sight gag

noun

1. a comic effect produced by visual means rather than by spoken lines, as in a play or motion picture.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sight gag¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Robinson and Kanin find a conceit, whether it’s a sight gag or a scenario, and keep escalating the ridiculousness of it well past the standard threshold of appropriateness.

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But the film noir lighting on Anderson’s eyes is spot-on, as are two sight gags that are built around the set’s extreme shadows.

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Unfortunately, the way she’s deployed as a sight gag makes it hard to take her seriously when it counts.

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At the retirement home, everybody’s got problems — memory loss, cancer, loneliness — but these darker moments alternate with sight gags, punchlines and snarky wisecracks in a way that somehow feels cohesive.

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And the “memoir” we’re invited to observe is a wounding one, rife with heartbreak and trauma — but also, as it turns out, raunchy humor and slapstick pratfalls, literate puns and winking sight gags.

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