In Ring Lardner’s classic short story “Haircut,” the narrator is an ingenuous country barber named Whitey. Whitey tells the story of Jim Kendall, whom the reader soon discovers used to be a well-liked regular at the local barbershop, but who is now deceased. Throughout the story Whitey extols Kendall as a “card” and “character,” “kind of rough, but a good fella at heart.” However, the reader quickly realizes that Kendall is not a good person at all. Lardner’s brilliant use of Whitey as naïve narrator is a device for achieving savage irony.
Jim Kendall is lauded as a humorous practical joker. For example, Jim plays a joke on Whitey. Jim can change his voice and mimic anybody’s voice. Jim changes his voice to that of Mrs. John Scott, and says her “husband was dead and would I come out and shave him.” So, Whitey goes to Mrs. John Scott’s house and Mr. John Scott opens the door. Whitey figures out it is Jim playing a joke on him. In addition, another joke that Jim Kendall plays is mailing post cards to people he doesn’t know and writing nonsense on them. When he travels, he gets names from store windows and sends them post cards, saying something like “ask your wife about the book agent that spent the afternoon last week,” or “ask your Missus who kept her from gettin’ lonesome the last time you was in Carterville.” Then he would sign the card “A Friend.” Jim Kendall is a joker, but some of his jokes can be mean.
Kendall’s jokes are often cruel and spiteful. For instance, he tells his wife and two kids “that he was goin’ to take them to the circus.” Instead, Jim just sits around and drinks gin all day at Wright’s Pool Room. Jim never shows up at the circus. This shows that Jim is an unreliable and disrespectful person. He is despicable for doing this to his wife and kids. Furthermore, Jim wants Julie Gregg for himself, so he tricks her by faking his voice and trying to sound like Doc Stair by saying “I must see you this night and can’t wait no longer.” Not knowing it is Jim’s voice, Julie eventually falls for his trick and goes to see him without hesitation. When Julie Gregg arrives at Doc Stair’s office, Jim and his gang run after her and scare her by hollering at her. His harsh and practical jokes often make people angry.
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Kendall’s vicious chicanery winds up getting Kendall killed. For example, Jim pretends to be Doc Stair and says to Julie that “he must see her that night, he couldn’t wait no longer to tell her somethin’.” Jim brags about this malicious joke of his, which Paul Dickson hears about. He then runs to Doc Stair to tell him the story. This simply causes Doc Stair to get angry and want to get revenge on Jim. Moreover, Doc Stair is talking to Paul and says, “Anybody that would do such a thing ought not to be let live.” Doc Stair is furious and wants to make Jim suffer for what he does. The next morning Paul Dickson decides to go duck-shooting with Jim—but for one reason only. To kill him because of what Doc Stair says. When Paul eventually shoots Jim, Doc Stair, being the coroner, says it was a “plain case of accidental shooting,” knowing it was really a plain case of murder. Jim Kendall is a cruel and horrific bastard who deserves to be killed.
The deceitful jokes that Jim plays on people cause his future death. Whitey, not knowing that Kendall is actually a rude and obnoxious person, blabs on about how Jim is a “card” and “character.” He never realizes the type of person that Jim Kendall really is.
