slapstick
[slap-stik]
- broad comedy characterized by boisterous action, as the throwing of pies in actors' faces, mugging, and obvious farcical situations and jokes.
- a stick or lath used by harlequins, clowns, etc., as in pantomime, for striking other performers, especially a combination of laths that make a loud, clapping noise without hurting the person struck.
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- using, or marked by the use of, broad farce and horseplay: a slapstick motion picture.
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Origin of slapstick
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for slapstick
Contemporary Examples
Asian slapstick humor does not translate well, and most of the captive audience agreed, although they grudgingly watched it.
Mr. Mayall, who was married with three children, was famed for his slapstick routines.
A botched center-right leadership election on Nov. 18 verged on slapstick.
Like any form of slapstick, its greatest burden is its obviousness.
Correction: This article initially misidentified Slap Shot as Slapstick.
Historical Examples
It frequently happens that a comedian will get after a writer with a stuffed club or a slapstick.
The Fiction FactoryJohn Milton Edwards
Sloppy sentimentality and slapstick farce ought to bore us frightfully, especially if we have any sense of humor.
Her enthusiasm for the slapstick artist provoked him, but at the same time that gay laughter tickled his ears pleasantly.
The Purple HeightsMarie Conway Oemler
Don Marquis recognizes as well as any one the value of the slapstick as a mirth-provoking instrument.
ShandygaffChristopher Morley
There was a moment when the slapstick comedy grazed red tragedy.
The Fighting EdgeWilliam MacLeod Raine
slapstick
- comedy characterized by horseplay and physical action
- (as modifier)slapstick humour
- 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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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for slapstick
n.
also slap-stick, originally (1896) a device consisting of two sticks fastened together so as to slap loudly when a clown or actor hits somebody with it, or to make a sound-effect offstage; from slap and stick (n.). As an adjective by 1906. Meaning "farcical physical comedy, horseplay" (1916) is short for slapstick comedy or humor.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper