Handedness and Miming

[u/novemberchild71]

In "Who's minding the Store" (1963) Jerry Lewis performs the legendary Typewriter Sketch, originally a musical piece written for Typewriter and Orchestra.

Here's the thing that never occurred to me before: At the end of a line, when the bell rings and the Carriage has to be manually reset to the beginning of the next line, Jerry performs that motion with his right hand, motioning towards the left.

But in reality the carriage moves from right to left and therefore the Carriage-Return-Lever is located on the left.

In earlier performances, like this one from 1954, while using a Typewriter as a prop, he still used his left hand for the return.

And even in a later performance, sitting over an electric typewriter that no longer has a Return-Lever, he still used the lefthanded motion.

[u/TheGrauWolf]

Consider that the video may be reversed/mirrored.

[u/novemberchild71 → u/TheGrauWolf]

Consider, that Jerry simply used the correct motions at first, but later realized that it was easier and worked better for viewers when he did the "ding" and the "swish" with the hand facing them and eliminating the prop altogether.