Mutt and Jeff, in their animated world, see a newsreel of Bud Fisher and the lush life he leads off the proceeds of their labor. They demand better working conditions, are turned down and quit, to make their own cartoons.
The interaction between cartoon characters and the real world was a common theme in cartoons; since a split reel cartoon required 3000 individual drawings -- and such items as the use of film cels was just coming into use at this time, so the process was even more labor intensive -- having a live actor was not merely a nice conceit, as in the Fleischer's OUT OF THE INKWELL series, it was a practical choice to keep costs down.
But what makes this cartoon interesting is a certain wackiness that may have come from the mind of Charley Bowers -- the actual director is unknown, since Bud Fisher's contract called for his name alone to be displayed -- not only in Mutt drawing himself a film studio a la DUCK AMUCK, but the way that captioned words turn into small black balls and strike Mutt and Jeff in the head. The result is an excellent cartoon for the era and a very interesting one for historians of the field.