No, I don’t mean “think of the little people” as you sit there twirling your mustache (real, imagined, or candy) with one hand, counting money with the other and eating finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off with the third. Yes, your boss has a third arm – not because he’s an alien at all, but because he could afford the damn surgery (yeah, he’s easily bored). I mean look at the video above of Buster Shaver, Olive and George from this Vitaphone Pepper Pot and be amazed that holy hot pretzels, vaudeville was mighty amazing back in the day. Naturally, some would call this “Reality TV” today, but I think this stuff is MUCH better than the so-called “variety” we see that’s mostly the same stuff but with battlin’ judges (boo!).

Of course, some bossy types may get a wee bit TOO worked up and consider lovely Olive being whipped around like an overworked machine part something like the “magic” they work on the employees they lord over (“Mua-ha-ha-haaaa!”). But that’s when they choke on that tiny sliced sammich and see little angels with pointy pitchforks dancing around their heads for a hot second before the maid (or the wife flipping a coin and damning her luck) gives them a Heimlich-assisted kick in the gut. Lucky bastard… we’ll get you next time…