They did so in bitter earnest or with merciless wit or however they felt like it.
One particular bugbear of mine is comic plays where the men monopolise the wit, and the women are earnest, heartfelt or (worst of all) long-suffering.
Earnest, idealistic, but with a self-deprecating wit, Blinder was out to save the world from returning to that dark period in the Reagan era when supply-side ideologues ruled the roost and "nonsense was worshipped as gospel".
The UKIP leader made a few jokes - but it was an earnest, and at times, impassioned battle of wits between two politicians who, despite being former colleagues as MEPs in Brussels, are diametrically opposed on the European Union.
Still, with a crustily avuncular Hal Linden milking the central role of a survivor who masks his lingering grief and anger in wiseacre wit, the production does achieve an earnest pedagogy.
The work of several hands, assembled at high speed, it often leaves Mandelson's own voice drowned out by an earnest worthiness at odds with his characteristic private wit and self-proclaimed "licence to shock".
In February , 1984 under the influence of a boyfriend who fancied himself a Wildean wit, I read "The Importance of Being Earnest".
Despite some halfhearted attempts at wit, "The Day Reagan Was Shot" is an earnest look at what happened when John W. Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in March 1981.
Travis and Will are integral players of "End of the World Party," as are the younger characters: Phil (the believably earnest Brian Cooper and Chip Adam Simmonsns, fine as the cute kid with a dim wit).
But wit isn't Goldsmith's conspicuous style, he's earnest and wholesome, a lifelong green.
