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Crossword clues for comedy

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
comedy
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a comedy actor
▪ Jason was voted top TV comedy actor.
a comedy/tragic drama (=about funny/very sad events)
▪ Martin Clunes is to star in a new comedy drama.
black comedy
comedy of manners
musical comedy
Restoration comedy/drama (=plays written during this time in England)
romantic comedy
screwball comedy
situation comedy
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
alternative
▪ The naughty postcard camp king of alternative comedy.
black
▪ And then there is black comedy.
▪ Even black comedies should be taken seriously by their makers.
▪ I thought it was a campy black comedy.
▪ This haunting black comedy touches and menaces in equal parts.
▪ Alternatively the violation can be inverted; like a black comedy, or the assertion of a stark revenge or retribution.
▪ This was on-the-edge black comedy that dispelled any vestige of condescension that might have been felt towards the performers.
good
▪ After all, the best comedy has a serious intent, and Forsyth clearly wants to evoke more than just laughter.
▪ The way to judge a good comedy is by how long it will last and have people talk about it.
▪ His other real interests are, he concludes, Guinness and good comedy.
▪ Lane might just be the best comedy and musical man working on Broadway.
▪ And if you want the best stand-up comedy available for a dollar, try a speaker meeting on skid row.
light
▪ The West End then beckoned, and he appeared as a solid juvenile in a sequence of light comedies.
▪ After the war Marius Steen continued to put on shows and gradually he forsook revue for musicals and light comedies.
▪ Clooney will show that he can cut it as the leading man of a light comedy.
musical
▪ Captain McArthur was a musical comedy aficionado, and not pleased when Mrs Kingswood spoke critically of the form.
▪ The Black Hills Playhouse presents musical, comedy and dramatic productions throughout the summer.
▪ My dream is to direct a musical comedy one day.
▪ Bill started acting in musical comedy.
▪ As some one who likes musical comedies to be comedies, the frivolity of this piece proved irresistible.
▪ The daughter of a famous musical comedy actress would scarcely fit in.
new
▪ I looked at the paper, and realised that a new comedy show was about to start on Channel 4.
▪ This mutual stretching of personas is what works best in the new romantic comedy about a couple of blue-collar thieves.
▪ She's talking about her new role in comedy film, Housesitter, opposite funnyman Steve Martin.
▪ On that particular day, the feature show was Cocoanuts, the new Marx Brothers comedy set in Florida.
▪ In 1999, I asked readers to submit ideas for new comedies.
▪ Between numbers by the unflappable Ramblers, the stars are birthing new comedy duets.
▪ A new comedy wave, I suppose, is waiting in the wings.
physical
▪ He is so funny with his physical comedy.
popular
▪ Even popular television war comedies were taken off the air, for fear of jarring too awkwardly with endless hours of Gulf coverage.
romantic
▪ There will be fewer big action pictures and more romantic comedies.
▪ Which she did in a scene familiar from countless romantic comedies: She throws him out, followed by his suitcase.
▪ Once, coming back from New York, we were all watching a romantic comedy.
▪ This surprisingly funny, reverse-Cyrano lark is witty, wise and the most romantic comedy so far this year.
▪ They want to make screwball romantic comedies but they wind up producing sitcoms that look lost without a laugh track.
▪ It is a romantic comedy, and I play a really bad person.
▪ A romantic comedy, with Steve Guttenberg as a man with a new face and Shelley Long as his novelist sister.
sentimental
▪ As Big showed, Penny Marshall's strength is sentimental comedy.
▪ These moral essays advanced other theories in harmony with sentimental comedy.
▪ The same posturing and gesturing, typical of sentimental comedy, is found in La conjuracion de Venecia.
▪ If Nivelle de la Chaussee was the great playwright of sentimental comedy, then Denise Diderot was the great theorist.
▪ In its subordination of character to plot, sentimental comedy moves in the direction of Romantic drama.
▪ Several of these sentimental comedies were imitations of El delincuente honrado.
▪ Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the sentimental comedy is that it represented a new form of tragi-comedy.
▪ Their use many centuries later in sentimental comedy or bourgeois tragedy was purely artificial.
slapstick
▪ It was an almost slapstick comedy in which Stalin and his cultural henchman Zhdanov confront Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
▪ He then added his own slapstick comedy, each night diving head first through a serving hatch and generally being thrown around.
■ NOUN
actor
▪ His replacement was comedy actor Derek Nimmo.
▪ Both videos are situations comedies made by a top television light entertainment director and an experienced cast of comedy actors.
▪ The video has been made using a highly-experienced cast of comedy actors and a top television light entertainment director.
film
▪ Pop corn and carrot cake with a comedy film bonanza.
▪ The stimulus material was a short silent comedy film made by Mack Sennet around 1925.
▪ They were the most successful comedy films of all time.
▪ She's talking about her new role in comedy film, Housesitter, opposite funnyman Steve Martin.
▪ Some of the more interesting comedy films were made outside these generic contexts.
series
▪ Now he could concentrate on his first television situation comedy series.
▪ You might start a personal channel that gathers all new information about the comedy series for you.
▪ She lost best actress in a comedy series to Cybill Shepherd.! folo!
show
▪ I looked at the paper, and realised that a new comedy show was about to start on Channel 4.
▪ I think we tried to use it once, and it was like a comedy show, it was crazy.
situation
▪ Both videos are sparkling situation comedies written especially for adult and young adult learners.
▪ I thought I wanted to write a situation comedy with a woman in the lead.
▪ Drama and situation comedy are likely to be next.
▪ Both videos are situations comedies made by a top television light entertainment director and an experienced cast of comedy actors.
▪ Let's face it, there have already been plenty of situation comedies in this situation before.
▪ Now he could concentrate on his first television situation comedy series.
▪ I might change my mind about becoming a vet and try writing situation comedy for television.
television
▪ She played Mrs Thatcher in Anyone for Denis and in a television comedy.
▪ Or take the scene in a New York police station as portrayed in a television comedy.
▪ And television comedy will never be the same again.
▪ Producer Michael Mills saw the opportunity to team up a new writer with an actor new to television comedy.
▪ The catchphrase, after all, is a fixture in an otherwise protean world of television comedy.
■ VERB
direct
▪ My dream is to direct a musical comedy one day.
play
▪ Sylvester Stallone is playing comedy again.
▪ We were all playing roles in a comedy. l tried to prove to Sonya that withholding herself from me was hypocritical.
▪ Now they play music videos and comedy clips.
write
▪ I thought I wanted to write a situation comedy with a woman in the lead.
▪ Goldman says he can't write comedy, by the way.
▪ I was writing a comedy with sinister undertones about the villa renters and expats of Chiantishire.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ 'One Fine Day' was a romantic comedy with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer.
▪ a comedy show on Channel 4
▪ It was a brilliant play - full of drama, and both sadness and comedy.
▪ Much of the comedy in Pratchett's books comes from the clever way he plays around with words and ideas.
▪ The movie's a black comedy about a pair of junkie musicians who are trying to kick the drug habit.
▪ The movie swings from broad comedy to moving drama in a single scene.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Bill started acting in musical comedy.
▪ But the comedy is smart and funny, and Michael Douglas and Annette Bening are charming.
▪ In general, the violations of the unities in sentimental comedy are slight.
▪ So is the prejudice against mixing tragedy and comedy.
▪ The aggressive style of mainland cabaret comedy is only now reaching Northern Ireland.
▪ The tribute includes a 1960s episode of Coronation Street and the comedy Nearest and Dearest.
▪ This one, obviously, is not a comedy.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
comedy

