| 释义 |
ˈslapstick orig. U.S.
Also slap-stick.
[f. slap v.1 + stick n.1]
1. Two flat pieces of wood joined together at one end, used to produce a loud slapping noise; spec. such a device used in pantomime and low comedy to make a great noise with the pretence of dealing a heavy blow (see also quot. 1950).
1896N.Y. Dramatic News 4 July 9/3 What a relief, truly, from the slap-sticks, rough-and-tumble comedy couples abounding in the variety ranks. 1907Weekly Budget 19 Oct. 1/2 The special officer in the gallery, armed with a ‘slap-stick’, the customary weapon in American theatre galleries, made himself very officious amongst the small boys. 1925M. W. Disher Clowns & Pantomimes 13 What has caused the playgoers' sudden callousness? The slapstick. Towards the end of the seventeenth century Arlequin had introduced into England the double-lath of castigation, which made the maximum amount of noise with the minimum of injury. 1937M. Covarrubias Island of Bali iv. 77 Life-size scarecrows are erected, but soon the birds become familiar with them... Then watchmen circulate among the fields beating bamboo drums and cracking loud bamboo slap⁓sticks. 1950Sun (Baltimore) 10 Apr. 3/1 The 50-year-old clown..said that when he bent over another funnyman accidentally hit him with the wrong side of a slap-stick. He explained that a slap-stick contains a blank ·38-caliber cartridge on one side to make a bang.
2. a. attrib. passing into adj. Of or pertaining to a slapstick; of or reminiscent of knockabout comedy.
1906N.Y. Even. Post 25 Oct. 10 It required all the untiring efforts of an industrious ‘slap-stick’ coterie..to keep the enthusiasm up to a respectable degree. 1914Photoplay Sept. 91 (heading) Making slap-stick comedy. 1923Weekly Dispatch 4 Mar. 9 He likes good comedies..but thinks the slapstick ones ridiculous. 1928Daily Sketch 7 Aug. 4/3 The jokes..are rapier-like in their keenness, not the usual rolling-pin or slapstick form of humour. 1936W. Holtby South Riding iv. v. 258 She took a one-and-threepenny ticket, sat in comfort, and watched a Mickey Mouse film, a slapstick comedy, and the tragedy of Greta Garbo acting Mata Hari. 1944[see pocho]. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio x. 173 Decidedly unobvious effects, such as the cork-and-resin ‘creak’ or the hinged slapstick ‘whip’. 1977R. L. Wolff Gains & Losses ii. iv. 296 The prevailing tone of the book is highly satirical, with strong overtones of slapstick farce.
b. absol. Knockabout comedy or humour, farce, horseplay.
1926Amer. Speech I. 437/2 Slap-stick, low comedy in its simplest form. Named from the double paddles formerly used by circus clowns to beat each other. 1930Publisher's Weekly 25 Jan. 420/2 The slapstick of 1929 was often exciting. The Joan Lowell episode was regarded as exposing the gullibility of the critics... The popularity of ‘The Specialist’ made the whole book business look cockeyed. 1955Times 6 June 9/1 A comic parson (Mr. Noel Howlett) is added for good measure, mainly to play on the piano while other people crawl under it. Even on the level of slapstick the farce seemed to keep in motion with some difficulty and raised but moderate laughter. 1967M. Kenyon Whole Hog xxv. 253 A contest which had promised..to be short and cruel, had become slapstick. 1976Oxf. Compan. Film 640/1 As it developed in the decade 1910–20..slapstick depended on frenzied, often disorganized, motion that increased in tempo as visual gags proliferated. |