Some children pester the concierge of a building by tying a dog to her bell pull, and similar pranks.
For sheer artistry and beauty, the best of the early Lumieres were their actualities. However, I am a great fan of silent comedy, and there's little doubt that so were the people who saw the shows: THE SPRINKLER SPRINKLED was a hit for the first show, and here's another comedy.
Like most movie comedies of this era -- and you can find stuff frm 1915 which isn't much changed -- it's basically a practical joke, and that's it. Film editing had not really been invented at this point, and comedy always has at its basis someone else being annoyed, if not badly mauled.