( comedy) a broad form of comedy in which the humor comes from physical acts or pantomime, frequently harmless violence and pratfalls intended to produce laughter. The name was derived from a device called a slapstick, two boards that slapped together with a loud crack when used to strike something or someone; prevalent during the silent era and in early talkies, with its primary motif being pie-throwing. Examples: Keystone Kops, Charlie Chaplin (here in the extended boxing sequence in City Lights (1931)), Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, and more recently, Jerry Lewis and Jim Carrey.