So You Want to Be on the Radio

What passed for humor in the '40s is quite different than today's silliness and nowhere is this more evident than in some of these Joe McDoake comedy shorts that people thought were so hilariously funny in the '40s.

This one attempts to spoof a couple who are crazy about radio quiz shows and get called frequently to participate in them. McDoake (GEORGE O'HANLON) makes a fool of himself over and over again, failing even to answer simple questions like "Who wrote 'The Last of the Mohicans' by James Fenimore Cooper?", and fluffing the answer while his exasperated wife can't believe how dumb he is. Very funny, sure.

O'Hanlon is reasonably okay as a comedian but the script is so foolish, it's sometimes painful to watch. These sort of comedy shorts drew chuckles in the '40s as fillers between double features, but everything about the radio era is so dated today that it all seems even worse than it is. Can't give this a good recommendation, even to nostalgia buffs.

***Academy Award Nomination for Best Short of 1948.

Yes, if you're an I LOVE LUCY fan, creator Jess Oppenheimer likely got some ideas for his crazy radio show bits with Lucy and Ricky from this short. 10 minutes of silliness. Producer Richard L. Bare should have expanded this to two reels.

Joe and his wife (played by Phyllis Coates) have a chance at getting some FAST CASH by appearing on a string of far-outrageous radio quiz shows, like AREN'T PEOPLE RIDICULOUS, sort of in the tradition of Art Linkletter's PEOPLE ARE FUNNY.

McDoakes -- as always -- gets the dirty end of the stick, squirted in the face with water (would you expect anything less?), a round of slick tricks that would make any other mild-mannered guest (or patsy) jump out the nearest window! Directed and written by Bare, who obviously did his homework -- and let this be a warning to anybody (even today) about game shows that go too far.

Bware of the pie thrower! How about DOUBLE UP OR DROP DEAD???

For old time radio buffs Fred Kelsey (often seen fighting with Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges) plays Senator Backtrack, a take-off on Senator Claghorn on Fred Allen's comedy show. Phyllis Coates, who passed in 2023, was at one time married to Richard L. Bare. In a few years, following this short, she would gain tv fame as the first Lois Lane on SUPERMAN.

Thanks to TCM for the memories, bringing back these oldies we first saw on tv in glorious black and white. Remastered Warner Brothers dvd box set.

Having previously seen So You Want to Be a Detective on YouTube and thinking it was only slightly funny, I found this other Joe McDoakes comedy short in the Related Videos section and found this one a little better. In this one, McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are called to a radio quiz show in which Joe gets splashed with water or hit with pie on face every time his wife answers question wrong. (and how can she get any right when one of them asks to name all first 32 U.S. presidents!) They do get some consolation prizes among which is some tickets for another quiz show in which the host is so obvious about some clues, McDoakes seems a sure winner except...oh, watch the short. I think I liked this one better because there was more consistency in plot and characterization during the proceedings. And the way things twist at the turn of a dime was also very amusing. So on that note, I recommend So You Want to Be on the Radio.

Long before television and its plethora of game and quiz shows, radio had such shows. This 1948 short by Warner Brothers is a very good and funny spoof of the quiz and game shows that aired over radio before TV squeezed them out. Made in the series of Joe McDoakes, "So you want to," or "Behind the 8-ball" format, it stars George O'Hanlon in one of his many short comic roles. Phyllis Coates plays his wife, Alice; Fred Kelsey plays Senator Backtrack, and Jack Perrin plays the radio official.

One of the shows Joe tries to get on is called, "Aren't People Ridiculous." Joe says to Alice, "We can be as ridiculous as anyone else. Maybe even more so." The last show they get on is called "Double Up or Drop Dead."

What a great parody - years before some popular TV shows that would last for decades. And what laughs this provided. Here are the subjects from the blackboard on Double Up or Drop Dead. 1 - Mid Victorian Literature; 2 - Abyssinian Statesmen; 3 - Nuclear Fission; 4 - Einstein's Relativity; 5 - Social Habits of the Aborigines; 6 - Dynamic Tension; 7 - Girls; 8 - Protracted Physics.

This is a nice 10-minute short for some good laughs.

In this installment of the Joe McDoakes series (starring George O'Hanlon), Joe and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are amazingly lucky. During the short course of the film, they appear on three separate radio quiz shows! I could say more about what happens next, but I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you if they won or not or what they won--just watch it and see.

As the short played on Turner Classic Movies, my wife commented about how silly the film was--and I would agree. It was ridiculous--but also quite funny in a brainless, madcap way. My only negative comment is that in one portion, Joe is being tormented to the delight of the audience at the radio show. BUT, as they never describe what's happening, the people listening to the show at how would have no idea whatsoever what's occurring. This, oddly, is a relatively common cliché in movies involving radio--and is seen in other films such as "The Great American Broadcast".