comedy of errors

Meanings

1. A comedy in which the humour is due to misinterpretations, mistaken identity, etc.
2. A series of amusing or farcical events involving awkward missteps or other mistakes.

Etymology

From comedy + of + errors, probably coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (c. 1564 – 1616) as the title of the play The Comedy of Errors (written c. 1594; published 1623), about two sets of identical twins separated at birth who are involved in a series of mistaken identities.