Prologue Summary

A pseudo-autobiography of how the author imagines his future, Slapstick takes place in an apocalyptic future as Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, a former pediatrician and President of the United States, writes a memoir of his life at 100 years old. The Epilogue is written from the author's point of view. He calls this novel the closest he will come to writing a biography and like the slapstick of old comedies, it is what life feels like to him. He cites Laurel and Hardy (the dedication for the book) for their will to succeed at every challenge while being "screamingly adorable and funny." Their comedies didn't involve love and the author, Vonnegut, doesn't find it that important. He feels as if he has treated people for long periods with common decency and has had that returned so love didn't really have anything to do with it...