Has the author of this piece never been on youtube, or worldstar, or twitter, vine, tiktok... Physical comedy still exists, the risks have just been relegated to the masses, rather than the comedian who wants to have a long career free of pain.

Further, slapstick still has a lot of life in cartoons. The old Loony Tunes and Merry Melodies were chock full of physical comedy, and modern cartoons continue to carry that torch.

Physical Comedy isn't in decline, it's just moved out of the mainstream.