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Slapstick is a style ofhumor involvingexaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normalphysical comedy.[1] Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from physical abuse and/or inept use of props such as saws and ladders.[2][3]
The term arises from a device developed for use in the broad, physical comedy style known ascommedia dell'arte in 16th-century Italy. The "slap stick" consists of two thin slats of wood, which makes a "slap" when striking another actor, with little force needed to make a loud—and comical—sound. The physical slap stick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popularPunch and Judy puppet show. More contemporary examples of slapstick humor includeThe Three Stooges,The Naked Gun andMr. Bean.
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The name "slapstick" originates from the Italianbatacchio orbataccio—called the "slap stick" in English—a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used incommedia dell'arte. When struck, the Batacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though it is only a little force that is transferred from the object to the person being struck. Actors may thus hit one another repeatedly with great audible effect while causing no damage and only very minor, if any, pain. Along with the inflatable bladder (of which thewhoopee cushion is a modern variant), it was among the earliestspecial effects.
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Slapstick comedy's history is measured in centuries.Shakespeare incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his playThe Comedy of Errors.[4] In early 19th-century England,pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick comedy: its most famous performer,Joseph Grimaldi—the father of modernclowning—"was a master of physical comedy".[5] Comedy routines also featured heavily in Britishmusic hall theatre which became popular in the 1850s.[6][7]
InPunch and Judy shows, which first appeared in England on 9 May 1662, a large slapstick is wielded by Punch against the other characters.[8]
British comedians who honed their skills at pantomime andmusic hall sketches includeCharlie Chaplin,Stan Laurel,George Formby andDan Leno.[9][10] The English music hall comedian and theatre impresarioFred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the young comedians who worked for him as part of "Fred Karno's London Comedians".[9][11] Chaplin's fifteen-year music hall career inspired the comedy in all his later film work, especially as pantomimicry.[12] In 1904, Karno's Komics produced a new sketch for theHackney Empire in London calledMumming Birds, which included the"pie in the face" gag, in which one person hits another with a pie, among other new innovations.[11][13] Immensely popular, it became the longest-running sketch the music halls produced.[11] Chaplin and Laurel were among the music hall comedians who partook in the sketch, while Charlie's older brotherSydney was the first of the brothers to perform it for Karno.[11]
In a biography of Karno, Laurel stated: "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it".[14] American film producerHal Roach described Karno as "not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him."[15]
Building on its later popularity in the 19th and early 20th-century routines of music hall in Britain and the Americanvaudeville house, the style was explored extensively during the "golden era" of black and white movies directed by Hal Roach andMack Sennett that featured such notables as Charlie Chaplin,Mabel Normand,Abbott and Costello,Laurel and Hardy, theThree Stooges, andLarry Semon. The pie in the face gag was used extensively in this era.[16] Chaplin's 1915 filmA Night in the Show, which includes the pie in the face gag, brings one of the classic music hall comedy sketches,Mumming Birds, known asA Night in an English Music Hall when Chaplin performed it on tour, into his film work.[11] Silent slapstick comedy was also popular in early French films and included films byMax Linder,Charles Prince, andSarah Duhamel.[17]
Slapstick also became a common element in animated cartoons starting in the 1930s and 1940s; examples include Disney'sMickey Mouse andDonald Duck shorts,Walter Lantz'sWoody Woodpecker,the Beary Family, MGM'sTom and Jerry, the unrelatedTom and Jerry cartoons ofVan Beuren Studios, Warner Bros.Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, MGM'sBarney Bear, and Tex Avery'sScrewy Squirrel. Slapstick was later used in JapaneseTokusatsu TVKamen Rider Den O,Kamen Rider Gaim,Kamen Rider Drive, byBenny Hill inThe Benny Hill Show in the UK, and in the US used in the three 1960s TV series,Gilligan's Island,Batman,The Flying Nun andI Love Lucy. Hill, whose comedy sketches first appeared on British television in the early 1950s, was described by writerAnthony Burgess as "a comic genius steeped in the British music hall tradition".[18] In the 1970s, the sitcomThree's Company featured slapstick infused scenes in most episodes. In 1990,Mr. Bean, starringRowan Atkinson, debuted on British television, and, like Benny Hill, cartoons and other comedians whose "visual humour transcended language barriers" (description of Hill by theBFI), the show would be exported around the world.[19][20]
Examples of the use of the slapstick in public places as afad in the early 20th century include:
During the 1911Veiled Prophet Parade in St. Louis, according to theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch,[21]
The slapstick, so long indispensable to low comedy, found a new use among the crowds ... they used the slapstick to the extreme embarrassment of many women. The carnival spirit, for the most part tempered by high good humor, at times verged onrowdyism. Girls used a stick ripped with feathers to tickle the faces of young men, and they retaliated vigorously with the slapstick.
Aneditorial in theAsbury Park Press, New Jersey, said in 1914:[22]
Slapsticks are the latest "fun-making" fad formasque fetes ... Orders to stop the slapstick nuisance should be issued by the police and theAsbury Park carnival commissioners. Any device that cannot be operated or used without inflicting unmerited pain and injury should be excluded ...
The Comedy of Errors is a farcical tale of separated twins and mistaken identities. This slapstick play is a staple of the genre, including madcap bawdiness, love at first sight, reunions, and happily-ever-afters
One of the most popular comedians Britain has ever produced - not only in this country, but also worldwide, with his television shows having been sold to at least 109 countries (Hill's emphasis on visual humour transcending language barriers).
The buffoon-ish Bean is Atkinson's most famous export, broadcast all around the world to 245 territories, making him an international star.
The dictionary definition ofslapstick at Wiktionary
