The Yoke's on Me

Many people may hate this short only because there is some political incorrectness. But I'm a type of person who does not base reviews on political correctness and I think it is silly to do so. Now lets get to my review. In my opinion, this was quite a funny short, Curly's dance makes this short worth watching! I also remember watching this one at age 9 and loving it. I love the "goose" conversation the stooges have, it is hilarious. The only negative part of this short is when Curly tries to kill a goose(previously done with a duck in "A Ducking They Did Go")which is an old gag. Still a short worth adding to your collection.

Grade: A-

Ma and pa are proud that their sons Larry, Curly, and Moe have joined the armed forces. They are annoyed when their boys return after getting rejected. The boys try to regain their parents' respect by buying a rundown farm and working for the war effort. Some Japs escaped from a relocation center. An ostrich ran away from a circus.

This is a fine Stooges short until the Japs show up. One must remember that this is wartime propaganda. That means belittling the Japanese and even stuffing them with bad teeth. It is ugly. It cannot be ignored even if it is understandable for its times. It colors the whole thing and its off-putting nature sucks out all the fun.

"The Yoke's on Me" is undoubtedly the most controversial film in the Stooges' 23 years of shorts. The reason is understandable; by today's standards, this film can be considered racist. For this reason, it is rarely shown, if ever, on television.

Let me just state that, for the record, the Japanese seen in the film were not soldiers; they were Japanese-Americans sent to a relocation center during World War II. They were treated and shown as the evil enemy in this film. By all accounts - including the US government, who made an apology and reparations in the 1980s - Japanese-Americans during World War II were as loyal and hardworking as any American. Their imprisonment during this time is a dark blot in American history.

There are some Stooge laughs in this film, but the memories of how Japanese-Americans were treated during this time sullies the entertainment value. Let's not confuse the loyal Japanese-Americans with their representation in this film as evildoers. Loyal Japanese-Americans and the World War II-era evil empire of Japan are not synonymous. 2 out of 10.

One particular Three Stooges film found itself banned on many syndicated television stations in the late 1970s reasoning it jarred the sensibilities of the Japanese people. The short movie in question was May 1944's "The Yoke's on Me," released at the height of World War Two. Those bothered by the closing segment felt it ridiculed Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in federal relocation camps in the Western states during the war. The final sequence of the Stooges' 79th Columbia Pictures short film depict escapees from a nearby confinement facility intruding in the trio's recently-purchased farmstead.

One stereotype held by some Americans on the Japanese during the war is they all shared the distinction of having buck teeth. The actors playing the escapees all sport elongated front teeth, further enflaming a number of executives at the TV networks and stations to take the action of blacklisting the episode, a practice which remains to this day. However, "The Yoke's on Me" has been available on videotape and other home media for the public to see. The Jules White-directed and Clyde Bruckman-written script opens with the Stooges ineligible for the draft because of Curly's water on the knee. Spurred on by their parents, played by the acting couple Robert and Eva McKenzie, both stage and movie actors dating back to the silent era, the Stooges buy a farm from an anxious owner waiting to find a sucker to unload his dilapidated homestead. The Stooges elicit bellyful of laughs as they bumble around the farm, discovering the livestock promised in the sale is scant. They did find a domesticated ostrich which provides Curly feathers for his memorable 'fan-dance' routine. And they stumble upon plenty of pumpkins, prompting them to carve several into Halloween Jack-O'-Lanterns. The pumpkins make their way onto the heads of the escapees, causing all sorts of chaos.

Obviously this is a difficult flick to watch because of the treatment that Japanese-Americans receive at the hands of the writers. That said, it can serve as an historical document, showing just how Americans felt about the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. It's easy now to see--with 21st century eyes--how wrong and unjust the relocation camps were; back then, however, much of the country did not have such clarity.

But even without the racist content, this flick isn't that good anyway. The story meanders--the stooges get kicked out their home by their parents, they buy a house, and then they carve some pumpkins. We see a few assorted gags here and there, but nothing much memorable.

I did detect the first signs of Curly's failing health in this short. His energy is high, but I could hear a few lines in which his voice faltered just a bit and wasn't as strong and precise as normal. (Of course, he may have just been tired.)