Playing an actor allows Pimple to spoof the delusions of grandeur
of the amateur theatric. The exaggerated poses and gesturing were just as much
the object of ridicule then as now. Hand inside jacketand chin down for
Napoleon, hand on chest and arm out for Julius Caesar and blowing on the smoking
gun for the Wild West baddie were all readily understood imitations. The use of
the silhouette device, in which things are not what they seem was another comic
convention (one also used by Charlie Chaplin) from the music hall, theatre and
comic strips.
Complete surviving film (2:48)
