slapstick
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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
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
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.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.