The Yoke's on Me

The Yoke's on Me
File:Yokesonme44LOBBYTWO.jpg
Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Clyde Bruckman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Robert McKenzie Eva McKenzie Emmett Lynn Al Thompson Victor Travers
Cinematography	Glen Gano
Edited by	Charles Hochberg
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	May 26, 1944 (1944-05-26) (U.S.)
Running time	16:08
Country	United States
Language	English

The Yoke's on Me is the 79th short subject released by Columbia Pictures in 1944 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges try to join the army but are labeled 4-F by the draft board due to Curly having water on the knee. After they decide to go on vacation until a job comes along, their father (Robert McKenzie) insists they aid the war effort instead by becoming farmers. Inspired, the trio sell their dilapidated car and buy an equally dilapidated farm. The farm contains no livestock except for one ostrich, which eats gunpowder. The boys then spot some pumpkins and decide to carve and sell them.

In the interim, several Japanese refugees escape a prison camp (known during World War II as relocation centers), and work their way onto the Stooges' farm. Curly is the first to notice some suspicious activity (one of the refugees places the carved pumpkin on his head, spooking Curly). Eventually, Moe and Larry believe him, and realize that the farm is surrounded by the Japanese. Moe then throws an ostrich egg (laden with digested gunpowder) at the refugees, killing them.

Production notes

The Yoke's on Me was filmed on November 8–12, 1943. The film's title is a pun on the expression, "the joke's on me."

Controversy

During World War II, the Stooges released several comedies that engaged in propaganda against the then-enemy Japanese, including Spook Louder, No Dough Boys, Booby Dupes and The Yoke's on Me. The Yoke's on Me is especially singled out by modern critics. For many years, the film was blacklisted by some television stations, due to its treatment of Japanese American escapees from a relocation center (the characters are not Japanese POWs).

Author Jon Solomon has said, "no Stooge film so profoundly disturbs modern viewers as this one." Author Michael Fleming put it more bluntly: "Knowing what we do now about how Japanese-born American citizens were mistreated and stripped of their belongings in relocation centers makes this as funny as a train wreck."

Quotes

• Curly: "Look, look! A pelican!"
• Moe: "That's no pelican, it's a gander."
• Curly: "Mahatma gander?"
• Moe: "No, a gander, a gander! A goose's husband."
• Larry: "Yeah, a papa goose."
• Curly: "Do they have papa gooseses and mama gooseses?"
• Larry: "Oh sure. And little baby gooseses, too."
• Curly: "Oh, I read about them. They come from Germany...the goosetapo!"

External links

• The Yoke's on Me at IMDb
• The Yoke's on Me at AllMovie
• The Yoke's on Me at threestooges.net