A chase ensues, both on and off-screen (the camera never moves from its original position) until the gardener catches the boy and administers a spanking.

[4] The first screening of L'Arroseur arrosé took place on June 10, 1895, when Louis and Auguste Lumière presented a selection of their films in a larger setting for the first time during a congress of the French Photographers' Association in Lyon, which lasted several days.

In the following months, further private screenings of the Lumière films were held for members of photographic and scientific societies, including the first in Belgium in November 1895.

L'Arroseur arrosé, then still announced under the title Le Jardinier (The Gardener), was one of the films presented at almost all screenings.

[6] The poster for L'Arroseur, illustrated by Marcellin Auzolle, depicts an audience (in the foreground) laughing as the film (in the background) is projected against a screen.

Through these practices, L'Arroseur Arrosé was copied several times and released under a number of different titles in both France and the United States, including at least one remake by the Lumières themselves.

French New Wave director François Truffaut later included an homage to the gag in his 1958 film, Les Mistons.