• (Canada) IPA: /bəˈfuːnəɹi/

buffoonery

1. The behaviour expected of a buffoon; foolishness, silliness.
   • 1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for Peter Buck, […], OCLC 316362426 ↗, Act II, scene ii, page 14 ↗:

     Araminta, come I'll talk ſeriouſly to you now, could you but ſee with my Eyes the buffoonry 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.

• German: Hanswursterei, Hanswurstiade, Clownerie, Possenreißerei
• Russian: шутовство́