Silent Era slapstick comedy vs. newage slapstick

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, undeniable are the most know masters of the Silent Era. They displayed a type of comedy that is rarely seen today. They employed slapstick comedy, which is still employed today but it is done in an entirely different manner. I think that when it was done in the 20s it was done in a classy way, they were acrobats performing refined, well thought out gags. They were almost magicians performing impossible feats in front of a camera, they planned their gags, and made sure they would impress and entertain. Plenty of times you look at them bouncing on the walls, the floor thinking, how do they even do that? They were so agile that it seemed as if they were made of bouncy plastic, instead of being human.

Now in this age and time, the movies that now are so called “slapstick” tend to be grotesque and crude. There is nothing refined about the way they do this genre, now it’s all about ridiculous comedy, and who hurts more in the end. Movies such as Mouse Hunt, Mr. Deeds, and the incredibly stupid Dumb and Dumber (which incidentally is the best title for that horrid movie) are what are considered “slapstick”. Personally I cannot begin to stand them, there is nothing refined about them, they hardly even have a decent script, at least one would think that since the gags aren’t elaborate and beautiful anymore, at least the script would be decent. I do not enjoy this type of comedy, I find it grotesque and vulgar, and it is an insult to the greats of the golden era to be placed in the same category as these terrible films.