The clown at the birthday party, the Broadway show, your friends fighting over the last potato chip–these are all forms of entertainment. From the Old French entretenir meaning “to hold together,” this activity came to mean anything that amuses, diverts, or distracts–from a circus show to Shakespeare to your friends fighting over that last potato chip. Entertainment is objective and involves communication between text and audience, possesses external stimulus, offers pleasure, requires an audience, and takes place in a passive form.