Slapstick Summer Series! - The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895), 1st Movie Comedy

Though not slapstick, strictly-speaking, Lumière's The Sprinkler Sprinkled (aka L'Arroseur Arrosé and The Waterer Watered) earns the starting spot in this summer series for three main reasons:

1. It's the 1st comedy film.
2. What's more Summer-y than sprinkling sprinklers?
3. The film's alliterative English name compliments the blog title.

Thus begins the Summer of Slapstick, which will contain the early shorts of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Max Linder, Ford Sterling and the Keystone Cops, and other surprises.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000014/