After continuously reading about gags in Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons every week, I found one that I was particularly interested in. Slapstick Comedy, a form of “exaggerated physical violence and activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense”, which was first used in Roman and Greek theater and perfected in film by comedians like Charlie Chaplin. This form of comedy became involved in animation as a gag since its conception. Slapstick is a useful and easily done gag to induce laughter and amusement in animation.
My first example of an animation that uses slapstick effectively is Tom and Jerry.
Tom and Jerry features a normal house cat (Tom) who is tormented by a mouse named (Jerry). This cartoon has little dialog and tons of physical violence. In this particular cartoon Jerry is stealing Tom’s milk and after Tom repeatedly attempts to hit and encase Jerry he decides to poison and kill him. This attempt backfires when the milk poison Tom makes actually turns Jerry into a super-mouse and he beats the crap out of Tom. Slapstick gags from a fire poker that is bent repeatedly over Super-Jerry’s head to repeated tail snapping of both characters highlight the amusement related to Tom and Jerry. The humor is based only on the physical violence Tom and Jerry inflict on each other.
Another good example would be Warner Brother’s Looney Tunes.
In this particular Looney Tunes Elmer Fudd plays Cupid and goes around shooting other animals with arrows that make them fall in love. Particular violence of interest is when he shoots the dog chasing the cat and the dog proposes. Afterwards the cat is disgusted and commits suicide 9 times, highlighting its 9 lives. More violence ensues as Fudd attempts to shoot Daffy Duck but Daffy has other plans.
Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry are great examples of what makes slapstick such an amusing hit. Both of the series were insanely popular even though they were violent in nature. It just goes to show that violence can be funny.
I commented on Danyael Rose’s blog and Kristina Wade’s blog.