intending to feed alec, presto realizes that his show is starting and rushes onstage instead. alec refuses to cooperate with the act and turns the hats against presto in a variety of ways that lead to escalating degrees of humiliation, such as letting him catch his finger in a mousetrap, hit himself in the eye with an egg, and get his head sucked into a ventilation shaft; each of these mishaps is interpreted by the audience as being part of the act. presto continues to antagonize alec at the same time, first turning the carrot into a flower and later smashing it to pulp with a piece of a ladder, the latter resulting in presto receiving an electrical shock by getting his hand stuck in an electrical socket.