Drama \Dra"ma\ (dr[aum]"m[.a] or dr[=a]"m[.a]; 277), n. [L. drama, Gr. dra^ma, fr. dra^n to do, act; cf. Lith. daryti.]

  1. A composition, in prose or poetry, accommodated to action, and intended to exhibit a picture of human life, or to depict a series of grave or humorous actions of more than ordinary interest, tending toward some striking result. It is commonly designed to be spoken and represented by actors on the stage.

    A divine pastoral drama in the Song of Solomon.
    --Milton.

  2. A series of real events invested with a dramatic unity and interest. ``The drama of war.''
    --Thackeray.

    Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last.
    --Berkeley.

    The drama and contrivances of God's providence.
    --Sharp.

  3. Dramatic composition and the literature pertaining to or illustrating it; dramatic literature.

    Note: The principal species of the drama are tragedy and comedy; inferior species are tragi-comedy, melodrama, operas, burlettas, and farces.

    The romantic drama, the kind of drama whose aim is to present a tale or history in scenes, and whose plays (like those of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and others) are stories told in dialogue by actors on the stage.
    --J. A. Symonds.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
comedy

late 14c., from Old French comedie (14c., "a poem," not in the theatrical sense), from Latin comoedia, from Greek komoidia "a comedy, amusing spectacle," probably from komodios "actor or singer in the revels," from komos "revel, carousal, merry-making, festival," + aoidos "singer, poet," from aeidein "to sing," related to oide (see ode).\n\nThe passage on the nature of comedy in the Poetic of Aristotle is unfortunately lost, but if we can trust stray hints on the subject, his definition of comedy (which applied mainly to Menander) ran parallel to that of tragedy, and described the art as a purification of certain affections of our nature, not by terror and pity, but by laughter and ridicule.

[Rev. J.P. Mahaffy, "A History of Classical Greek Literature," London, 1895]

\nThe classical sense of the word, then, was "amusing play or performance," which is similar to the modern one, but in the Middle Ages the word came to mean poems and stories generally (albeit ones with happy endings), and the earliest English sense is "narrative poem" (such as Dante's "Commedia"). Generalized sense of "quality of being amusing" dates from 1877.\n\nComedy aims at entertaining by the fidelity with which it presents life as we know it, farce at raising laughter by the outrageous absurdity of the situation or characters exhibited, & burlesque at tickling the fancy of the audience by caricaturing plays or actors with whose style it is familiar.

