Ah, a bit of the Distant City - over the kettle you can see the towers of some massive structure in the distance, indicating that Scoop is standing about two miles outside of town.
He doesn't like the joke so he throws a brick at his boss's head. Note that he was reaching for the brick before the boss finished his lame jape, suggesting premeditation.
There were a lot of bricks thrown in the early days of comics. And a lot of bricks just laying around waiting to be thrown.
