History Main / Slapstick

* Woodland Animations used this a lot in their productions: ''WesternAnimation/PostmanPat'', ''WesternAnimation/Bertha'' and ''WesternAnimation/CharlieChalk'', particularly considering the latter of which revolves around a circus clown. The physical comedy in these shows is far less reliant on injuries, but would still provide considerable visual humour.

* Woodland Animations used this a lot in their productions: ''WesternAnimation/Postman Pat'', ''WesternAnimation/Bertha'' and ''WesternAnimation/Charlie Chalk'', particularly considering the latter of which revolves around a circus clown. The physical comedy in these shows is far less reliant on injuries, but would still provide considerable visual humour.

Slapstick is the essence of physical comedy--people getting hurt or embarrassed in hilarious ways (e.g. slipping and landing face first in dog crap). The defining feature of slapstick is its highly exaggerated nature, combined with a lack of serious physical consequences. ThePratfall is a staple of slapstick humor.

While slapstick is present to some degree in many comedic works; examples should be works that depend entirely or predominantly on this form of exaggerated physical comedy for their humour.

** In “The Ski Trip,” Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino ride up a chairlift without a ticket, snitch a pair of skis, erratically descend down a mountain trail while tearing up its freshly groomed surface, and engage in a [[SnowballFight snowball fight]].
** In “The Cakes,” the three pets engage in an all-out [[{{Foodfight}} food fight]], ruining the pastries Penny's mom had prepared for a bake sale.
** “The Supermarket” sees the three pets make a mess of the title venue. Bolt and Rhino break eggs and olive jars while juggling; Mittens pushes pumpkins off a shelf to ward off an intruder, knocks over a stacked can display, and scatters apples off a bin she jumps onto; the three pets cause tables offering free food samples to overturn; and Bolt makes a run for the exit door while pushing a cart into assorted food displays and smashing into the front glass door.

[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]

* ''Film/HomeAlone'': A movie with several sequels about a Kid (played by Macaulay Culkin in the first two movies) who is left at home by himself while his parents are on vacation. Two criminals try to break in. The kid sets up [[HomeAloneAntics traps that cause pratfalls, taking out the floors, setting them up with remote control cars, ropes, etc]]. Dropping buckets on them from above. There's even some electrocution as slapstick. By the end the criminals are usually CoveredInGunge, scratched up, battered and bruised, and either completely humiliated or arrested.

* Creator/JackieChan movies were based on Jackie's love of Creator/BusterKeaton and Creator/CharlieChaplin movies, as being silent films there was no language barrier. He came about in the BruceLeeClone era of the 70's, but always felt more interested in physical comedy rather than the more serious MartialArtsMovie. His action scenes are instead based on crazy stunts and ImprobableWeaponUser that makes the audience laugh more than cringe at the pain, such as in ''Jackie Chans First Strike'' where he fends off an entire mob of enemies using anything and everything at his disposal, including very creative use of a folding stepladder.

* In Literature/{{Discworld}}, the Fools' Guild has actually ''weaponised'' slapstick in the form of a martial art called ''sloshi'', as seen in ''Literature/MakingMoney''. One historical practitioner famously killed seventeen men with just a ladder and two buckets of paste.

[[folder:Theater]]

* Slapstick is an important element in any Theatre/Pantomime.
* Theatre/OneManTwoGuvnors had a lot of physical comedy, especially during the dinner scene. As did Theatre/SchoolOfRock. Both had Cal [=McCrystal=] credited as the "Physical Comedy Director".

* Spoof video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8h7N2mVWjk Rorschach's Plight]]

%%* WebAnimation/EddsWorld

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' similarly is a TropeCodifier for AmusingInjuries, usually with the cartoon's antagonist falling victim to cartoon abuse from either their opponent or their own stupidity. Possibly the purest example: the "plot" of every Road Runner cartoon is, essentially, "Wile E. Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner and hurts himself in hilarious ways". This happens to other characters also, but it's the ''only'' thing that ever happens to Wile E. (except for a couple of cartoons that replace "the Road Runner" with "Bugs Bunny").

* Sokka in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is the common victim which involves being the practice dummy, the one who always gets beaten up, always lands face first, getting hopped up on cactus juice, getting hit in the head (especially by Katara when he says Kyoshi has an alibi when Chin the Conquer was killed in the ''Clear My Name'' Episode), the one who always gets Chi-blocked by Ty-Lee, etc.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' naturally lives off of this. The humor revolves around the insanity of the characters (including the titular sea sponge himself) and over-the-top injuries that is mostly PlayedForLaughs.

* ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'': [[WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatClassic The B&W shorts]] featured a lot of slapstick in the vein of Creator/CharlieChaplin movies along with a hefty load of urban surrealism.

* A "Punch and Judy Show" is a very old (dating back to at least the 17th century, and with roots in 16th century Italian live theatre) type of puppet show that ''lives'' on grotesquely exaggerated violence for the sake of humor.

* The ComedicSociopathy of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' is, in large part, defined by the ''sheer'' amount of [[AmusingInjuries physical punishment]] the [[MadeOfIron characters]] can withstand. And almost all of it would be a lot harder to stomach if not for the fact that the majority of them are selfish and petty {{jerk|ass}}s who, more often than not, have it coming.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series is built on the entire foundation of comedic slapstick to match its very cartoony nature. The main gameplay involves [[GoombaStomp jumping on enemies]](namely Goombas) and [[SquashedFlat squashing them flat]], knocking them over by bashing blocks or kicking Koopa shells at them. That's not even going into the other forms of combat, [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 like grabbing and throwing objects at enemies]], the various Mario RPG's don't have typical "RPG" weapons, but [[ImprobableWeaponUser rather mallots and parasols]] to whack enemies with. The ''Mario Kart'' series is full of WackyRacing with items and banana peels and explosives as weapons. And the ''Mario Party'' series goes above and beyond in terms of slapstick. No one in the series, [[SlapstickKnowsNoGender no matter who]], is immune to the hijinks.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' turns it UpToEleven and accidentally hits the button marked [[{{Gorn}} "Blood Spray"]].

%%* Manga/MutekiKanbanMusume

'''Kevyn:''' So... [[{{Nanomachines}} My bloodstream]] is [[AIIsACrapshoot full of slapstick.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Exaggerated physical comedy conspicuously occurs in two stories.

%%* Goofy's 'how-to' cartoons.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' similarly is a TropeCodifier for AmusingInjuries, usually with the cartoon's antagonist falling victim to cartoon abuse from either their opponent or their own stupidity.
** Possibly the purest example: the "plot" of every Road Runner cartoon is, essentially, "Wile E. Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner and hurts himself in hilarious ways". This happens to other characters also, but it's the ''only'' thing that ever happens to Wile E. (except for a couple of cartoons that replace "the Road Runner" with "Bugs Bunny").

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Occurs prominently in two stories.