''The Yoke's on Me'' is a 1944 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

(

Moe Howard Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...

Larry Fine Louis Feinberg (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975), known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges. Early life Fine was born to a Russian Je ...

and

Curly Howard Jerome Lester Horwitz (; October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), known professionally as Curly Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of the American comedy team the Three Stooges, which also featured his elder ...

). It is the 79th entry in the series released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

starring the comedians, who appeared in 190 shorts at 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

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

and two

geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...

, one adult male, and a baby goose that Curly helps out of a hole by filling it with water from a hose. The boys then spot some pumpkins and decide to carve and sell them. Meanwhile a police officer tells the farmer that sold the stooges the farm some Japanese-Americans escaped from a prison camp, and that an

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...

escapes from a

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

. In the interim, the escaped Japanese-Americans from the prison camp (known during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as relocation centers), and work their way onto the Stooges' farm. Curly is the first to notice some suspicious activity (one of the escapees places a carved pumpkin on his head, spooking Curly). Eventually, Moe and Larry believe him, and realize that the farm is surrounded by the Japanese-Americans (whom they mistake for Japanese invaders). Moe then throws an ostrich egg (laden with digested gunpowder) at the escapees, killing them.

Cast

Credited

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

, the Stooges released several comedies that engaged in

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

against the then-enemy Japanese, including ''

Spook Louder ''Spook Louder'' is a 1943 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 69th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the come ...

'', ''

No Dough Boys ''No Dough Boys'' is a 1944 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 82nd entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring th ...

'', ''

Booby Dupes ''Booby Dupes'' is a 1945 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 84th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedia ...

'' and ''The Yoke's on Me''. ''The Yoke's on Me'' is especially singled out by contemporary critics. For many years, the film was

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

ed by some television stations, due to its humorous treatment of Japanese American escapees from a relocation center (the Japanese characters in question are not 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 Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before s ...

!" *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!"

References

External links

* *
''The Yoke's on Me'' at threestooges.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yokes on Me, The 1944 films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films 1944 comedy films Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler American World War II propaganda shorts Films directed by Jules White Columbia Pictures short films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films