Silent comedy

Silent comedies often place a strong emphasis on visual and physical humor, frequently utilizing "sight gags" to convey stories and entertain audiences.

Classic examples of slapstick comedy devices include the "pratfall," slipping on a banana peel, getting soaked with water, and having a pie thrown in one's face.

[1] As film transitioned from a novelty medium, initially focused on capturing exotic locations and everyday actions, into an established industry in the early 1900s,[2] filmmakers began to tell fictional stories, written and shot in studios.

By 1902, filmmakers such as Georges Méliès began producing films closer to one reel in length (about 10 minutes of runtime), utilizing multiple shots.

[4] His character, a mustachioed, top hat-wearing, high-class gentleman, excelled in taking simple scenarios and everyday tasks and turning them into chaotic events.

Famous actors and comedic teams from this era have since become legendary figures: Ben Turpin, Keystone Cops, Mabel Normand, Edna Purviance, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Larry Semon, Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy (who successfully transitioned into talking pictures), among many others.

In the early years of "talkie" films (beginning in 1927, with The Jazz Singer), a few actors continued to perform silently for comedic effect.

While live-action comedy moved toward a focus on verbal humor, such as the witty exchanges of Abbott and Costello and Groucho Marx, animated cartoons embraced the full range of slapstick gags, frenetic chase scenes, visual puns, and exaggerated facial expressions characteristic of silent comedies.

also included slapstick gags and Keystone-style chase scenes, ideas that prefigured much of the humor later seen in films like The Blues Brothers and Airplane!.