Superman's Short-Lived Stand-Up Career!!

Vile gangsters have hired the Prankster to get Superman out of the way!

His plan? Public humiliation!

When a call goes out that a man is trapped in a bank vault...

Even Lois gets in on the laughter!

And when the mayor of Metropolis decides to honor Kal-El with an official portrait...

Well, not that funny, really.

But everyone mocks Superman now...even the Daily Planet!!

And Superman is not going to take it!!

Uh...Lois? Your byline was on that story we just saw!! You were fanning the flames ridicule!! You don't get to play Ms. Self-Righteous here!!

Now, I know what you're thinking--this is just some plot by Superman to draw out the Prankster, right?

Nope. That would have been a Silver Age story, and we're still in the Golden Age here! Superman really did have a pine cone up his butt over being mocked!

Well, Superman has always been a bit prickly when it comes to public humiliation. This wasn't the first time the Prankster would get his goat, and it certainly would me the last time.

But as you saw, Superman (finally) figured out is was the Prankster. And now he has a plan, as soon...

Prepare to meet--Professor Hi Laryus!!

Um...

Wow, people paid to see this??

Well, it was enough to draw Prankster's ire...

Those were actual stories!!

And finally, Prankster confesses to the "crimes"...

...which causes the crooks to try and shut him up...

And Superman saves him and arrests everyone.

I'm not sure why...what crimes were actually committed? I suppose you could do filing a false police report about the man in the vault. Maybe assault for the pie in the face? Defacing public property for the portrait? It's not like any of that is going to get you a significant stretch in Attica. Why worry about "silencing" Prankster? Now you're guilty of attempted murder, dummies!!!

Anyway, I hope someone in the audience had a camera, and Superman's short-live stand-up is now immortalized in the DC Universe's version of Youtube.

From Action Comics #95 (1946)