Comedy, pain and nonsense at the Red Moon Cafe: The Little Tramp's death by service work in Modern Times

Abstract

This paper was originally presented at the Art of Management Conference, in Paris in 2004. The paper is an essay about The Red Moon Cafe scene in Charlie Chaplin's masterpeiece, Modern Times (1936). In this scene, famous for the Nonsense Song, where the Little Tramp 'speaks' for the first and the last time on screen, Chaplin explores service work, especially the theme of authenticity, and uses his skills as a dancer, musician, choreographer, and film maker, to provide a commentary on service work.