Term of Art: Badinage

“Badinage (noun): Lighthearted, teasing talk; playful conversation; banter.

‘The movie is blatantly cartoonish, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t saying anything. I think we’re meant to believe that its profane badinage and even its most exaggerated racial animosity have a deep, gritty truth in them, and that because it’s a comedy it can go deeper than “serious” movies.’” Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.