low comedyn.adj.

1608 J. Day Humour out of Breath sig. B4^v Attendance sirra, your low Commedie, Craues but few Actors, weele breake company.

1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love Pref. Low Comedy especially requires, on the Writers part, much of conversation with the vulgar: and much of ill nature in the observation of their follies.

1747 J. Mottley Compl. List Poets & Plays in T. Whincop Scanderbeg 243/1 An Actor of great Humour in low Comedy, especially in the Parts of Old Men.

c1750 A. Aston Brief Suppl. Colley Cibber 12 There being no Rivals in his dry, heavy, downright Way in Low Comedy.

1852 Househ. Words 11 Sept. 229/2 He is from the Northern Circuit, and hopes..to do second low comedy in London yet.

1926 Amer. Speech 1 437/2 Slap-stick, low comedy in its simplest form.

1988 P. Brook Shifting Point (1989) 11 When I had worked for a while in a ‘cultural’ environment, in opera or the classics.., I switched to boulevard farce, low comedy, a musical, [etc.].

2004 G. J. Buelow Hist. Baroque Music xi. 356 Following dances for fairies and anti-masque savages..the masque takes a sudden turn to low comedy.

1885 J. K. Jerome On Stage 39 Our low comedy, who knew the whole piece by heart.

1814 Lady Morgan O'Donnel I. v. 148 The Colonel declared that her laugh was quite fair, and would make the fortune of a low comedy actress.

1825 P. Egan Life of Actor v. 212 My clown, Tom Jefferies, who could sing a good low comedy song.

1849 Theatr. Mirror 17 Sept. 19 Whether in consequence of the non-arrival of the second low-comedy man, I would undertake his part in the last piece.

1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xviii. 239 Feathers had some reputation as a yarn spinner. His low-comedy style was popular.

1961 John o' London's 6 July 8/2 She lacks the low-comedy sense which Kingsley Amis shows in his poetry.

1982 W. R. Faith Bob Hope xiii. 104 But the producers were still searching for a low-comedy star.

2004 N.Y. Times 25 July ii. 1/3 The plot of ‘Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle’..consists of an amusing, anarchic grab-bag of road-picture mishaps and low-comedy gags.