Swelled Head (Details)
citation: Collier's, July 14, 1951, 128(2):36
alias: None
teaser: None
summary: When Larry Ekker is promoted to vice-president for landing the agency a big account, he starts wearing a Homburg hat to cover what his employees feel is a swelled head.
The narrator and art director Hank Beck take Larry to lunch to discuss copy and art for the new account. During lunch, Hank excuses himself to make a phone call. Instead, he rushes to the store where Larry bought his hat, and purchases an exact duplicate, but smaller sized. Returning to the restaurant, he exchanges the smaller hat for Larry's.
The joke continues at the office, and the decision is made to purchase an even smaller hat, exchanging it for Larry's already too small one. Eventually, Larry must carry his hat rather than wear it.
The joksters then reverse the process, exchanging Larry's hats for increasingly larger ones, until the hat brim is resting on the bridge of Larry's nose. Then, both larger and smaller hats are interchanged.
The joke ends when Larry's shown his hats hanging on a hatrack, and given his choice of which one to wear. He did not choose his original hat.
words: 1,395
genre: None
similar: None
people: Unnamed Narrator, Lawrence D. Ekker, Hank Beck, Jack Connelly
places: Unspecified
comments: Forthcoming