Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Slapstick

The word slapstick rose in my awareness after attending a production of "The Play that Goes Wrong" (in which, true to its title, everything goes wrong). I found it a virtuoso performance of slapstick humor. After describing it as such, I started wondering about the origin of the word slapstick...
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... and here we go
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down the rabbit hole of research...
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The Encyclopaedia Britannica has a lengthy article (with visuals), discussing the history of slapstick comedy and defining it as:

... a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, usually violent action. The slapstick comic, more than a mere funnyman or buffoon, must often be an acrobat, a stunt performer, and something of a magician—a master of uninhibited action and perfect timing.

It turns out that there is actually a "thing" called a slapstick:

A slapstick was originally a harmless paddle composed of two pieces of wood that slapped together to produce a resounding whack when the paddle struck someone. The slapstick seems to have first come into use in the 16th century, when Harlequin, one of the principal characters of the Italian commedia dell’arte, used it on the posteriors of his comic victims.

Holding a slapstick behind his back, perhaps?
Harlequin, in a nineteenth-century print [Public domain]

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the noun slapstick was first used to describe the "sound effect device" in 1896 (which seems late to me, if slap-sticks were in use in the 16th century). It was being used as an adjective around 1906, and finally was ascribed to a form of physical comedy in 1916.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a little "blast from the past" of the golden age of slapstick silent movies (because we could all use a bit of a chuckle now and again, right?).