Farce

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, farce is a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot ("Farce"). Encyclopaedia Britannica offers a more understandable definition: Farce is a funny play or movie about ridiculous situations and events ("Farce").

Farce is a literary genre and type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience. Farce is also a subcategory of dramatic comedy, which is different from other forms of comedy as it only aims at making the audience laugh. It uses elements like physical humour, deliberate absurdity, and indecent jokes just to make people laugh.

Predecessors of farce are found in ancient Greek and Roman theatre. Still, it was in 15th-century France that the term farce was first used to describe the elements of clowning, acrobatics, caricature, and indecency found together within a single form of entertainment.

French farce spread quickly throughout Europe. Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors) and Molière (Tartuffe) eventually came to use elements of farce in their comedies. Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the best verbal farces. 

Farce survived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in such plays as Charley’s Aunt (1892) by Brandon Thomas and found new expression in film comedies with Charlie Chaplin, or the Marx Brothers, more lately Monty Python (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).

Examples from the second half of the century are Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (1982), and Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors (1995).

Sources

“Farce.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/farce.

“Farce.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster,  www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farce

“Definition of farce.” literarydevices.net/farce

“Farce – definitions.” www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/farce

April Gudenrath. "Farce defined." YouTube, 29 Mar 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFmCkIgxng

Red Rover. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Black Night Fight." YouTube, 7 Mar 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_F58QM_Xgs

Zuzana Hvězdová  561842