I think child abuse is funny.
Below are the two instances I have seen that lead me to believe the previous statement. The first is from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. In it, Charlie's standby character "The Tramp," unintentionally adopts a young boy abandoned by his mother on the street. This is a scene in which The Tramp and the kid, played by Jackie Coogan, pull a con on a neighbor, where Coogan throws a rock through the neighbor's window, and The Tramp convenientally walks by immediately after with a new window and tools for installation.
The funniest part of the scene, maybe the whole movie, to me is the way Chaplin kicks Coogan once they're found out. It's unexpected, it's great physical comedy, and I think it's very funny.
The second scene is from Woody Allen's great Manhattan. This scene takes places immediately after an arugment Woody's character Isaac, has had with his ex-wife (played by Meryl Streep) who's now living with a woman who Isaac "accidentally" tried to run over with his car. This short scene is the only time in the film we see their son, and in it, like in The Kid, the kid gets shoved, and I find it hilarious.
It's likely this is an homage to the scene in the Chaplin film, as Chaplin is a favorite of Allen's, and it's also silent (save the Gershwin score), in black and white, and shown in one take.
The aspect ratio is incorrect here because windows movie maker only goes as wide as 16:9, while the true ratio for this film is 2:35:1.
So now I pose the question to you, the reader of this poorly contructed blog. Why do I find the hitting and kicking of children funny? Obviously no one's being hurt here, the kids keep smiling and act as if it didn't happen, but still it says something about me that I think this is funny.
What I think it comes down to is that no matter how much intellectually driven comedy you throw out there, nothing will beat someone falling, or getting hit...preferably in the groin.