The character of Charlie the little man, the baggy - trousered bowler - hatted tramp, can be seen evolving behind the surface gagging , the energetic slapstick of the day.
Hailed by some scholars as the father of comedy, his fingerprints are visible upon comic techniques everywhere, from slapstick to double acts to impersonations to political satire.
Slapstick humor has been used by actors such as Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther, if you remember those movies;Mister Bean – the British comedian – uses slapstick humor.
Not the kind of small-scale ridiculousness of slapstick comedy but rather a ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and manifests itself in the simplest actions and most ordinary gestures.