Honky Donkey

"Cute" might be the best word to describe this old Our Gang short. Much of this is the same gag over and over and over.....but it's still funny.

The star of this show is the chauffeur, "Barclay," played by Don Barclay. Man, that poor guy takes a lot of abuse in here. "Algebra," the donkey, is also a lot of fun to watch.

Basically, the story is about a rich kid named "Wallace" who wants to be a regular kid and orders his chauffeur who go to alleyways and other low-rent districts so he can find some kids to play with. Yeah, you know who he discovers - the Little Rascals, who have rigged up a machine that gives them a merry-go-round type ride. It's powered by a donkey, who only moves when someone sneezes. He then chases that person. When he hears a bell, he stops and sits down. That stop-start routine is used at least a dozen times in this 16-minute short, and the donkey winds up at the rich kid's mansion with wild results.

Timeless and genuine ..harkens back to an era when comedy was sometimes physical, sometimes cute but always clever! ..how unique this was! For someone to think of something like this today and put it together it still wouldn't be as funny. Another terrific aspect of watching our gang shorts is to get a real feel for life back in the twenties and thirties... the cultural differences ..the technology of the day, such as it was, just the way people lived ..fascinating.

And that hysterical laugh the donkey had!

I mean who would name an animal algebra? It doesn't mean anything but it's fun to say and it's cute, if not appropriate and it's stuck with me all these years later. I remember as a kid it used to make me laugh. I saw it probably 40 years ago for the first time and YouTube's been uploading them and boy they sure has been a lot of fun.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Pampered rich kid Wally is delighted to find Stymie, Spanky & the Gang playing in an alley with their donkey Algebra. Bringing them all back to his home, they engage in rambunctious play. But when Algebra gets into the mansion, everyone is soon involved in playing HONKY-DONKEY to get rid of the recalcitrant creature.

A funny little film, with some good moments watching the Rascals at play. Willie Mae Taylor portrays the part of `Buckwheat'.