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sight gag

sight gag

2 6.4
A joke you see that makes people laugh without words
  • noun
  • /saɪt ɡæɡ/
translation icon : broma visual
  • Many classic cartoons rely on sight gags to create humor through visual antics instead of words.
  • a funny sight gag

And it's a it's a scripted thing that involves all kinds of sight gags and crazy stunts and, and, and a story.

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Examples

  • The sight gags are rare and usually pretty weak, so not much is lost when you cut out the video.

    Blog text (17)
  • Too many ridiculous sight gag jokes and not enough time spent on developing these characters doom this film.

    Blog text (20)
  • There are enough sight gags to keep you smirking (because honestly I'm not sure anyone would laugh out loud at this stuff), and the art is exceptional.

    Blog text (7)
  • The comic strip is the shortest of media genres, consisting of two or three panels of line drawings and a few words of dialogue that culminate in a sight gag, punch line, or wry observation.

    Academic text (2012)
  • As many writers have pointed out, comic modes—irony, parody, satire, sight gags—work through quotation and reiteration.

    Academic text (2004)
  • The comedy film features numerous sight gags that make the audience laugh without any dialogue.

  • His stand-up routine included hilarious sight gags that had the crowd in stitches.

Synonyms

visual joke
vssight gag
4.4

A joke that makes people laugh using pictures or actions

is used mainly in film and television rather than in general contexts

How Visual

slapstick
5 4.9
sight gag
2 6.4

Surface Forms

sight gag singular
sight gags plural

Morphology

sight + gag

The meaning 'a joke achieved by visual means' is directly and compositionally derived from 'sight' (seeing) + 'gag' (joke), yielding the straightforward notion of a visual joke. This noun–noun compounding pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Sight gag comes from early stage shows and silent films, where the joke came from what the audience saw instead of from words. The word sight points to 'seeing' and gag means a joke, so a sight gag is a 'joke you see', like someone slipping on a banana peel.