Topic: The "Two men in one coat" Gag from Horse Collars and Crash goes the Hash?

[3Stooges]

This is one of my all-time favorite stooge gags. Does anyone have an idea where this gag originated from? I've seen a lot of old time comedies like Keaton, Arbuckle, Chaplin etc... but I've never seen it anywhere else but in Stooge films.

Is this something that the Stooges or the Columbia writers came up with? Or is it a standard gag that a lot of comedians used?