Most of the ingredients of slapstick comedy are evident in this early example - the soda syphon, the pie in the face, the tack on the chair - but none of the sophistication (for want of a better word) of the art is present yet. Oddly, Ben Turpin, the instantly recognisable silent comic, is barely recognisable here; presumably, his eye had slipped into that cross-eyed position by now (strangely, it was something that happened to him as an adult while working in vaudeville) but director Btoncho Billy Anderson presumably saw no comedy mileage in his star's affliction so we never get a close-up of his face.
The film is merely a series of sketches tacked together in which Ben plays a hapless man about town who just can't stop himself from stroking the chins of the women who serve him - the shop assistant, the manicurist, the barber, the switchboard operator, the soda clerk, etc. You'd think he'd learn his lesson after the first couple of knock backs - they always turn the table on him, hence his name - but poor Ben just keeps on harassing. Sadly, the film is almost completely bereft of laughs, and even at just four minutes long, quickly becomes repetitive.