Talk:Farce

John Mortimer quote
Regarding this quote:


 * "Farce... plays are really played at high speed... The world of farce is necessarily square, solid, respectable and totally sure of itself, only so can it be exploded... events must occur only to the most dignified and highly moral persons... small longings become alarming reality... the world of common sense whirls and dips like a drunkard's bedroom. The first small domestic misunderstanding, the gentlest of white lies, brings down a series of disasters as inevitable and appalling as a Greek tragedy." – John Mortimer

It was added as the first thing in the article.


 * 1) It's heavily edited with "...", but there is no source where it came from (other than a prolific author), so it's not possible for the reader to find the full quote.
 * 2) It's generally bad form to define a term with a quote as the first thing in an article. Quotes should be used to support the text, not replace it.

--Stbalbach 15:40, 7 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The quote is edited as it is written in reference to a single play - so the specific playwright/play parts had to be excised. Source... >shrug< it's not from a book on plays or farces so why include it. You know who wrote it, you can therefore make your opinion of its merit from your view of the author.
 * My first thought was to delete the seven flabby paragraphs and just leave the quote. If a single quote offers a fine and concise definition of the term it seems worthwhile to include it.
 * 81.104.47.20 21:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Nature of the Transgression
The article currently states: "in the 20th century, it was mainly infidelity". Not only is this unsourced, I think it is untrue. Some of the best recent farces (Fawlty Towers, Noises Off, Loot), the characters are primarily trying to cover up some gross incompetence or crime, although there may be some sexual shenanigans as well. --RichardVeryard 15:11, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

seriously?
I can see the reasoning for some of these being on this list but 101 Dalmations? Nicktoons?76.226.145.164 (talk) 08:16, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

US Television
Anyone who looks at the "US Television" section can see it's ridiculous. Those are no more farcical than any number of other US Television shows -- i.e., not very. 23:28, 1 December 2011 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.47.133 (talk)

Irony
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending which often involves an elaborate chase scene. PuppyOnTheRadio  talk  12:09, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

by country
Thornton Wilder was American, not British....PurpleChez (talk) 21:25, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

WorldCat Genres
Maximilianklein (talk) 23:27, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

List
This isn't a very good article at all. The opening description is fine so far as it goes, but the rest is just a long list of "farces", some of which are questionably good examples of the genre, and which wouldn't be very helpful even if it were accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.27.249.190 (talk) 16:18, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, as long as we can acknowledge the political campaign of Donald Trump as what it really is, I don't have a problem with changing the article. Though I do think virtually every US comedy on TV could count, so perhaps a description would fit better than a list. Gio, James and Shaun (talk) 01:40, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Even the big Grove's dictionary of music has a relatively small description of Farce. The opening description is now improved. —Marino 23:47, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

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Britain
I believe that Thorton Wilder was an American writer, and The Matchmaker an American play. PurpleChez (talk) 17:39, 10 October 2018 (UTC)