Gracioso

{{Short description|Stock character, in Spanish classical theater}}

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The gracioso ({{IPA|es|ɡɾaˈθjoso|pron}}) is a clown or jester in Spanish comedy of the 16th century. Clarín, the clown in Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Life is a dream is recognized as a gracioso.

Benjamin Ivry describes the gracioso as "scatological, sexual, anti-feminist, anti-Semitic, and a vehicle for wild, anti-heroic satire. A gross trickster with license to every obscenity, a gracioso could also be poignant, but mostly he burlesqued eroticism by declaring as identical hermaphrodites, homosexuals and eunuchs .{{Cite book|title=Maurice Ravel: A Life|last=Ivry|first=Benjamin|publisher=Welcome Rain Publishers|year=2000|isbn=1-56649-152-5|location=New York, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mauriceravel00benj/page/44 44]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mauriceravel00benj/page/44}}

Northrop Frye identified him as a type of tricky slave.

Alborada del gracioso, the fourth movement of Miroirs (1904–05) by Maurice Ravel, is a musical portrait of a gracioso.