Since today's episode pick is one of my all-time favorites, I thought I'd offer a few comments.
To me, the best and the funniest Stooges shorts are the most "cartoony" ones, and "Some More of Samoa" is a prime example. Everything from the crazy old man in the wheelchair to the nurse on roller skates (!?) to Curly's injection to the hunt for the Puckerless Persimmon Tree to the idol to the Chief's ugly sister, it's
all completely off the wall and it could never happen in the real world— but at the same time, it has a kind of strange, surrealistic logic to it. There really isn't anyone doing that kind of comedy nowadays... it's a lost art.
When people ask me what the Stooges are all about (believe it or not, I've been asked a couple of times), I've always told them, "If you don't get it, just look at them as if you were watching a live-action animated cartoon." Shorts like this one (and "Punch Drunks" and "False Alarms" and "Scrambled Brains," among others) have a lot in common comedy-wise with the work of contemporary cartoon directors like Tex Avery and Bob Clampett.
Anything goes— anything that can be put on film, that is— no holds barred.
In honor of "Some More of Samoa," here's the original hit recording of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," by the Andrews Sisters.
[attachment deleted by admin]
