sicknik

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noun

Any of a group of American comedians, first popular in the 1950s, who employed cynicism, satire, and observational comedy rather than inoffensive traditional jokes.

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Meanings

nounsicknik (plural sickniks)

plural sickniks

  1. historicalslangAny of a group of American comedians, first popular in the 1950s, who employed cynicism, satire, and observational comedy rather than inoffensive traditional jokes.

    What the sickniks dispense is partly social criticism liberally laced with cyanide, partly a Charles Addams kind of jolly ghoulishness, and partly a personal and highly disturbing hostility toward all the world.

    1959 July 13, “The Sickniks”, in Time, →ISSN

Origin

From sick + -nik.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sicknik. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sicknik

MLA

“sicknik.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sicknik. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sicknik,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sicknik.

Source: sicknik on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.