Meanings
plural blackout gags
- A rapid-fire joke in slapstick comedy.
In some cases, Brooks could construct an entire sequence of nothing but blackout gags, as in the prehistoric sequence of History, which depicts the first artist and first critic, the discovery of fire, the invention of music, and so forth.
2015, Henry Jenkins, “Mel Brooks, Vulgar Modernism, and Comic Remediation”, in Andrew Horton, Joanna E. Rapf, editors, A Companion to Film Comedy, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 159
Origin
In reference to burlesque and vaudeville, when the lights were quickly turned off after the punchline of a joke to accentuate it and encourage the audience to laugh.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
blackout gag. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackout%20gag
“blackout gag.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackout%20gag. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackout gag,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackout%20gag.
Source: blackout gag on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.