Farcical situation originally mentioned in Tom Paine treatment (9)
I believe the answer is:
pantomime
'farcical situation' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'originally mentioned in tom paine treatment' is the wordplay.
'originally' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'treatment' is an anagram indicator (letters treated or processed differently).
The initial letter of 'mentioned' is 'm'.
'tom'+'paine'='tompaine'
'tompaine' anagrammed gives 'pantomie'.
'm' going inside 'pantomie' is 'PANTOMIME'.
(Other definitions for pantomime that I've seen before include "farce" , "'He's behind you' entertainment" , "Traditional Christmas stage show with Dame" , "Christmas theatre, usually with Dame" , "Cross-dressing theatrical" .)