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    Slapstick - Definition, History, & Facts - Britannica

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    Anandh Shankar
    Slapstick comedy involves broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous or violent physical action performed by skilled acrobats and stunt performers with perfect timing. It originated from the use of a "slapstick", a harmless paddle that made a loud slapping sound. Slapstick has been a part of low comedy since ancient Greek and Roman times and was featured in commedia dell'arte performances. It reached new heights of popularity in 19th century English music halls and early 20th century silent films by stars like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, who introduced chase scenes and pie throwing sped up for the camera.

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    Slapstick - Definition, History, & Facts - Britannica

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    Anandh Shankar
    130 views2 pages
    Slapstick comedy involves broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous or violent physical action performed by skilled acrobats and stunt performers with perfect timing. It originated from the use of a "slapstick", a harmless paddle that made a loud slapping sound. Slapstick has been a part of low comedy since ancient Greek and Roman times and was featured in commedia dell'arte performances. It reached new heights of popularity in 19th century English music halls and early 20th century silent films by stars like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, who introduced chase scenes and pie throwing sped up for the camera.

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    Slapstick _ Definition, History, & Facts _ Britannica

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    Slapstick comedy involves broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous or violent physical action performed by skilled acrobats and stunt performers with perfect timing. It originated from the use of a "slapstick", a harmless paddle that made a loud slapping sound. Slapstick has been a part of low comedy since ancient Greek and Roman times and was featured in commedia dell'arte performances. It reached new heights of popularity in 19th century English music halls and early 20th century silent films by stars like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, who introduced chase scenes and pie throwing sped up for the camera.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    130 views2 pages

    Slapstick - Definition, History, & Facts - Britannica

    Uploaded by

    Anandh Shankar
    Slapstick comedy involves broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous or violent physical action performed by skilled acrobats and stunt performers with perfect timing. It originated from the use of a "slapstick", a harmless paddle that made a loud slapping sound. Slapstick has been a part of low comedy since ancient Greek and Roman times and was featured in commedia dell'arte performances. It reached new heights of popularity in 19th century English music halls and early 20th century silent films by stars like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, who introduced chase scenes and pie throwing sped up for the camera.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    11/19/2017 slapstick | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica.

    com

    Slapstick, a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and
    vigorous, usually violent action. The slapstick comic, more than a mere funnyman or buffoon, must
    often be an acrobat, a stunt performer, and something of a magiciana master of uninhibited
    action and perfect timing.

    Commedia dellarte characters Harlequin (left) and Pierrot, illustration on paper, c.


    Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Gift of F.G. Waller, Amsterdam

    Outrageous make-believe violence has always been a key attraction of slapstick comedy, and,
    fittingly, the form took its name from one of its favourite weapons. A slapstick was originally a
    harmless paddle composed of two pieces of wood that slapped together to produce a resounding
    whack when the paddle struck someone. The slapstick seems to have first come into use in the
    16th century, when Harlequin, one of the principal characters of the Italian commedia dellarte,
    used it on the posteriors of his comic victims.

    The rough-and-tumble of slapstick has been a part of low comedy and farce since ancient times,
    having been a prominent feature of Greek and Roman mime, in which bald-pated, heavily padded
    clowns exchanged quips and beatings to the delight of the audience.

    The Renaissance produced the athletic zanies of the commedia dellarte and even rougher clowns,
    such as the hunchbacked, hook-nosed, wife-beating Pulcinella, who survives today as
    the Punch of childrens puppet shows.

    https://www.britannica.com/art/slapstick-comedy 1/2
    11/19/2017 slapstick | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica.com

    Slapstick reached another zenith in the English and American music halls and vaudeville theatres
    of the late 19th century, and such English stars as George Formby and Gracie Fields carried its
    popularity well into the 20th century. Motion pictures provided even greater opportunities for visual
    gags, and comedians Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Mack Sennetts Keystone
    Kops introduced such classic routines as the mad chase scene and pie throwing, often made
    doubly hilarious by speeding up the camera action. Their example was followed in sound films
    by Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges, whose stage careers predated
    their films and whose films were frequently revived beginning in the 1960s and were affectionately
    imitated by modern comedy directors. The best of the slapstick comedians may be said to have
    turned low humour into high art.

    https://www.britannica.com/art/slapstick-comedy 2/2

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