Keystone Cop

English Etymology From the Keystone Cops, a group of fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent slapstick comedies produced by the Keystone Film Company (itself named for the "Keystone State": Pennsylvania) between 1912 and 1917. Noun Keystone Cop en informal A bungling, incompetent policeman. en 2003 Colin Evans A Question of Evidence 162 Every blunder added weight to defense depictions of the CID as a bunch of Keystone Kops bunglers, a disgrace to serious criminal investigation. en 2011 T. L. Carpenter The Amerikan Dream 174 “I'm gone three days and look what happens? You two get sent out to do some spying and end up with front-row seats at a Keystone Kop shoot-out.” Alternative forms en Keystone Kop en terms derived from fiction