[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Goat_9220.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Epic Spot Check Fail.]]

''The Goat'' is a short film from 1921 written by, directed by, and starring Creator/BusterKeaton.

Buster goes from Forgotten Man to Most Wanted when his photograph is mistakenly circulated as that of an escaped criminal.

''The Goat'' can be seen in its entirety at [[https://archive.org/details/TheGoat archive.org]].
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!!This short film provides examples of:
* AmusingInjuries: The Police Chief gets BuriedAlive under a pile of coals. Of course he lives.
* AuthenticationByNewspaper: Wrongfully. People recognize Keaton as the murderer from the [[WantedPoster Wanted ad]] in the newspaper.
* BringIt: As Buster is being pursued by police, he decides to stop running and turns to fight. Buster throws down his jacket and raises his fists as if inviting a fight, but conveniently a train passes between him and the police allowing him to run away without fighting.
* BuriedAlive: The Police Chief, under a pile of coals.
* CardboardPrison: Dead Shot Dan is easily able to escape incarceration. He just flips the light switch and runs away while the room is dark.
* CosmicPlaything: Buster, seemingly.
%%* DoubleTake
* DramaticCurtainToss: The artist revealing his clay horse statue, with Keaton on top.
* ElevatorGag: When Buster makes the elevator shoot through the roof.
%%* ElevatorSnare: The elevator chase scenes.
* EscalatingChase: First it's one, then two, then three police men pursuing Keaton.
* FailedASpotCheck: Buster approaches a crowd that has gathered to see a wanted poster, without seeing for himself who is depicted on the poster. See picture.
* {{Fainting}}: The artist who watches his clay sculpture being destroyed by Keaton.
* {{Flashback}}: Keaton flashing back to the scene where he gives the jerk pedestrian a good beating. The Wanted ad makes him believe he killed that man.
* {{Frameup}}
** Dead Shot Dan substitutes a picture of Buster for his mugshot.
** A crook shoots at a cop and leaves the gun in Buster's hand.
* HelloAgainOfficer: A staple of silent comedy. First Keaton sends the three police men off in a truck but a few scenes later, the truck unloads the cops right in front of Keaton and the chase is on again.
* IrisOut: The movie starts with an Iris In and has at least two Iris Out in the middle section and at the end.
* KarmaHoudini: Dead Shot Dan, apparently.
* LeftHanging: One would expect Buster to [[ClearMyName clear his name]], most likely by capturing the real Dead Shot Dan. One could be wrong.
* LiteralAssKicking: Played straight, and subverted when Buster jabs a dummy with a pin.
* LookBehindYou: Buster fools the police men this way.
* MeatgrinderSurgery: Played for laughs. Buster freaks when he sees the saw, drill and hammer placed on his chest, believing this to be the surgeon's tools.
* MistakenIdentity: Keaton is [[MistakenForMurderer mistaken for the criminal Dead Shot Dan]] because of the wrongly attributed mug shot.
* MurderousMannequin: Played for laughs. Buster strikes a match on a cigar store Indian that turns out to be a living, and irate, person.
* TheOner: A train appears on the horizon, steams forward, and stops just far enough from the camera for a medium shot of Buster, who was seated on the locomotive's cowcatcher the entire time. Apparently done solely to demonstrate the cameraman's {{nerves of steel}}.
* OpenSaysMe: The Police Chief rams open the front door to his apartment after he locked himself in.
* OutsideRide: Buster grabs onto a car to be dragged away from the cops. Later subverted when Buster clings to a spare tire on the backside of a car but then the car drives off without it.
* PaperThinDisguise: Keaton adds a beard to the life-size mugshot of his, in an attempt to fool the Police Chief. But the latter looks through the scheme.
* SarcasmMode: The opening intertitle, "On Millionaires' Row," is followed by an iris open on [[TheGreatDepression a breadline]].
* SmokingIsCool: Right after {{the oner}}, Buster puts a cigarette in his mouth and lights it against the side of the train engine.
* SternChase: Buster is pursued by police men through the entire film.
* SuperWindowJump: A feisty window jump saves Keaton from an unwanted surgery.
* TrainEscape: Happens twice in different flavors.
** First a crossing train traps the three police men on the other side of the tracks, allowing Keaton to escape.
** Later, Buster uncouples the train car occupied by the cops.
* WantedPoster: Keaton's mugshot appears on the Wanted poster for Dead Shot Dan.
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