In Samuel Beckett's plays, the constant repetitiveness and infiniteness of everything, unending routine (Hamm's chair rides around the room, Clov's promises of departure in 'Endgame'; endless waiting in 'Waiting for Godot') create the atmosphere of farce. The events keep on repeating, even though the characters claim to be willing to finish with them.

Comedy in Beckett's works is an illustration of his view on human nature; he believed comedy to be rooted into our pathetic nature. Beckett combined deep, philosophical thoughts with low comedy to picture that.

Farce in Harold Pinter's plays is also based on repetitiveness (in 'The Dumb Waiter'), but it relies on silence and the way his characters talk to each other as well (both 'The Dumb Waiter' and 'The Birthday Party'). Ben and Gus in 'The Dumb Waiter' talk only to, never with each other, often with significant pauses. In 'The Birthday Party', the characters keep on contradicting each others' (and their own) words.

Both 'The Dumb Waiter' and 'The Birthday Party' are comedies of menace. In 'The Dumb Waiter' comedy often derives from arguments between Ben and Gus, concerning semantic nit-picking (lighting the kettle and so on).

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