“This character is attended by his zany, who is wearing a chequered harlequin outfit and is quacking or puffing his master's wares.”

“He is the zany of his own fellowship, the confirmed eater of la Vache enragée, the half-educated person who could not scrape through a Surgeons' Hall examination in science, and who in literature made the blunder of sneering at Drayton.”

“And how all this zaniness can convey such a thoughtful analysis of the sensitive subject is part of the novel's mystique.”

“Yes, that's a lot of boilerplate sitcom zaniness, but the show frequently rises above the usual humdrum with sharp writing and great character work.”

“However, their rat-a-tat zaniness is a function of the genre, evidenced by virtually everyone in a screwball movie.”

“At Zanies last May she sportively bickered with the vocal crowd.”