How to Use absurdism in a Sentence

absurdism

noun
  • His early work was just bizarre and full of non-sequiturs and absurdism.
    John Wenzel, The Know, 5 Apr. 2017
  • Yet the film still has a sense of anarchic absurdism, an I-can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that feeling of shock and delight.
    Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 4 Feb. 2022
  • This wouldn’t have been a bad thing, though perhaps the Tom Hanks–centric premise would’ve been stretched deeper into absurdism the longer the show goes.
    Vulture, 11 Mar. 2022
  • In short, this is a premise steeped in absurdism or originated out of a gigantic bong, one or the other.
    Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 July 2019
  • Theirs is a world of absurdism and extremes, but one which the filmmaking duo is determined to approach with an open mind.
    Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 24 Mar. 2022
  • In the first episode, he’s caught on cellphone video executing a fast Sieg Heil salute while discussing fascism and absurdism.
    Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 26 Aug. 2021
  • As an extra touch of morbid absurdism, if enough people text in support of a pardon, and Mona in fact absolves, the show’s sponsors will pay the blood money.
    Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2020
  • From the initial thread’s premise in commodity (or financial?) absurdism, the replies just got stranger.
    Robert Hackett, Fortune, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Quentin Dupieux’s glum absurdist fable gives absurdism a bad name.
    Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2020
  • While the Dead’s songs embrace many qualities, absurdism is, most decidedly, not one of them.
    George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Oct. 2021
  • In its essence, the collection is about expressing absurdism.
    Allyson Portee, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 June 2024
  • Bill's classroom lecture on fascism and absurdism inspires a meme.
    Koritha Mitchell, CNN, 26 Aug. 2021
  • Elsewhere, the film feels a little determined in its minimalism, a little too cute in its brushes of absurdism.
    Guy Lodge, Variety, 12 Aug. 2022
  • Part of the philosophy of absurdism is that humans have an innate desire for meaning, which comes into conflict with the fact that there is no deeper meaning in the world, nothing to tell us what to do or how to live.
    Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2021
  • Sorry to Bother You’s absurdism and energy translates into blocky, bright pink type.
    Eliza Brooke, Vox, 12 Nov. 2018
  • His absurdism was retweeted into my feed nearly every day.
    Longreads, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Ghostface has a knack for emotional honesty and upbeat absurdism that’s matched by Raekwon’s sterner, harsher mafioso tales.
    Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 3 June 2021
  • At times, Hruska and the director, Rick Lombardo, seem to reach for Beckettian absurdism, but, no, that’s just bumbling storytelling.
    The New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2017
  • The influential 1986 series Takeshi’s Castle hit upon a mix of absurdism and cruelty that became a template for most modern TV games.
    Joel Warner, WIRED, 19 Nov. 2012
  • During a lecture on fascism and absurdism, a possibly hung over Bill impulsively salutes Hitler as a not-quite-a-joke, not-exactly-a-reference.
    Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2021
  • And the aesthetic of the circus — captivating, grotesque and delightfully retro — had long precedent in the arts, as well, from Alexander Calder’s miniature circus models to the life-as-circus absurdism of the films of Federico Fellini.
    Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Fantasy author Erin Lindsey was amused by Avenue 5‘s zany absurdism, but prefers the humor of Veep, which operates on many different levels.
    Geek's Guide To The Galaxy, WIRED, 23 Apr. 2021
  • Led by the excellent, hang-dog Monaghan, a top theater performer, the entire cast nails helmer Doherty’s tone of deadpan absurdism that wouldn’t be out of place in an Aki Kaurismaki film, although there’s far more dialogue here.
    Alissa Simon, Variety, 13 Feb. 2022
  • At times, the authorities’ dedication to the veneer of public engagement verged on absurdism.
    New York Times, 24 Sep. 2021
  • Some jarring comic absurdism is added through the unusually obtrusive presence of Aunt March’s parrot.
    New York Times, 11 May 2018
  • There are times that the absurdism can become a little hamfisted – a caper involving a disgruntled drug dealer, for example, devolves into a scene that is more befitting an episode of Shameless than Mo.
    Shamira Ibrahim, refinery29.com, 6 Sep. 2022
  • Baker employs a similarly light touch with the absurdism that comes preloaded on speculative fiction.
    Melissa Holbrook Pierson, Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2020
  • The 1986 set displayed her easygoing, pseudo-airheaded wit—think Dory from Finding Nemo—with punch lines fusing absurdism and banality.
    Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 23 Aug. 2020
  • Maybe the funniest movie on this entire list is Wet Hot American Summer, which came out to mixed/negative reviews but has since become a universally-beloved comedy/absurdism classic.
    Evan Romano, Men's Health, 9 Mar. 2022
  • The auteurs of Herz’s generation made audacious films that mix absurdism and the grotesque in oblique allegories of life under totalitarianism.
    Jeremy Lybarger, The New York Review of Books, 20 Apr. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'absurdism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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