The Yoke's on Me

Moe, Larry and Curly are supposed to go in the army but they return after two days. Their father makes them work on a farm. We also learn that some Japanese guys have escaped and of course they are near the farm.

The Three Stooges have made another fine piece of comedy with this short. Especially Curly has some great moments. Terrific.

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.

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.

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-

I saw this as a kid, before it had been yanked from the rotation, and even then it left a bad taste in my mouth. There were some competently worked out gags, but making slapstick villains out of American citizens who'd been interned in camps strictly due to their race was amazingly tasteless.

Moe himself might have wanted this one buried. He was a liberal guy. In his autobiography he told of visiting a town in the segregated South, where he saw a black man get off the sidewalk to avoid passing too close. Moe stepped into the street to show it wasn't a problem, and the man then got back on the curb. Then off again. Finally, the man told Moe nervously that if Moe didn't stop trying to share the sidewalk with him, he might get them both lynched.

Another thing: There are exploding ostrich eggs but no oxen in the film, so the title should actually be (if anyone cares) "The Yolk's on Me."