pleasantry

pleasantry
    n 1: an agreeable or amusing remark; "they exchange
         pleasantries"
    

Pleasantry \Pleas"ant*ry\, n.; pl. {Pleasantries}. [F.
   plaisanterie. See {Pleasant}.]
   That which denotes or promotes pleasure or good humor;
   cheerfulness; gayety; merriment; especially, an agreeable
   playfulness in conversation; a jocose or humorous remark;
   badinage.
   [1913 Webster]

         The grave abound in pleasantries, the dull in repartees
         and points of wit.                       --Addison.
   [1913 Webster]

         The keen observation and ironical pleasantry of a
         finished man of the world.               --Macaulay.
   [1913 Webster]
    

132 Moby Thesaurus words for "pleasantry":
      Atticism, affability, agile wit, agreeability, agreeableness,
      amenity, amiability, amicability, aphorism, apothegm, badinage,
      banter, black humor, bliss, blissfulness, bon mot, boutade,
      bright idea, bright thought, brilliance, brilliant idea, burlesque,
      caricature, chaff, cleverness, comedy, compatibility, complaisance,
      conceit, congeniality, cordiality, crack, dry wit, enjoyableness,
      epigram, esprit, exchange, facetiae, facetiousness, farce,
      felicitousness, flash of wit, flight of wit, fooling,
      fooling around, funniness, geniality, gibe, give-and-take,
      good-natured banter, goodliness, goodness, graciousness,
      happy thought, harmless teasing, harmoniousness, humor,
      humorousness, irony, jape, jest, jive, jocoseness, jocularity,
      joke, joking, josh, joshing, keen-wittedness, keenness, kidding,
      kidding around, lampoon, mellifluousness, mellowness, mot,
      nasty crack, niceness, nimble wit, nimble-wittedness, parody,
      persiflage, play of wit, pleasance, pleasantness, pleasingness,
      pleasurability, pleasurableness, pleasure, pleasurefulness,
      pretty wit, pungency, quick wit, quick-wittedness, quip,
      quips and cranks, raillery, rallying, rapport, ready wit, repartee,
      retort, ridicule, riposte, sally, salt, saltiness, sarcasm, satire,
      savor of wit, scintillation, sharpness, slapstick, slapstick humor,
      smart crack, smart saying, smartness, snappy comeback, sport,
      squib, stroke of wit, subtle wit, sweetness, travesty,
      turn of thought, twit, visual humor, welcomeness, wisecrack, wit,
      witticism, wittiness