Preposition: of

• game: The Clarets duly took part in this farce of a game in 1974 against Leicester City having lost to Newcastle in the semi-final.

• election: The same assurances could be made by big business in this country in the run-up to a farce of an election on 7 June.

Converse of object

• become: The campaign became a farce from that point on.

• write: Gogol, described as " the Russian Dickens " , wrote this monumental farce about human greed and folly in 1835.

• end: End the farce of half a dozen agencies all spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on problem families.

• make: Actors wanted who can make a farce out of the police.

• have: We hope soon to have another farce from the same author.

• do: The producer was the most unlikely man to do a comedy farce.

Adjective modifier

• knockabout: It can be played successfully for knockabout farce, sweet sentimentality or dark irony.

• hilarious: Kafka's hilarious farces would be packing the West End.

• tragic: This tragic farce was alleviated by the administrative creativity of Lieutenant-Colonel Davidson.

• utter: Mr Bradley said, " It was a complete and utter farce.

• pure: With its charming final reunions evading any profound questions about the nature of identity, this Comedy was pure farce.

• classic: The cast, for all their virtues, unfortunately failed to extract the full humor of this classic farce.

Noun used with modifier

• comedy: The producer was the most unlikely man to do a comedy farce.

• bedroom: Although the degeneration of the Clinton administration into a bedroom farce will make the situation worse, it is not the fundamental cause.

• sex: Bo Derek's appearance in the popular sex farce shot her to instant stardom and status as a sex symbol.

• police: We meant of course that Mr Nicolme is a detective in the police farce.

• slapstick: In a few hours they are to launch their provincial tour of " Nothing On, " a slapstick farce.

• stage: A slow-paced fantasy comedy, reminiscent of the early Aldwych stage farces.