Slapstick

All Music Guide:

Rowdy ska-punk outfit Slapstick managed to not only inspire a legion of kids to start their own bands in the mid-'90s, but their popularity and influence on the third wave ska revival was felt long after the band's mere three-year existence was over. Slapstick formed in 1993 and the raucous group quickly saw itself sitting at the top of the underground Chicago punk scene. Comprised of Brendan Kelly (vocals), Dan Andriano (bass/vocals), Peter Anna (trombone), Matt Stamps (guitar), Dan Hanaway (trumpet/vocals), and Rob Kellenberger (drums/vocals), the guys appeared on various compilations and released one full-length album during their short run. Recorded in the fall of 1995, Lookit! was released early the next year on Skankin' Pickle's own Dill Records. When Mike Park quit Skankin' Pickle, he formed his own label (Asian Man Records) and Slapstick was one of four bands he took with him. However, almost as quickly as they began, the band suddenly broke up in 1996. Slapstick reunited once on November 23, 1997 for a packed one-off benefit show at Chicago's Fireside Bowl. The band wound up playing another show right after the first as well, due to the night's overwhelming turnout. Asian Man issued an eponymous compilation record in 1997 that contained all of the band's recorded songs, which included eight unreleased tracks. Following Slapstick's demise, its members went on to join and/or create a plethora of acts, including: the Lawrence Arms, Tuesday, the Broadways, Alkaline Trio, the Honor System, Colossal, Duvall, Less Than Jake, Smoking Popes, and The Falcon. In June 2006, the live DVD Reunion Show appeared on Asian Man, documenting Slapstick's last performance from the Fireside Bowl with additional commentary by Kelly and Kellenberger.

Wikipedia:

Slapstick is a type of broad, physical comedy involving exaggerated, boisterous actions (e.g. a pie in the face), farce, violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.

Origins [edit]

The name "slapstick" comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the "slap stick" in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in commedia dell'arte. When struck, the battacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though little force transfers from the object to the person being struck. Actors may thus hit one another repeatedly with great audible effect while causing very little actual physical damage. Along with the inflatable bladder (of which the whoopee cushion is a modern variant), it was among the earliest special effects that a person could carry.

History [edit]

While the object from which the genre is derived dates from the Renaissance, theater historians argue that slapstick comedy has been at least somewhat present in almost all comedic genres since the rejuvenation of theater in church liturgical dramas in the Middle Ages. (Some argue for instances of it in Greek and Roman theater, as well.) Beating the devil off stage, for example, remained a stock comedic device in many otherwise serious religious plays. Shakespeare also incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his play The Comedy of Errors. Building on its later popularity in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century ethnic routines of the American vaudeville house, the style was explored extensively during the "golden era" of black and white, silent movies directed by figures Mack Sennett and Hal Roach and featuring such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, the Keystone Cops, and The Three Stooges. Slapstick is also common inTom and Jerry and Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies. Silent slapstick comedy was also popular in early French films and included films by Max Linder and Charles Prince.

Slapstick continues to maintain a presence in modern comedy that draws upon its lineage, running in film from Buster Keaton and Louis de Funès to Mel Brooks to the Jackass movies to the Farrelly Brothers, and in live performance from Weber and Fields to Jackie Gleason to Rowan Atkinson. Slapstick has remained popular to the present day, with YouTube star Psy making use of slapstick comedy in his videos.