Atellan Farce

The Atellan Farce (Latin: Atellanae fabulae or fabulae Atellanae, "Atellan fables"; Atellanicum exhodium, "Atellan roast"), also known as the Oscan Games (Latin: ludi Osci, "Oscan plays"), were a collection of vulgar farces, containing lots of low or buffoonish comedy and rude jokes. It was very popular in Ancient Rome, and usually put on after longer plays like the pantomime. Named after Atella, an Oscan town in Campania, where they were invented, they were originally written in Oscan and imported into Rome in 391 BC. In later Roman versions, only the ridiculous characters read their lines in Oscan, while the others used Latin.

Played by young men of good family, the stock characters included:

These later formed the basis for characters of the Commedia dell'arte, as well as Punch and Judy. Largely improvised, the Atellan Farce was performed after tragedies and represented the habits of the lower classes (as the upper classes saw them).