"Sketch" in Spanish?

Question

I was reading Polònia dedica su sketch final a Junqueras y los exconsellers encarcelados, where they talk about the Catalan TV show where a sketch about jailed politicians took place.

We all know what a sketch is in a context of TV shows:

a short play or slight dramatic performance, as one forming part of a vaudeville program.

(Thesaurus.com)

However, I struggle to find a correspondence in Spanish. Even WordReference mentions sketch as the "standard" translation into Spanish.

I thought about corto, short for cortometraje, but this applies to movies.

Is there any native Spanish word for sketch?

Answer 1

To add to Charlie's answer, the correspondence in Spanish is the accepted anglicism sketch. From DRAE:

sketch

Voz ingl.

1. m. Escena breve, normalmente cómica, que con otras de las mismas características se integra en un conjunto teatral, cinematográfico o televisivo.

Which could indicate that there is no direct equivalent in Spanish.

It is indeed difficult to find in Spanish something that conveys at the same time "Escena breve" and "cómica" which could be applied to either theater, cinema or TV, since for example número

6. m. Cada una de las partes o actuaciones de que se compone el programa de un espectáculo público

doesn't convey brevity nor the essence of humor. Same with acto in its fourth aception (Cada una de las partes principales en que se pueden dividir las obras escénicas.)

But you also have farsa

farsa

1. f. Obra de teatro cómica, generalmente breve y de carácter satírico.

which as Chalie's answer originally applies to theater, but probably can be used in other media like TV, cinema or Internet. Similarly

sainete

1. m. Obra teatral en uno o más actos, frecuentemente cómica, de ambiente y personajes populares, que se representa como función independiente.

2. m. Pieza dramática en un acto, de carácter popular y burlesco, que se representaba como intermedio o al final de una función.

which could apply better in this case due to the connotations of using "popular characters".

Answer 2

Por recuperar un término algo desusado, ¿qué tal este?

entremés

2. m. Pieza teatral de carácter cómico y de un solo acto, que originalmente se representaba en el entreacto de una comedia.

Vale que el término se usa en televisión y no en el teatro, pero a fin de cuentas hablamos de piezas de corta duración en las que actores interpretan papeles cómicos.

Answer 3

Of course there is a Spanish word for "sketch". However, the Spanish word is not used commonly. "Sketch" is more used.

Comedians in Mexico use "sketch" as a normal word and will frown upon more proper words, like entremés (a very old word from the XVI century), for instance.