本文经授权转载自微信公众号：田间小站
TOEFL SAT TEM8 GMAT GRE
外刊例句
- There is also a hint of Pythonesque farce about it.
它还带有点巨蟒滑稽剧的味道。
——《经济学人》 - I chose not to participate in this farce.
我选择不参与这场闹剧。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[noun] a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations
[名词] 滑稽剧
深入解读
Farce 是一个与小站（微信公众号：田间小站）之前推送过的 scarce 有着相同结尾的单词。该词源自拉丁语 farcire （装满、塞满，同 cram ）。
话说在13到14世纪时，欧洲教堂在吟诵经文之间经常插入一些解说或激励人的话语。这种经文中本没有而另外塞入的话语就被称为 farce 。
后来随着宗教喜剧的流行，演员们在表演剧目时，常把一些当地近期发生的新闻作为素材插入到戏剧中进行插科打诨。进而就开始用 farce 引申指这类插科打诨的内容，并进一步发展出现在的主要含义“滑稽剧、闹剧、笑剧”，以及指“滑稽剧体裁（the genre of farce）”，即一种使用滑稽和恶作剧表演的喜剧作品，通常包含粗俗的人物刻画和荒谬不可能的场景。
从滑稽剧荒诞可笑并且表演夸张的概念出发， farce 随后就被用来引申指“闹剧、荒唐的事情”或者说“可笑的行为或情景”，主要指本应严肃却变得明显荒谬且无意义的行为、事件或情况，常意味着混乱或不公正，使人无法认真对待，比如：
- 这次审判完全是一场闹剧。约翰谋杀了他爱张扬的妻子，但以精神错乱为由逃脱了惩罚。
The trial was a complete farce. John murdered his flamboyant wife, but got off on a plea of insanity.
权威用例
政治极化和社会撕裂导致民主共识难以达成，大选闹剧和选后乱局成为美国政治的显著特征。
Political polarization and social rifts have made it difficult to reach a democratic consensus, and election farce and post-election chaos have become prominent features of U.S. politics.
同近义词
- parody: an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect
- caricature: a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect
- travesty: a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something
