Alphons Müller’s comedies have been compiled in the collection Sechs neue Lust-Spiele für das Porcinell-Theater. They use puppet theatre (Porcinell-Theater, or Polichinelle theatre) to deal with themes related to folk life in the countryside. The texts are in part written in verse, in a style similar to ballads. Die Taufe – ironically subtitled Idyllisches Lustspiel in einem Akt (a One-Act Idyllic Comedy) – makes use of Punch motifs, with a father beating his child at the beginning of the play and a hanging scene towards the end. But it focuses more on the text than on the manipulation of the puppet.

Hans is a happy new father but when the infant screams, he beats it. His wife Liesel worries, but she is in denial. Then Hans wants to baptise the child in beer. They quarrel again and eventually agree to call the infant Stiefele (boot), so that it will always have good shoes. The innkeeper Schnallans must prepare a feast, but they do not agree on the menu and Hans beats him to death. A police officer grabs him and wants to hang him, but Hans hangs him instead. Liesel worries because of the double murder which weights on her husband’s conscience and, above all, because there is no one to prepare the feast anymore. Hans settles the matter by fetching a whole Swiss cheese.