Ribaldry is the third and somewhat neglected genre of sexual entertainments, something different from either pornography or erotica, yet is often confused with them. Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφια pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ... Erotica, from the Greek eros, love, are works of art, including literature, photography, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or arousing descriptions. ...

Unlike either pornography or erotica, which play sex or sexual fetishes "straight," ribaldry aims at humor. Sexual situations and titillation are presented in ribald material more for the purpose of poking fun at the human foibles and weaknesses that manifest themselves in human sexuality, rather than to present sexual stimulation either simply or artistically. Also, ribaldry may use sex as a metaphor to illustrate some non-sexual concern, in which case ribaldry may verge on the territory of satire. The members of many species of living things are divided into two or more categories called sexes (or loosely speaking, genders). ... Sexual fetishism, first described as such by Sigmund Freud though the concept and certainly the activity is quite ancient, is a form of paraphilia where the object of affection is a specific inanimate object or part of a persons body. ... This article discusses humour in terms of comedy and laughter. ... Human sexuality is the expression of sexual feelings due to genetic predisposition or ones own personal experimentation. ... In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope where a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ...

Like any humor, ribaldry may be read as conventional or subversive. Ribaldry typically depends on a shared background of sexual conventions and values, and its comedy generally depends on seeing those conventions broken. Depending on your attitude, viewers can perceive this either as poking fun on the poor souls who suffer the consequences of breaking the taboos, or as flouting the taboos themselves. This article is about the computer software framework. ... Comedy is the use of humour in the performing arts. ... For the Taboo party game, see Taboo (game). ...

The ritual taboo-breaking that is a usual counterpart of ribaldry underlies its controversial nature, and why ribaldry is frequently a subject of censorship. Ribaldry, whose usual aim is not "merely" to be sexually stimulating, often does address larger concerns than mere sexual appetite. However, being presented in the form of comedy, these larger concerns seem to censors to be un-serious. Moreover, the presence of satirical content in ribaldry tends to rouse the wrath of authorities, who may overlook more explicit sexual entertainments in order to prosecute comedians whom they perceive as attacking conventions they wish to maintain. Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. ...

Ribaldry has likely been around for the whole history of the human race, and is present to some degree in every culture. Works like Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the Cena Trimalchionis by Petronius, and the Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass of Apuleius are ribald classics from ancient Europe. Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" from his Canterbury Tales is a classic medieval example. François Rabelais showed himself to be a master of ribaldry in his Gargantua. Mark Twain's long-suppressed 1601 certainly falls in this category. More recent works like Candy by Terry Southern, films like Barbarella by Roger Vadim, or the comedic works of Russ Meyer are probably better classified as ribaldry than as either pornography or erotica. A bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ... Aristophanes anti-war comedy Lysistrata, written in 411 BC, has female characters, led by the eponymous Lysistrata, barricading the public funds building and withholding consensual sex from their husbands to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War. ... This article is about the ancient book; for the band of the same name, see Satyricon (band). ... This article is about the Roman author Petronius. ... Disambiguation: This article is about the poem Metamorphoses written by the poet Ovid. ... The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, more commonly known as The Golden Ass, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. ... Lucius Apuleius (ca 123/5 CE - ca 180 CE), an utterly Romanized Berber who described himself as half-Numidian half-Gaetulian, is remembered most for his bawdy picaresque Latin novel the Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902 Chanticleer the rooster from an outdoor production of Chanticleer and the Fox at Ashby-de-la-Zouch castle Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ... François Rabelais (ca. ... Gargantua and Pantagruel is a connected series of five books written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. ... Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, writer and lecturer. ... [Date: 1601. ... Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 - October 29, 1995) was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer. ... This article is about the book, the character, and the film. ... Roger Vadim (January 26, 1928 - February 10, 2000), was a journalist, author, actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who launched Brigitte Bardots career in the film And God Created Woman. ... Russell Albion Russ Meyer (March 21, 1922–September 18, 2004) was an American motion picture director. ...

The word ribald was originally a noun and referred to a military unit found in French and Italian armies in the Middle Ages. Ribalds, led by their "king," were vagrants or other lower-class members of society, who fought with little or no clothing, and whose main objective seems to have been to expose themselves to the enemy in order to digust or shame them. They were usually massacred by the enemy, but they were considered an expendable unit, to be used before the real battle began. They were also in charge of any prostitutes following an army, and were responsible for pillaging enemy camps. By the 16th century, the more familiar definition of "ribald" had developed, to the dismay of those who remembered them as a respected military unit. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

See also: Ruth Wallis Ruth Wallis was a singer from Brooklyn, New York. ...