Election Daze

Our Gang is holding an election for club president. Mickey (Robert Blake) is looking to be re-elected and some rise up in agreement. Froggy jumps up to challenge Mickey. The initial vote is tied. Mickey tries to be agreeable with Froggy, but Froggy starts handing out jelly beans. The second vote is also tied and the two candidates have a bad solution.

The premise tries to be a political satire. It's not all that funny or fun. Buckwheat goes serious by bringing up Lincoln. The ending is only slightly funny if only a little sexist. What would be funnier is Janet putting on glasses and turning into a serious leader.

This M-G-M comedy short, Election Daze, is the two hundred fourteenth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred twenty-sixth talkie. Mickey's term as club president is ending but if no one opposes him, then he remains so. Froggy eventually decides to run against him. While Mickey offers lemonade, Froggy hands out jelly beans. Eventually, it ends up a tie so the club splits in the middle but that only causes chaos. Previously, hands were raised up when counting votes but for the final time, names are written on paper. I'll stop there and just say this was not a good short at all what with all the stuff involving elections that go nowhere and when it's all said and done, the person who's picked makes no sense at all! I'll let Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann have the last sentence that they ended with their review of this short in their book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang": "Despite the tired pun in the spelling of Election Daze, this film is more of an election doze."

Many of the MGM Our Gang shorts have gotten a bad rap (and sometimes deservedly so). And the spotty humor of shorts like Election Daze is probably why.

And yet, after watching this short recently, I came to the conclusion that much of the humor is a subtle stab at the cynicism of politics. I mean consider this: Mickey and Froggy both run for club president. They both combine election speeches with bribery (Mickey gives out lemonade, Froggy gives out jelly beans). This behavior is not unlike today's politicians who seek to win favor with voters and special interest groups. The funniest part of the film is Froggy dressed in an over-sized outfit that looks better suited for Teddy Roosevelt, proclaiming, "When you think of jelly beans, think of me!" As he's trying to deliver his speech, a heckler constantly blows on a noise-maker (again, not unlike the political hecklers of today, only they do it loudly and with signs).

The topper is when Froggy and Mickey, with the electoral results ending in a tie, decide to literally divide the clubhouse, and have their meetings simultaneously at opposite ends. Does this remind anyone of the perpetual polarization of the US?

What this short may lack in consistent humor, it makes up for in its insightful jab at politics!