I am conducting visual research in to examples of slapstick comedy to get ideas for the type of actions and animations my character will be involved with, and one such source is Frank Spencer. Played by Michael Crawford, he is best know as Frank Spencer in the British sitcom 'Some Mothers So 'Ave 'Em'. The show is infamous for it's use of over the top slapstick comedy.
In this classic clip, Frank Spencer attempts roller skating with some unexpected results:
The clip starts out with Frank attempting to skate in a roller skating rink but obviously not doing very well. The over the top tumbles and awkward attempts at skating are classic examples of slapstick comedy. At 21 seconds he is on the floor from falling over, and another skater collides with him which trips him up and is another slapstick cliché that immediately brings laughter.
This continues until 40 seconds in, where he smashes through a door and is thrust outside on his roller skates at a high speed and seems unable to stop. What follows is a sequence of amusing scenarios of him moving around a town on roller skates unable to stop and they are all funny because of how absurd it is (for example: going down a spiral staircase on roller skates, under a truck etc). These sequences are all sped up slightly to heighten the sense of speed and makes all the actions seem more amusing. The scene ends with him going in to a shop full of baby care items and knocks bookshelves over and crashes, landing in a crib covered in stuff.
My animation:
My animation could feature something similar to this. Perhaps not roller skating as that has nothing to do with the animation, but a similar situation where the character is trying to do something they are not familiar with and keeps making mistakes such as falling over.
