alert to the couple’s mutual regard.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 4, 2016

So the duke said these Arkansaw lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted was low comedy—and maybe something ruther worse than low comedy, he reckoned.

From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer's Comrade by Twain, Mark