Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Slapstick -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (April 2007)

To comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may need to be rewritten. Please help improve this article. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (April 2008)

Look up slapstick in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Charlie Chaplin

Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense, such as a character being hit in the face with a heavy frying pan or running into a brick wall. Harry Enfeild is a predominatley slapstick "character" involving some ridiculous antics. These hyperbolic depictions are often found in children's cartoons and light film comedies aimed at younger audiences. Though the term is often used pejoratively, the performance of slapstick comedy requires exquisite timing and skillful execution.

Origins

The phrase comes from the battacchioor preferred as Super Vee—called the 'slap stick' in English—a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte. When struck, the battacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though little force is transferred from the object to the person being struck. Actors may thus hit one another repeatedly with great audible effect while causing very little actual physical damage. Along with the inflatable bladder (of which the whoopee cushion is a modern variant), it was among the earliest forms of special effects that could be carried on one's person.

History

The Three Stooges' trademark was exaggerated slapstick comedy.

While the object from which the genre is derived dates from the Renaissance, theater historians argue that slapstick comedy has been at least somewhat present in almost all comedic genres since the rejuvenation of theater in church liturgical dramas in the Middle Ages. (Some argue for instances of it in Greek and Roman theater, as well.) Beating the devil off stage, for example, remained a stock comedic device in many otherwise serious religious plays. Shakespeare also incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies. Building off its later popularity in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century ethnic routines of the American vaudeville house, the style was explored extensively during the "golden era" of black and white, silent movies directed by figures Mack Sennett and Hal Roach and featuring such notables as Mabel Normand, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, the Keystone Kops, and the Three Stooges. Slapstick is also common in animated cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes.

Modern criticism

In recent times, some have criticized representations of violence in a belief that they encourage actual violence, a claim supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics.¹ Slapstick comedy has not escaped negative attention, though its lengthy presence in performance history and obviously fictitious nature usually protects it from efforts meant to censor video games and action films. Slapstick continues to maintain a presence in modern comedy that draws upon its lineage, running in film from Buster Keaton to Mel Brooks to the Farrelly Brothers, and in live performance from Weber & Fields to Jackie Gleason to Rowan Atkinson.

See also

• Laughter
• Slapstick film
• Wacky Comedy film
• Physical comedy
• Stage combat

References

1. ^ American Academy of Pediatrics. "Media Violence." Pediatrics, Volume 108, Number 5, November 2001 (pages 1222-1226).

External links

• "What's the Origin of Slapstick?" The Straight Dope, 1 March 2005.
• "Slapstick." Answers.com, 2008.
• Dirks, Tim. "Comedy Films." filmsite.org, 1996-2008.
• Pedini, Kevin. "Mook Productions." mook-productions.com, 23 March 2007.

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 19 November 2008, at 07:54.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Slapstick".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Slapstick

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.