without dialogue.

Cheeky authority-defying sketches such as Jail Birds (1895) in which prisoners play tricks on warders and Early Birds (1899), showing the poverty and realities for the poor of London's East End, can be seen as precursors of movie silent comedy. His innovative 1904 sketch Mumming Birds, produced for the Hackney Empire in London, became the longest-running sketch the music halls produced. Many of his comics subsequently worked in film and used Karno material throughout their work.