[1] Two comedians perform a series of sketches in a theatre for a group of Communist Party officials, including a critic censor.
Cast members include:[3] The movie was directed by Lü Ban of the Changchun Film Studio during the period of lessened censorship in 1956–57 (known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign).
[2] During the Anti-Rightist Movement, a backlash against the liberal Hundred Flowers Campaigns, the movie was subject to harsh criticism.
[1][5] Chen Huangmei, an important Party official described as "film czar", lambasted the movie in an editorial in People's Daily, as "thoroughly anti-Party, antisocialist, and tasteless".
[1][6][7] The disastrous reception of the movie by the film censors was one of the reasons for other Chinese film makers putting more effort into self-censorship and abandoning the genre of satirical comedy (the next one would not appear in Chinese theaters until mid-80s);[1][7] for years to come, the dominant model of comedy in China became one that avoided conflict, and presented safe stories involving model socialist citizens learning how to better live in the harmonious socialist society.