In old slang, a hot sketch (simple sketch for short) was “amusing, ridiculous person” (1909). It turns up first in descriptions of stage entertainment, and a theatrical help-wanted ad from 1906 seeks “a good hot sketch team” for “all circus and vaudeville lines.”

Skit, 1820, “piece of light satire or caricature, lampoon,” from the earlier sense of “a satirical remark or reflection” (1727), which apparently is from an earlier still sense of “a light wench; a vain, frivolous, or wanton girl” (1570s, originally Scottish, now archaic).

retvrn to tradition