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284 FARCE AND SLAPSTICK motion, but it may require assistance to get the vehicle started. It is the same way in getting laughs. Get them started and it is com- paratively simple to intensify the laughter. To this end it is better to use anticipation to get the laugh started and realization or sur- prise to complete and amplify the laugh. If this is thoroughly under- stood it is comparatively simple to write comedy if you have the nec- essary sense of humor. 14. There seems to be a fairly regular movement from comedy to slapstick with a quick return to comedy. ]Most veteran theatrical managers know that amusement affairs go in cycles, and this is very true of comedy. Starting with light comedy of high standard or farce of a polite type, directors slowly incline to slapstick. One. more dar- ing than the rest, comes out with the old-fashioned slapstick and takes the lead. All other makers seek to follow suit and each tries to outdo the others. Presently slapstick has been so sadly abused that all sense of humor and decency is lost. There is a reaction that results in a sharp return to the high ideals and then a gradual return toward slapstick. One or two companies hold to slapstick because they real- ize that good slapstick, the sort with a fairly good reason, will always find a market. They keep within certain limits of restraint and make steady sales. 15. Slapstick takes its name from the actual slapstick, which is a pair of boards separated at one end by a small block. When one of the flat sides is brought into contact with a comedian's anatomy, the other side clashes against the first, resulting in a maximum of noise with a minimum of hurt. The former almost universal use of this device by stage comedians given to knockabout work made it almost a trade mark for that crude form of humor, and so the term slapstick has almost completely replaced the more definite and correct "knock- about" as the designation of this form of rough humor, but a use of the proper term will provide a better definition of this form of play, since the actual slapstick is seldom employed in photoplay and many students are at a loss to account for the term, where knockabout would be fully self-explanatory and is the proper technical term of the stage. 16. There are different degrees of comedy, of farce and of knock- about. It may be interesting once more to take the scene already used and in a succession of developments advance from light comedy to an extreme of knockabout. 14. Piazza —Dodds brings Jack out—they argue for a moment— Dodds drives Jack away. 14, Piazza —Dodds brings Jack out—they argue—Jack shakes his fist at Dodds—Dodds pushes !iim off the steps—Jack picks him- self up—exits. 14, Piazza —Dodds runs Jack out of house—gets him set—kicks him off step—Jack gets up—exits. 14, Piazza —Dodds runs Jack out of house—places him for a kick —kicks at him—misses—falls—in falling pushes Jack off of steps—both get up—Jack picks up rock—threatens Dodds— throws—hits—Dodds falls—Jack runs off.