[Fowler]

Wiktionary
comedy

n. 1 ''archaic Greece.'' a choric song of celebration or revel 2 ''ancient Greece.'' a light, amusing play with a happy ending 3 ''medieval Europe.'' a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., ''The Divine Comedy'') 4 (context drama English) A dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone 5 (context drama English) The genre of such works 6 entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance 7 the art of composing comedy 8 a humorous event

WordNet
comedy
  1. n. light and humorous drama with a happy ending [ant: tragedy]

  2. a comic incident or series of incidents [syn: drollery, clowning, funniness]

Wikipedia
Comedy (Paul Kelly & The Messengers album)

Comedy is a double album recorded by Paul Kelly & The Messengers and originally released in 1991. It was the last album released before the partnership of Kelly and The Messengers was dissolved.

It was released on Mushroom Records in Australia and Doctor Dream Records in the United States.

Track 9, "Take Your Time" is featured in the 1997 Australian movie The Castle.

Comedy (anime)

is a short anime film produced in 2002 by Studio 4°C animation studio. The film was directed by Kazuto Nakazawa and featured the music of Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria". The film is noted for drawing its inspiration from Schubert's piece titled "Erlkönig".

Comedy (Black album)

Comedy was the second official album by Black, released in 1988. It reached No.32 in the UK Albums Chart.

Comedy (drama)

A comedy is entertainment consisting of jokes and satire, intended to make an audience laugh. For ancient Greeks and Romans a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Divina Commedia.

The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it has been carefully investigated by psychologists and agreed upon the predominating characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression.

Much comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations, but there are many recognized genres of comedy. Satire and political satire use ironic comedy used to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of humor.

Parody borrows the form of some popular genre, artwork, or text but uses certain ironic changes to critique that form from within (though not necessarily in a condemning way). Screwball comedy derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters. Black comedy is defined by dark humor that makes light of so-called dark or evil elements in human nature. Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comedic ways.

A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms, and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.

Comedy

In a modern sense, comedy (from the , kōmōidía) refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.

Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them.

Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy, which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy, which is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.

Comedy (disambiguation)

Comedy is a genre of dramatic works that have happy endings, in contrast to tragedies that have unhappy endings.

Comedy may also refer to:

  • Comedy (anime), a short anime film from 2002
  • Comedy (drama), in the performing arts
  • Comedy film
  • Comedy music
  • Radio comedy
  • Sketch comedy
  • Television comedy
  • The Comedy Network, a Canadian speciality channel
  • Comedy (Black album)
  • Comedy (Paul Kelly & The Messengers album)
  • Humour
  • Stand-up comedy

Usage examples of "comedy".

During this time, he and Rick could swap stories, or Archimedes and Rick would put on what they thought were their hilarious comedy schticks and soft shoe routines, which bored Bill so tremendously that he would fall asleep if he even thought about them.

Answer: a science fiction musical comedy folk action religious drama with a big Bollywood ending.

She is a fiend for the comedies of the thirties and forties-Lubitsch, Capra, Cukor.

He was standing in the door, the figure of vulgar comedy, with ruffled hair, reddened face and unpardonable confusion of attire -- no trace there of the immaculate Robert Walmsley, the courted clubman and ornament of select circles.

For myself, I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less detestable exhibition for the eyes of youth and innocence than such a scene.

I have always enjoyed politics, both the complexities and strategies of the game and the vast, Dickensian comedy of it all.

It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers: it is farce, which exhibits individuals.

The canned laughter of TV comedy shows is one variety of faked data of this sort, but there is a great deal more, and much of the fakery is strikingly obvious.

Indeed, the bond ought to be closer, for one man wrote books and music as well of the Grail dramas, whereas different librettists and different composers created the Figaro comedies.

And while Celia and O-T-C were meshed fructiferously, events elsewhere moved on as always-with tragedy, comedy, conflict, nobility, sadness, laughter and human folly-bounding or shuffling onstage, sometimes as entities, occasionally all together.

Structurally, the political career undertaken by Isky Harappa transforms the novel from family chronicle to political satire and darkens its black comedy to the point of apocalypse.

This was a classic visionary Imagist drama from the previous century, set in a mannered future in which a genetically altered posthuman society was confronted by the return of violent human primitives from a forgotten space colony, a comedy of manners laced with acid and appalling violence.

Will, grown tall and earnest-looking, played the pedant Rhombus, a stock comedy character he was good at: pedants and scholars with mouthfuls of inkhorn terms he alone of the boys could commit easily to memory.

Sheckley deftly balances a comedy of intercultural misunderstandings against a genuinely moving tale of a man who finds the world changing in ways he can never quite grasp.

Comedy Store were playgrounds for Andy Kaufman, David Letterman, Elayne Boosler, Jay Leno, Larry Miller, Paul Reiser, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr, and Jerry Seinfeld.