I have to agree with Jim on this. I don't think people are understanding the question. Yes, one can debate that shorts like Horses Collars, Pop Goes The Easel, Men In Black, etc. are better than Punch Drunks. The thing is, they're all great shorts in their own way. But which one was the FIRST one? That would be Punch Drunks. I understand if someone can't decide between Woman Haters or Punch Drunks because maybe, for some reason, one or two people here may consider Woman Haters to be one of their favorites. But most stooge fans consider Woman Haters to be an unusual shorts since it's a musical and all in rhyme. Most won't consider it a great short and it's not the short "where everything clicked right away." In that case, all 190 shorts would be musicals and all in rhyme. Punch Drunks was the first short that a lot of people consider great (not the best, mind you).
Unless you consider Punch Drunks to be an awful, vomitous short, I don't see why it would be hard to consider it the first great short. It is not even close to being my favorite short as I can name a lot more shorts that I like better, but IMHO, it's a great short that started it all.