entremés

An entremés is a short farce used as an entertaining interval between the first and second acts of a comedia. It is thought that the entremés (derived from the Italian intermezzo) was first performed on the Spanish stage in the 16th century and derives from the influential Italian Commedia dell'Arte. Often using slapstick, stock characters and situations, entremeses had enormous audience appeal and were written by such distinguished writers as Miguel de Cervantes.