buffoonery

buffoon +‎ -ery

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /bəˈfuːnəɹi/

buffoonery (countable and uncountable, plural buffooneries)

1. foolishness, silliness; the behaviour expected of a buffoon.
   • 1693: William Congreve, The Old Bachelor

     Araminta, come, I'll talk seriously to you now; could you but see with my eyes the buffoonery of one scene of address, a lover, set out with all his equipage and appurtenances; ...

   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XIV, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224, page 273:

     […] One could not expect any body to take such a part—Nothing but buffoonery from beginning to end.

   • before 1891: P.T. Barnum, quoted in The Life of Phineas T. Barnum

     The Temperance Reform was too serious a matter for trifling jokes and buffooneries.