‘Silent American comedy developed a form which drew its inspiration from gags rather than plotting … But their explosive counter-logic also found embodiment in devices of balance and trajectory, anti-machines which harness the laws of physics to overturn the rules of behavior. Simultaneously revolt and engineering, these devices mine the fascination that spectators of the industrial age had with the way things work, the operational aesthetic’ (Tom Gunning qtd Knopf, 69) To what extent do technology, human physicality and plot intersect to create comedy?
