The Place Is Babbington, That Is to Say Nowhere

The scene [of ridiculous comedy, comedy that ridicules, as differentiated from ludicrous comedy] might normally be neutralized by being set in some distant country or operatic never-never-land. “As for the action . . . ,” Alfred Jarry announced at the beginning of Ubu Roi, “the place is Poland, that is to say Nowhere.” Satire was described by Jonathan Swift as “a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”