Bottoms Up: An Application of the Slapstick to Satire

Chapter 9: “A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM”

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About This Book

A lively assortment of satirical pieces that deploy slapstick, parody and critical wit against theatrical clichés and social pretensions. The book combines short comic dramas, lampooning sketches, mock practical guides and playful glossaries with essays and vignette-style scenes, shifting between stagewise set-pieces and faux-instructional formats. Through exaggerated situations, ironic commentary and burlesque forms it skewers popular tastes and received manners while showcasing a brisk, conversational comic voice that favors deflation and farce over earnest moralizing.

“A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM”

By
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The snow swirled against the window in great gusts. Agatha Brewster sat looking into the flaming grate.

“What’s the matter, mamma dear?” asked Betty, her little daughter. “You look so sad—and this is Christmas eve.”

Agatha did not answer. She could not trust her voice. There was a mist before her eyes. She sat there thinking, thinking, thinking. It was just a year ago tonight that Dave, her husband, had parted from her in anger. Since then no word, no letter—nothing but endless conferences with that hideous lawyer, the unbearable condolences of well-meaning friends, the dull heart-ache, the thought of little Betty....