Other forms: pratfalls
A pratfall is a comic fall on the backside. Take a pratfall, a well-timed pratfall, pratfalls and slapstick.
It is the oldest joke in physical comedy and the hardest to do safely, which is why it is a taught skill. The figurative use means a public humiliation, and the prat in it is old slang for the buttocks.
1nounpratfallA comic fall on the backside.
“The clown slipped on a banana skin and took a pratfall that made the children scream with laughter.”
pratfall is a fall.
Prat, old slang for the buttocks, plus fall.
From prat + fall.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA