1.   But Faye was best remembered for his work in burlesque and vaudeville playing the sidekick to the lead comic, who is often the target of the slapstick routines.

2.   Inevitably, however, sanctions jokes get mixed into the slapstick routines.

3.   Instead it ended on a pratfall, a slapstick routine in which receiver Tim Brown ran smack into umpire Jeff Rice.

4.   The reference was to a well-known baseball clown who entertained fans for at least four decades with his rubbery legs and slapstick routines.

5.   The sequence falls apart when Ms. DeGeneres turns up in an unfunny slapstick routine, using sandwiches to sop up spilled water in the audition room.

6.   What a slapstick routine the Red Sox have become.