a silly sight-gag comedy

[Isapaola]

Can you help to translate into Italian? Is it a comedy based on gesture rather than words?
Any suggestions will be welcome, (how formal I am tonight!)
Thanks

[lsp]

You understood correctly (as usual !!)

[brian]

If it means what I think it means (and what you and lsp think it means), this is more often referred to as "slapstick comedy," a term dating back to the silent film era, when clowns would slap sticks together to engage the audience in applause.


Brian

[combustion]

Forse cio' che si avvicina di piu' in italiano puo' essere "comica" o "comiche", ma non sono sicura!
Comb...

[lsp]

Originally Posted by brian8733

If it means what I think it means (and what you and lsp think it means), this is more often referred to as "slapstick comedy," a term dating back to the silent film era, when clowns would slap sticks together to engage the audience in applause.


Brian

There are many sight gags that aren't slapstick, though. I suppose many have their origins in slapstick, but slapstick comedy is broader, more boisterous, often even crude.

[Charles Costante]

This gives a little more insight into the expression.

[lsp]

Originally Posted by Charles Costante

This gives a little more insight into the expression.

At the risk of being horribly misunderstood merely by asking ( ), how does that shed new light on the difference between slapstick and sight gags? Isapaola had paraphrased that same definition of sight gag from her first post.

[brian]

When I think of a sight gag, I think of one joke, or one instance--one gag. You can have several sight gags in a comedy routine, and I suppose you'd call that sight gag comedy (which I've never heard as a term/genre before), but I reserve the term sight gag for one specific joke that a comedian just did. I also think of it more as stand-up and not film.

When I read the original post, I was thinking (and I don't know why) that it had to do with comedy in film, so I suggested slapstick comedy, which to me signifies an actual genre or type of comedy. Slapstick comedy can have sight gags in them, so as lsp said, it is broader.


Brian

[Charles Costante]

Originally Posted by lsp

At the risk of being horribly misunderstood merely by asking ( ), how does that shed new light on the difference between slapstick and sight gags? Isapaola had paraphrased that same definition of sight gag from her first post.

Who said anything about the link shedding new light on the difference between slapstick and sight gags Lsp? I just said that it would give a little more insight into the expression. Perhaps you just read the definition and didn't scroll down further where it says that most sight gags fit into one or more of these categories:

• By being in an unusual place
• By behaving in an unusual way
• By being the wrong size

I thought Isapaola might find that interesting.

[Isapaola]

Indeed. Thanks Charlie. Everything you all said Isp, Brian, Combustion is useful to enlarge my knowledge. I had just to translate it into Italian so now everything is clear enough.
Thanks to everyone.