SlapStik Comedy Written By Noel Harrison
When we think about humor in a modern sense, one of the first images that springs to mind is its presence in film. The way we came to associate comedy with the movie industry holds a particularly interesting history, dating back to the era of silent film and its influential directors. After all, with comedy being one of the earliest film genres, it’s natural for it to be so popular today. Though film began as a simple novelty, the medium rapidly grew into a huge commercial phenomenon. Of course, with movies becoming more refined and transforming into a massively popular entertainment industry, it was only a matter of time before they also became a vessel for comedy.
One of the very first instances of humor in film was seen in the 1895 short feature L’Arroseur Arrosé (or The Waterer Watered). This less-than-a-minute-long sequence shows a very brief scene of a young boy playing a prank on a gardener. The boy places his foot on the gardener’s hose, cutting off the flow of water, and removes it when the gardener moves to inspect the spout. As such, the gardener receives a spray of water to the face and quickly becomes doused.
Naturally, the limitations of film in the late 19th century and early 20th century made it impossible for actors to tell jokes verbally. This meant that directors in the silent film era needed to be creative in conveying their humor. With recorded sound unavailable, filmmakers relied on visual gags — many of which had their roots in vaudeville — like what was seen in L’Arroseur Arrosé. This model of visual storytelling brought forth a great deal of artistic innovation.
One of the masters of silent comedy was Buster Keaton. Renowned for directing and starring in countless classic movies, Keaton’s influence can still be seen in a number of modern actors and filmmakers. He is seen by many as one of the greatest actor-directors in movie history, and for good reason.
Keaton was so devoted to visual storytelling that one of his pillars of filmmaking was to avoid the excessive use of title cards. If something could be told through action, Keaton wanted it to be conveyed as such. He believed that title cards unnecessarily disturbed a film’s overall flow, and instead used clever gags and stunts to service his storylines.
The most impressive aspect of Buster Keaton’s directorial style was his approach to shooting visual gags. When filming a scene, if a gag didn’t pan out the way Keaton previously envisioned it to, it was often scrapped entirely. Furthermore, many gags were spontaneous — thought up on-the-spot and elaborated on for the final product. Just like many of the great stand-up comics of today, Buster Keaton was an expert when it came to improvisation. He never went just partway for a gag; it was all or nothing.
Another one of the great filmmakers of the silent film era was Charlie Chaplin. Like Buster Keaton, much of Chaplin’s humor was improvised. Rather than working off of a completed script, Chaplin would regularly begin shooting with little more than a simple premise in mind. From there, he would slowly piece together a storyline. This was the process through which much of his famous physical comedy was produced. Charlie Chaplin was a relentless perfectionist, however, and while many ideas came and went during the filmmaking process, more still required countless reshoots.
While Chaplin’s trademark style of filmmaking spawned a number of his hilarious pictures, it certainly did not come without its drawbacks. Chaplin’s films each took a considerable amount of time to complete, largely owed to his extreme meticulousness. Nevertheless, Charlie Chaplin remained devoted to the art of silent comedy, even as “talking pictures” were becoming more and more prevalent. Notably, after the release of the first talkie in 1927, Charlie Chaplin still went on to direct two more silent films. One of said films was City Lights (1931), recognized as one of Chaplin’s greatest works and one of the best American motion pictures ever made. It wasn’t until 1940 that Charlie Chaplin would begin producing sound films.
The movie industry owes a lot to directors like Chaplin and Keaton, who used their creativity and versatility to push the limit of what could be expressed through the medium. Their expertise in silent comedy generated a great many compelling storylines. Not only that, but their humor paved the way for future directors to innovate as well. It was through limitation that directors in the silent film era were able to flourish, and even as advancements were made to filmmaking technology, the impact they had on the industry remained.
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