Strick finally returned to Ireland last year, to direct a bawdy comedy by Aristophanes in Cork, and says he found the country "transformed".

And to write the same bawdy comedy that male colleagues were succeeding with so brilliantly was to err beyond the bounds of decency.

Corbett found himself only receiving offers for bawdy comedies or loose parodies of his alter-ego Harold.

Perhaps his most inspired idea was casting Mo'Nique, known for her bawdy stand-up comedy, as Precious's mother.

The biggest change Robbins made was a new opening number to replace "Love Is in the Air" and introduce the show as a bawdy, wild comedy.

But this bawdy comedy is no period piece - the targets of the jokes make sure of that.

The sequence is preposterous, set up as feeble, bawdy comedy.

Fox, once a bastion of bawdy black comedy, has nearly completed its transformation to a whiter shade of pale.

Stylistically, plays ranged from straight plays to operas and from bawdy comedies to epic tragedies.

As it happens, bets on bawdy female-driven comedies are being placed across the board.