Low comedy, also called lowbrow humor, is a genre of comic entertainment whose primary aim is simply to provoke laughter, through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery, and other riotous behavior, without the wit or social observation that mark high comedy. It is characterized by horseplay, slapstick, and farce, the classic example being a custard pie thrown into someone's face, and the category has since widened to include any obvious physical joke, down to something as simple as a wedgie.
Facts
Place of OriginLow comedy has been a fixture of theater since ancient Greek plays, including the satyr plays performed alongside tragedy. 1 Notable ExampleSophocles wrote a satyr play, now lost, about satyrs who try to persuade a king that they are worthy suitors of his daughter by boasting of their capacity for flatulence. 1 Defining TraitLow comedy is characterized by horseplay, slapstick or farce rather than the wit or social observation associated with high comedy. 1 Sources
1. Low comedy (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOrigins section, opening sentence
This type of comedy has been a fixture ever since Greek plays.
Definition section
It is characterized by "horseplay", slapstick or farce.
Origins section, Sophocles example
For instance Sophocles once wrote a satyr play, no longer extant, about satyrs who seek to persuade a king that they are worthy suitors of his daughter by bragging about their capacity for flatulence.
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