This part is especially funny in historical context because going around knocking off hats in that era would simply not be done because of how deliberately offensive and taboo it would be.
It would be like going around and slapping strangers in the face, spitting on them or giving them atomic wedgies.
It would be a sure fire way to start fights, duels or a full on riot.
Someone would probably be so offended they would shoot you and they'd probably get away with it because if a judge or jury heard that he was going around knocking people's hats off they'd call it justifiable murder because only someone with absolutely no sense of morals or decency would do such an alarming thing and was obviously criminally insane.
Oh totally. It's the 1800s equivalent of intrusive thoughts on the scale of randomly punching people in the face.
Today it's practically a TikTok prank/reaction video because some people suck and need a paddlin', but in the 1800s going around knocking people's hats off is about as offensive as throwing poop.