I love Gem of a Jam more than I can express. Let's start at the beginning and analyze everything.....almost nothing in this short fails to make me laugh. And really, throwing dust under the seat cushion; the zipper in the carpet....wouldn't it be quicker just to empty the damn dust pan in the trash??
I LOVE the sound effects in this short. They were just so ON; so perfect, so funny. From the little electrical sound when the wires go down the back of Moe's pants, to the awesome "Flower-scopy" noise, this little add-in effect when Moe is slapping Curly's face and getting squirted with water; every sound effect during the "operation", the quick little surprise noises when Curly is following Dudley around, the "boing!!" noise when the gangsters reveal the skeleton on the gurney. I adore the time they took to add these in. They were not too much; just enough. Our Stooges didn't need much to improve their stuff. But I digress.
I have two absolute favorite moments in this short. The first is the dual dance with Moe and Curly. Curly is so perfect; his timing, the claps, the elbow movements. This choreography is to perfection; I HATE the cut to Larry, even though he does an awesome spin-and-spill that would usually be worth it. I want to see the rest of the dance; I guess because I know it's not long before Curly's downward slide and besides the fan dance in the Yoke's on Me which we have to watch with disgust for the beyond poor choice of subject matter, this is the last awesome Curly dance we get.
My second absolute favorite moment is when Curly is twiddling thumbs with Dudley. He stops for a second, holds his hand up to his face, makes that really quick look mostly reminiscent of the Abominable Snowman in the Rudolph movie, and then it really occurs to him that the hand he's holding is black. Watch what he does....he wipes Dudley's hand with his and then looks at his own hand to see if any black came off in his palm. No racism intended. This is one of the funniest little quick things in Stoogedom.
Anyway, I give this a 10. I love this one.