comicality

I have seen human bathers acting just like the birds, though from a different cause, bobbing down towards the water, but afraid to dip their heads, and the idea of comicality arose, as it does in most of the ludicrous actions of animals, from their resemblance to those of mankind.

The Naturalist in Nicaragua Thomas Belt 1855

Much of what Mr. Masson says in his Introduction of the way in which the verses of Milton should be read is judicious enough, though some of the examples he gives, of the "comicality" which would ensue from compressing every verse into an exact measure of ten syllables, are based on a surprising ignorance of the laws which guided our poets just before and during Milton's time in the structure of their verses.

Among My Books Second Series James Russell Lowell 1855

Sammons, an architect in the neo-classical style, lectured on the importance of preservation and decried the "comicality" of some modern architecture.

Staff Blogs 2009

It's all rounded off with a comicality that is all our own.

Juliet Linley: The Family Behind The Web Comedy '2 Kids And A Dog' Juliet Linley 2011

It's all rounded off with a comicality that is all our own.

Juliet Linley: The Family Behind The Web Comedy '2 Kids And A Dog' Juliet Linley 2011

Indeed, when looking at the catalogue of Baby Cow's bleakly funny programmes – Marion and Geoff, Human Remains, Nighty Night, Sensitive Skin, Sarah and Lizzie – one could scarcely find a better description of them than Chekhov's own words for his subject matter: "the sad comicality of everyday life".

Chekhov Shorts: 'I'm Ivan Nyukhin, aha!' Leo Benedictus 2010

But if the simple claim that a work is good because comical is thus intelligible, comicality is a general criterion for aesthetic value, and the principle that articulates that generality is true.

The Concept of the Aesthetic Shelley, James 2009

We also appeal to properties that are inherently positive, such as grace, or balance, or dramatic intensity, or comicality.

The Concept of the Aesthetic Shelley, James 2009

Mr. Bintrey, on the other hand, a cautious man, with twinkling beads of eyes in a large overhanging bald head, who inwardly but intensely enjoyed the comicality of openness of speech, or hand, or heart.

No Thoroughfare 2007

Rugg, as she raised her glass to her lips in completion of it, had not happened to look at Young John; when she was again so overcome by the contemptible comicality of his disinterestedness as to splutter some ambrosial drops of rum and water around, and withdraw in confusion.

Little Dorrit 2007