Keystone comedy

noun

1. a short film of the silent era, often featuring the Keystone Kops.
2. Slang. any situation or incident characterized by farcical bungling, misunderstandings, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Keystone comedy¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

At the beginning of 1914, a young British vaudevillian named Charles Spencer Chaplin joined Mack Sennett’s Keystone Comedy Company to make a series of silent movies.

From Washington Post

Twenty million Montags running, running like an ancient flickery Keystone Comedy, cops, robbers, chasers and the chased, hunters and hunted, he had seen it a thousand times.

From Literature

Readers who never saw a Keystone comedy will have a hard time restraining their whoops as Gene Fowler unreels this fantastic slapstick-story of Hollywood success.

From Time Magazine Archive

He started his own company, called it Keystone Comedy Co.

From Time Magazine Archive

Bye Bye Birdie ranges farthest, and perhaps most enjoyably, afield when Dancer Rivera crashes a Shriners' dinner and starts a small Keystone Comedy chase, now around the table, now on it, now under it.

From Time Magazine Archive