Income Tax Sappy

Larry prepares a foot long hot dog for Moe. He slathers it with a liter of mustard and says to himself, "and I knoooooooow he's gonna like that!". As he takes the hot dog to serve to Moe, he grabs the jar of mustard as he reminds himself, "He might want a little mustard!" Welcome to "Income Tax Sappy," where cheating on their income tax has made the Stooges into millionaires (the national economy must have been very strong in the early 1950's). The IRS, of course, gets wise. They send over Benny Rubin in a phony beard and a phonier German accent, and the sting operation is on. Shemp displays his ardent love for mashed potatoes and gravy ("I looooooooves gravy!") by shoveling copious quantities of each onto his dickey, which amuses the maid. The jig is up for the Stooges right after Herr Rubin gets the predictable face full of those very same mashed potatoes and gravy. It's good to see Vernon Dent as one of the T-men who come after the Stooges. All in all, there's food fighting, mayhem, and a good dose of Moe handing out the physical abuse to Shemp and Larry. Alas, if only Shemp had not claimed those 14 bartenders as dependents on his W-1040.

Anyone, and I mean anyone who hires the Three Stooges as tax experts deserves what they get. Not even H&R Block would hire Moe, Larry, and Shemp and they hire some winners there. Believe me, regretfully I know.

It's tax time and the boys are doing their taxes and they think of some wild deductions. Larry opines that he should deduct $3000.00 for charity, after all charity does begin at home. Other such similar things occur and the boys get away with it. In fact they decide they're so good why not offer themselves as tax consultants. I'm not sure some real ones didn't start this way.

But even in the days before computers inevitably people do get audited and the IRS sends out Benny Rubin as a potential customer for the Stooges. Rubin was a long time vaudeville, burlesque, and borscht belt comedian and he gives the guys a run for their money in the laugh department.

Let's just say it all doesn't go well and that maybe taxes was not the lucrative employment opportunity as originally thought.

Income Tax Sappy is a pretty good short subject for the boys and I stand by what I said in the title.

This is one of only two original Moe, Larry, Shemp shorts released in 1954. Moe is at his grouchy best in the start of this picture, tearing on Larry & Shemp with seemingly little provocation. I also enjoy some of the little asides in this short, like Shemp's "always hitting, picking, doing that, everything" after Moe orders him to get a cup of coffee or Larry's little mumblings while putting mustard on a hotdog.

As previously mentioned, Shemp's part is reduced bigtime at the dinner party, but Moe, Larry, and the hilarious Benny Rubin more than pick up the slack. "You are very loose eater".

I rate this one a 8/10.

Btw, for the IMDb people, your trivia note for this short actually belongs under "Heavenly Daze".

No pun intended - I don't want to be too negative and it had been a while since I watched the Stooges (the movie that was made a decade or so ago aside, that sort of was telling their story) ... and now I watched three in a row, in a Columbia disc set. This one felt like the weakest - and it may have to do that Curly was not around anymore. He was dead and replaced by someone else. Not sure if there is a good documentary about the Stooges but there needs to be one ... they are too good or were too good to ignore.

Back to this and the theme is taxes ... well tax evasion. Of course: don't try this at home. Especially when you have bread that tries to eat you alive (if you have questions about that, imagine me having twice as many - none of which are answered). There is silly and there is outright ... well out there (no pun intended). There are other jokes that work better ... and if you love food fights ... you will be satisfied (no pun intended again)

This short is easily one of the best Shemp shorts of all time and surprisingly, this short was in 1954 when they're doing stock footage in most of the other shorts during this time and every actor turns in a splendid performance. The boys are trying to cheat on their taxes and Moe is really grouchy in this short, especially in the first half and there is alot of hilarious scenes such as when Shemp destroys Moe's prized possesion and Moe tells Shemp to give it back, Shemp does as he bonks Moe's head with it, very out of character for Shemp, then at the party scene the stooges have a nice home and they're serving food for the guests and Benny Rubin (the guy with the phony beard) does a great performance and he is one of the most underrated stooges actors in this short, I wish that he got to be in the Curly shorts and I love it when Moe accidentally cuts Benny Rubin's beard and acts nervously and tries to keep him from finding out that his beard is missing and it turns out, Benny Rubin is a undercover IRS agent and he arrests the stooges while the stooges try to flee but they accidentally sit on the hot oven while the get captured with their butts on fire, a classic short.

Although Shemp doesn't get quite as much screen time due to a minor stroke in 1952, Moe and Larry gives a great performance (especially Moe) and the people who say that Goof on the Roof (the short before this) was their final classic, I think they're wrong, I think that this short was their final classic. 9/10