Unpopular comedic pieces about Republican fringes (9)
I believe the answer is:
outskirts
'fringes' is the definition.
(I know this)
'unpopular comedic pieces about republican' is the wordplay.
'unpopular' becomes 'out' (similar in meaning).
'comedic pieces' becomes 'skits' (a skit is a comedic sketch or routine).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'skits' going around 'r' is 'skirts'.
'out'+'skirts'='OUTSKIRTS'
(Other definitions for outskirts that I've seen before include "area away from town centre" , "Fringes of a city" , "Periphery" , "surrounding area" , "Suburbs" .)