Slapstick

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.

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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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Slapstick 

in the circus, theater, and motion pictures and on the variety stage, a highly comic method of portraying life. Slapstick involves behavior that is illogical and departs radically from generally accepted norms. It may include the bizarre use of props, for example, the playing of musical works on saws, frying pans, or brooms with strings stretched over them and with a resonator made from an ox bladder.