What's the difference between comical and laughable?

Comical


Definition:

  • (a.) Relating to comedy.
  • (a.) Exciting mirth; droll; laughable; as, a comical story.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Because such a possibility seems so remote as to be comic.
  • (2) NGOs and foundations • Comic Relief Announced new funding of £1m at the conference.
  • (3) After heading for Rome with his long-term partner, Howard Auster, he returned to fiction with a bestselling novel, Julian, based on the life of a late Roman emperor; a political novel, Washington DC, based on his own family; and Myra Breckinridge, a subversive satire that examined contradictions of gender and sexuality with enough comic brio to become a worldwide bestseller.
  • (4) The trip raised millions for Comic Relief but prompted some uncharitable headlines after it emerged in July that Parfitt had billed the taxpayer £541.83 for "specialist clothing" – and a further £26.20 for the cost of picking it up in a cab.
  • (5) In October, Amazon announces a digital partnership with DC Comics, prompting Barnes & Noble to remove its comic books from its shelves.
  • (6) "The only thing missing for true greatness however has been that comical touch that comes each time England figure out a new way to completely discombobulate themselves as they crash out.
  • (7) Comic writing can be a brutal, unforgiving business, yet it can produce great and multi-layered prose, combining comedy, pathos and satire.
  • (8) Through small and large acts of deprivation and destruction we follow the process: the removal of hope, of dignity, of luxury, of necessity, of self; the reduction of a man to a hoarder of grey slabs of bread and the scrapings of a soup bowl (wonderfully told all this, with a novelist's gift for detail and sometimes very nearly comic surprise), to the confinement of a narrow bed – in which there is "not even any room to be afraid" – with a stranger who doesn't speak your language, to the cruel illogicality of hating a fellow victim of oppression more than you hate the oppressor himself – one torment following another, and even the bleak comfort of thinking you might have touched rock bottom denied you as, when the most immediate cause of a particular stress comes to an end, "you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others".
  • (9) In 2000 the comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm showed an owl in a tree calling "Whom" and a raccoon on the ground replying "Show-off!"
  • (10) That's in 1888; by 1890 the tone is of comic resignation (there is much comedy in these pages) as Edmond realises that he has devoted the whole of his life "to a special sort of literature: the sort that brings one trouble".
  • (11) He will continue to work part time for BBC radio on leadership development and take on an advisory role with Comic Relief.
  • (12) iPhone Shifter: Interactive Graphic Novel (Free) What was that about interesting things in the world of digital comics?
  • (13) Ian Livingstone is not all that keen on being photographed near the life-sized model of Lara Croft in his study – even though he was largely responsible for launching her on the world nearly 20 years ago, and the heroine of the Tomb Raider video games, comics and films helped to make his fortune.
  • (14) Trump’s tragic Nam story is captured in the film Apocalypse Ow.” On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the comic examined the timing of Trump’s Nordstrom tweet, noting that it came just 21 minutes after he was supposed to be in his daily intelligence briefing.
  • (15) "I'm not going to suddenly stop admiring his unique comic talent because I've switched teams," Allen told the Guardian.
  • (16) Between festivals, Hardee played cameo roles in TV comedies such as Blackadder and The Comic Strip, and ran his own comedy club, the Tunnel, which he had opened at the southern end of the Blackwall Tunnel in 1984; it acquired a fearsome reputation as a graveyard for aspiring standups.
  • (17) The ex-comic ruled out giving a crucial confidence vote in parliament to a centre-left government and reiterated that the M5S's new legion of deputies and senators would vote on laws on a case-by-case basis.
  • (18) There have always been geeks and fans here, it’s just now they call it Comic-Con.
  • (19) Zack Snyder's comic-book reimagining, which opens in the UK and US this Friday, is being tipped for an impressive box office haul.
  • (20) His comic adventures are too many to relate, but it may be said that they culminate in a café of 'singing waiters' where, after a wealth of comic 'business' with the tray, he shows his disdain for articulate speech by singing a vividly explicit song in gibberish.

Laughable


Definition:

  • (a.) Fitted to excite laughter; as, a laughable story; a laughable scene.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But yesterday the Tories said the move was laughable as the number of quangos had risen dramatically since Labour came to power in 1997, despite a promise by Gordon Brown in opposition of a "bonfire of the quangos".
  • (2) The finishing today as been laughable from both sides.
  • (3) The idea of having a nice glass of milk and a bath to help me sleep would be laughable.
  • (4) Yet, there is no doubt that All Star has been targeted for its specific qualities – the main ones being its feelgood nostalgia value and a laughably exuberant pop-punk style that feels totally earnest.
  • (5) After referring to Salmond's previous role as a horse racing tipster for the News of the World when Brooks was editor, Gray said: "SNP claims that these meetings were to promote Scotland are laughable as it is clear they were all about promoting Alex Salmond and the SNP."
  • (6) Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible.
  • (7) The renewed debate on the nation’s constitutional future has led to some laughable abjurations from both sides.
  • (8) As for Hillary Clinton's intervention , suggesting in effect that Britain take lessons in value for money from the Pentagon, it is laughable.
  • (9) For those filling the streets of Moqattam, or the hundreds recreating the Harlem Shake in the same place last month, or the thousands who embarked on a campaign of civil disobedience in Port Said, the idea is laughable.
  • (10) The idea that New Labour or Blairism is or was social democratic is laughable.
  • (11) He says the BBC director general Mark Thompson's budget cuts "have cut flesh as well as fat" from BBC Radio, which he says is "laughably underfunded".
  • (12) Claudio Ranieri Leicester City manager A year ago his candidacy would have felt laughable given he had just lost to the Faroe Islands during a four-game spell with Greece.
  • (13) North Korea has demanded the US recognise it as a “legitimate nuclear weapons state” following its fifth and largest atomic test, adding that threats of further sanctions against the country were “laughable”.
  • (14) The case – and the laughable lack of scientific evidence for their claims – has been covered by every newspaper in the country.
  • (15) Such talk would have been laughable in the days when the US capital was dominated by one trade – politics – plagued by crime, and bitterly divided by class and race.
  • (16) But those who find Europe laughable, they must be countered, because Europe is not a lightweight.
  • (17) He told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that he was "extremely proud" of his inclusion on the list, adding that the sanctions were laughable.
  • (18) "It's absolutely laughable," said a senior government source.
  • (19) And Comey’s call for “clarity and transparency” surrounding the surveillance process wouldn’t be so laughable if the FBI wasn’t aggressively trying to hide it’s all surveillance capabilities from the public, making law enforcement sign non-disclosure agreements as they hand out invasive new spying technology, and refusing to even tell count how many times they’ve searched through the NSA’s massive databases for Americans without a warrant.
  • (20) "Within the context of record graduate unemployment and student debt, it seems laughable that university leaders are hoping for higher fees and pressing for cuts in student support."