ABSTRACT
In this chapter we locate comedy within the general aesthetic and industrial regime of classical – and preclassical – Hollywood cinema. We look at one of the ways in which it has been divided theoretically into two broad kinds or traditions. And we discuss in particular the role of gag-based comedy and slapstick in Hollywood, the theatrical contexts and traditions from which it stems, and some of the issues involved in the attempts made to produce feature-length slapstick films during the course of the 1920s.
