# Origins of comic portrayal: suddenly poor = wearing a barrel **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296 "2007-04-16T03:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296/21 "2016-12-27T15:15:40Z")
[Drunkard’s cloak.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunkard%27s_cloak) Pillory. OK, so how many people (SD members honorably among them) know that “cooperage” is also a word? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296/22 "2016-12-27T16:23:43Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Coopers used to exist in large numbers, just about everywhere - oak was cheap and the corrugated cardboard box had yet to be invented. Or you could use [bags](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJvJ1F2MKc&t=1m40s). [Video link] ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296/23 "2016-12-27T16:38:10Z")
Whatever happened to that much superior column and website mentioned earlier in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296/24 "2016-12-27T16:47:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Whatever happened to that much superior column and website mentioned earlier in this thread? I noticed that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296/25 "2016-12-28T21:25:28Z")
The topic of the origins I can’t add anything to, but the idea is that the sap in question “lost his shirt”; i.e., had to sell his clothing (or turn it over as part of his debt). The trope obviously made much more sense back when clothing was expensive and even secondhand clothing was worth selling. I know a bit about clothing from the turn of the (last) century, and I’m pretty sure that around then you could buy a used barrel for less than the price of a secondhand suit. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The Edison film, [The Interrupted Bathers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lsSLWZE6yQ), that Walloon cited is available on youtube. It packs a lot into its 46 seconds. Yes, the girls are swimming in a stream in their copious underclothing when the hoboes steal their outerwear. One walks off in a barrel. Where the barrel comes from is left to the viewer’s imagination. Nitpick: those are proper ladies’ bathing suits of the era, not underwear. The film _is_ supposed to be slightly salacious, as many of the early films were, but at a level suitable for general consumption, which a film of ladies bathing in their underwear would not have been. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-comic-portrayal-suddenly-poor-wearing-a-barrel/400296.md?page=1)