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The Guide to Slapstick Comedy
The Guide to Slapstick Comedy
Slapstick comedy has been one of the oldest and simplest forms of
entertainment, and is a type of entertainment that tries to reach people by the
most basic forms – physical comedy. Whether it is a pratfall, a pie in the
face, somebody turning and hitting someone in the head or any number of other
forms of physical comedy, slapstick comedy is one form of entertainment that can
be understood without words.
Slapstick comedy has been around in various
forms for centuries. One of the simplest forms of entertainment is doing
physical comedy to make people laugh. In the United States, slapstick
comedy had been a key component of vaudeville entertainment acts. And, when
motion pictures started to appear some of the most popular early movies were
silent movies where the actors needed to entertain without the use of
words. One of the ways the new medium became entertaining to patrons was
through the use of slapstick comedy.
The silent movies and the slapstick
form of comedy that was commonly used in the silent movies, created new
stars. Performers such as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and
the Keystone Kops became popular performers in the 1920’s through the use of
slapstick comedy. As talking pictures started to appear in the 30’s and
40’s a new batch of movie stars began to shine in a new era of slapstick comedy
– physical comedy along with words. Performers such as Laurel and Hardy,
Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges began to make
movies which featured a large amount of physical comedy.
While the use
of slapstick comedy in movies and television had diminished during the later
stages of the 20th Century, elements of physical comedy continue to
appear in shows and movies. While the heyday of slapstick comedy may be
behind us, the current crop of television and movie directors will periodically
pay homage to the masters of slapstick by putting references to slapstick and
physical comedy in their performances.
Despite the fact that slapstick
comedy has declined since the silent movie era, many resources on this classic
entertainment model exists. We have collected a selection of slapstick and
physical comedy resources to help you remember the heyday of this comedy genre.
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