noun

• 1mass noun Comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.

  ‘slapstick humour’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Families enjoyed the fun-filled evening of good music, slapstick comedy and all-around entertainment.’
  • ‘The film is billed as a sophisticated comedy that gleefully mixes slapstick humour, with something a little more grown-up for all viewers.’
  • ‘It is a comedy with both slapstick and verbal humour.’
  • ‘But a lot of the comedy is silly slapstick stuff, with people hitting each other with balloons and getting into fights.’
  • ‘But it should not be reduced to something showing slapstick comedies and lewd jokes.’
  • ‘As one expects of Elton, it's all done with slapstick humour, parody, irony and lots of absurd action.’
  • ‘The tone, which veers from slapstick comedy to mawkish melodrama, is as volatile as nitroglycerine.’
  • ‘A lack of imagination on the part of the writer, the director and the actors results in slapstick comedy and innuendoes in dialogues.’
  • ‘Such typical comedy tricks such as speeding up the film, slapstick humor, and wacky looks are all present here.’
  • ‘His movements, reactions and slapstick comedy were a treat to watch.’
  • ‘This satirical, slapstick comedy is a feel-good film that is effortless to watch.’
  • ‘What follows from here is unbridled mawkishness interrupted by some slapstick comedy.’
  • ‘We are fed up of slapstick comedies and dialogues filled with double meaning.’
  • ‘This is aiming to be a sort of slapstick comedy but, as you say, it's very intermittent.’
  • ‘A series of slapstick events leave both penniless and on the run, where they form a grudging bond.’
  • ‘It would be funny, like one of the old silent slapsticks.’
  • ‘The script is dreadful - even the slapstick fails to raise a smile.’
  • ‘John giggled at the slapstick, not quite understanding what all of the fear in the air was about.’
  • ‘Their happy laughter rang down the tunnel as they appreciated the irony, or failing that, the slapstick.’
  • ‘Every joke in the film works for me, even the slapstick at the sidewalk cafe and the barge, and I'm not a big fan of physical comedy.’

  Synonyms

  humorous, funny, droll, amusing, entertaining, diverting, absurd, ridiculous, comical, chucklesome, farcical, silly, slapstick, hilarious, uproarious, hysterical, hysterically funny, zany
• 2A device consisting of two flexible pieces of wood joined together at one end, used by clowns and in pantomime to produce a loud slapping noise.

  ‘a loud and exhilarating rattle of bladders and slapsticks’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The paddles turned out to be harmless slapsticks, with holes through the actual paddle part so they could cause a loud slapping noise without hurting.’
  • ‘I'll slap her upside the head one of these days, and not with a slapstick.’
  • ‘Jerry whacked at the old soldier's head with a sympathetic slapstick.’