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slapstick
(redirected from Slapstick comedy)

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.03 sec.

slapstick

Comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to strike another. Slapstick comedy became popular in 19th-century music halls and vaudeville theatres and was carried into the 20th century by silent-movie comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops and later by Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges.


slapstick
1. 
a. comedy characterized by horseplay and physical action
b. (as modifier): slapstick humour
2. a flexible pair of paddles bound together at one end, formerly used in pantomime to strike a blow to a person with a loud clapping sound but without injury


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There is some slapstick comedy along with poignant moments as Rachel comes to learn about herself while she cares for a woman who cannot tell her own story.
You can't get any hipper than Burbank,'' said Gary Owens, the Radio Hall of Famer whose phrase ``from beautiful downtown Burbank'' was heard through the 1960s and 1970s on the cult TV slapstick comedy show ``Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' and on Johnny Carson's ``Tonight Show.
The opening chapter, "Dad in Trouble," is a slapstick comedy involving a lost parakeet ("budgie" in British) named Deathwing, Lord of the Skies; a piano tuner; an open window; and a homemade trap featuring netting, twine, a hula hoop, and a toasting fork.
 
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