Hat smashing movie and tv clips?

August 8, 2007 12:41 PM

Can anyone point me towards movie or tv clips that involve punching someone in the face through a straw boater held up in front of them or any other comedic hat smashing?

I've become obsessed with the convention of smashing hats in anger or frustration, so I'm up for all tips on hat-smashing in general. The only things that I've got so far are Apu talking to Homer's spy-camera cowboy hat and Harvey Kneeslapper from Sesame Street, keeping an "I" on someones hat. Smashy smashy!

posted by Ohdemah to grab bag (12 comments total)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in651Ix15mU
posted by ReiToei at 12:52 PM on August 8, 2007

You need to get the video of the Abbott and Costello version of the "Niagara Falls/Slowly I Turned" routine. At least in the one I recall, there was some hat smashing.
posted by mikepop at 12:52 PM on August 8, 2007

I recommend a documentary by Jeff Krulik (of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" fame) called "Hitler's Hat"...
posted by AJaffe at 1:05 PM on August 8, 2007

Isn't there some headgear mutilation in the lemonade-vendor scene in Duck Soup, after the hat-switching routine?
posted by Bromius at 1:05 PM on August 8, 2007

Look for some Edgar Kennedy shorts. Seems to me the broken straw boater shtick was part of his material.
posted by briank at 1:06 PM on August 8, 2007

I remember an Abbott and Costello routine about the Susquahanna Hat Company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIXnz8R7E_w
posted by willmize at 2:05 PM on August 8, 2007

Ian Holm as Sam Mussabini in Chariots Of Fire smashes his fist through his straw hat when Harold Abraham wins the 100 m sprint in the 1924 Olympics.
posted by dawdle at 2:37 PM on August 8, 2007

This involves a non-straw hat, but there is, as I recall, some hat-smashing in Mary Poppins - somthing to do with the father getting fired from his job at the bank? It's not a funny scene, but then I think later everything works out ok and he's still wearing the smashed hat around, just for kicks, so it ends up being funny, or soemthing (it's been awhile since I've seen it).
posted by naoko at 3:10 PM on August 8, 2007

When the father gets fired, the other bankers put a fist through his top (or is it bowler?) hat and then put it back on his head. man, i haven't seen that film in awhile.
posted by fishfucker at 4:19 PM on August 8, 2007

Any number of Three Stooges shorts.
posted by Gungho at 6:47 AM on August 9, 2007

The Skipper used to hit Gilligan with his (the Skipper's) hat...
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:30 AM on August 9, 2007

Maybe not quite what you're looking for but... In "Pride of the Yankees", the team plays a joke on the Babe, and they all take a bite out of his straw hat.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:36 AM on August 9, 2007