Careful, banana skin! - A well-intentioned warning, but vain in slapstick, because there things turn against people with relish. But slapstick is also the comedian's triumph over failure. The film tells the story of this comic film genre: from its masters Chaplin and Keaton to Tati, the last great "wordless" comedian, and the rebirth in animated film. Slapstick was the ideal film genre for the silent film era. But slapstick is also an attitude that makes the world and the failure in it more bearable. Because we are all in these poor creatures who stumble and fall vicariously. Our laughter reflects our own fear of chaos. The documentary tells the story of this comic genre, which found its way from stage to screen in the silent movie era. The Frenchman Max Linder is one of the early international stars until America discovers the genre for itself: Buster Keaton's dark hypnotic gaze, Harold Lloyd's wild escapades and Charlie Chaplin's poetic loser poses write film history. The sound film seemed to be the caesura, the abrupt end of the grandiose body art that enchanted so many people. But Laurel & Hardy with their rapid chases and the Frenchman Jacques Tati with his slapstick of things keep the slapstick alive during this time. And the journey continues, slapstick is not dead for a long time. In animated film it climbs to a new level: physical boundaries of actors no longer exist, the characters plunge with relish into every catastrophe. And at the same time they remind us of the great masters and the time when it all began.