Pierrot is a familiar figure in traditional mime, has a whitened face, voluminous white garments with large buttons, and a pointed hat. The figure originated as Pedrolino, a wily servant in the commedia dell'arte; the actor Giuseppe Giaratone, who played Pierrot in a 1665 production of Moliere's Don Juan, added the costume. The 19th-century mime Jean Deburau transformed Pierrot into the comic yet pathetic character recognized today. Pierrot is also the protagonist of a French song, Au clair de la lune.

Actors studied a single role, becoming identified with it on and off stage. They were trained in mime and acrobatics, and studied Italian dialects and the classics for use in monologues. Though some speeches were memorized, most were improvised on stage. Often the plot was interrupted by lazzi, which consisted of comic business, jokes, and witty byplay performed by the zanni. Ensemble playing was essential.

The plays of Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi brought the commedia to an end. At first they improvised and used commedia characters and masks, but they later developed written comedies, literary in style, dispensing with masks and reducing the number of commedia characters. The commedia continues its influence in Charlie Chaplin's comedies, Marcel Marceau's mimes and English Christmas pantomime.