In 1936, Charlie Chaplin played a factory worker in the film Modern Times. Its most memorable scene takes place on an assembly line, where Chaplin struggles to keep up with the lighting-fast conveyor belt.

A genius of physical comedy, Chaplin plays it up to great effect. He frantically blows on a bee hovering around his head as his arms continue to dart across the machinery. He stops to scratch an itch, and must zip down the line and work twice as fast to return to his station. When his break finally arrives, his body reflexively reproduces the repetitive mechanical motions as he saunters across the factory floor.

Another genius of physical comedy, Lucille Ball, did a similar scene in 1952 in her show I Love Lucy. Lucy and her friend Ethel have taken jobs at a chocolate factory, where their task is to wrap the candies as they come down the line. At first it’s a cinch, but as the conveyor belt picks up speed the women are caught off guard, and begin desperately stuffing unwrapped chocolates into their mouths and clothes in an attempt to hide them from their supervisor.