Word: slapsticking
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...their schnapps and vodka guzzling, this innovation allows for wittiness of reference: we got to see flappers onstage during the longer instrumental passages, and hear mention of Greta Garbo, Dillinger and Einstein. The evening's comedy embraced everything from metahumor and operatic in-jokes to puns, sight-gags and slapstick, and the freshness of the jokes kept the story lively through a potentially interminable second...
...Davidson '00), Famine (Eric Fleisig-Greene '01) and Death (James Chakan '99), is obviously modeled on the angst-ridden, death-obsessed hard-rock bands of the '80s. They were a fine Three-Stooges trio of sorts, mocking everything Orson said with an entertaining mix of slyly witty allusions and slapstick humor. Their kazoo version of a Corelli fugue was one of the show's highlights, provoking a spontaneous ovation from the opening-night audience. Davidson's War and Fleisig-Greene's Famine were especially outrageous and Chakan's Death appropriately deadpan. While characters like Orson and Olivia were funny because...
...characters are so universally dull. One possible explanation may place blame on Disney, which continues to recycle its old hits as guaranteed blockbusters. (Next year, expect retreads of My Favorite Martian and The Parent Trap.) Moreover, Disney's live-action films all seem to be reduced to slapstick violence between a paper-cut villain and a cheesy hero. And yet, even in last year's dreadful remake of 101 Dalmations, Glenn Close found room to make Cruella De Vil somewhat entertaining...
There are dumb movies, and then there are dumb movies. Making slapstick, the lowest form of humor, successful requires enormous skill and talent. Rowan Atkinson's character, Mr. Bean, whose inspired idiocy traces a direct descent from Charlie Chaplin, infuses new intelligence into unintelligent comedy. It's really too bad that such a well-wrought dumb character finds himself in such a stock dumb movie...
Watching the situation of morals in politics these days is kind of like viewing a silent slapstick film. Just as the actors scurry around the sets as fast as possible hoping for a laugh, our legislators are pulling every trick in the book trying to capitalize on the current vogue for morality. Indeed, spurred on by eager pollsters, the Republicans are convinced these days that the people want moral action. Unfortunately, the people are not very clear about what sort of moral action they want taken, and the Republicans are left spinning their wheels trying to capture the sentiment. Meanwhile...