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Original illustration: Big Business lettering above a paper Christmas tree, a doorstep and a vintage car, with Momo holding an evergreen branch.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

Comedy

Big Business

FunnyTense Great first watch · Easy Comedy

Two Christmas-tree salesmen and one resistant customer escalate a failed doorstep sale into the systematic destruction of property.

Year
1929
Director
James W. Horne, Leo McCarey
Country
United States
Length
19 min

What to expect

Laurel and Hardy make reciprocal damage feel like a formal agreement. Each pause allows everyone to inspect the latest loss before answering with a slightly larger, perfectly legible act.

How to ease in

The plot is the escalation itself. Watch the ritual: injury, pause, appraisal, retaliation. The comedy depends on nobody choosing the obvious exit.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes extensive property destruction, slapstick violence, police involvement, and waste played for comedy.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
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Everyone has enough time to stop, which makes each calm decision to continue funnier. I like the grave courtesy with which catastrophe is measured and returned.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Wikidata 19-minute listing19 min19 minutes reproduces the single duration stated by the source. The listing does not identify a cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration.Source: Wikidata — Big BusinessRuntime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

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