Band leader/clarinetist Ford Sterling is a romantic rival to trumpeter Raymond Hatton for the affections of pretty Mabel Normand. Sterling enters an amateur night contest at the local vaudeville house, where stage manager Edgar Kennedy gives the quick hook to most of the lame acts. Hatton positions himself in the audience across from Mabel and leads his fellow hecklers in taunting Sterling. Hatton's arsenal contains half-rotten fruits and vegetables which he throws at the haplessly helpless Sterling with amazing accuracy. Finally he heaves a pie that has managed to keep hidden under his jacket, and it glances off clarinetist. Attempting to return fire, Sterling errantly hits Mabel square in the chops with the pastry. The angry recipient of the first thrown pie the face in movie history enthusiastically joins the rest of the audience in throwing anything and everything at the band leader, who has lost the girl but gained the hook.