Their names are Howard, Fine, and Howard. They're cops. They're hot on the trail of the gem thief The Eel. God help us all.
Just the tropes, Ma'am:
- Attack Pattern Alpha: As part of his chastisement of Larry and Shemp, Moe orders them to get ready for 81C. Both of them are horrified, but have to go through with it — it consists of them running full tilt at Moe, poised to give them eyepokes.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Shemp, constantly. Their pursuit of The Eel takes them to a women's sauna. When Moe orders them to find something, Shemp runs across a woman in a bathing suit, to which he exclaims "Ooh, I found something!" Later, when they have to go Disguised in Drag to get out of the bathhouse as quickly and innocuously as possible, Shemp bollixes it by wanting to tarry with the ladies.
- Expospeak Gag: When the Stooges explain why they went into criminology:Shemp: We chose criminology because it's scientific.Larry: Indeed! In a lexicon of crime, it is theoretically propounded that passion, inhibition, and delinquency are the major contributing factors.Moe: Not to mention corruption of mind, detestations, and schizophrenia, if I may be so sesquipedalian.Shemp: A jerk with a quirk may do the work. Or, a Turk with a dirk may stick a clerk.
- Juggling Loaded Guns: Moe in one of the introduction gag segments (see Running Gag below) looks down the barrel of his service revolver before the theme plays.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: Larry does this by accident during a wartime flashback sequence, thinking he's biting into an apple.
- Running Gag: The parody of Joe Friday's iconic introduction has a periodic gag throughout the short: "I'm Halliday" (Moe), "I'm Terriday" (Larry), "I'm St. Patrick's Day/Groundhog Day/New Year's Day/Christmas Day/Independence Day/Labor Day" (Shemp), with the other two getting increasingly tired of his antics.
- Shout-Out: To Dragnet, from the Comically Serious narration to Moe stamping the "Mark VII 1/2" Vanity Plate on Larry's forehead at the end. Rather than the iconic Dragnet theme, of course, the production uses the first four notes of The Song of the Volga Boatmen.
- Stealth Pun: Shemp, as "Groundhog Day", holds up a package of pork sausage. Ground hog day, geddit?
- Stuff Blowing Up: Double subverted. Shemp, as "Independence Day," holds up a lit stick of dynamite. He smiles for a moment as he delivers his line, but then closes his eyes in worried anticipation of the kaboom. The fuse merely burns out. He moves the stick of dynamite out of frame, saying to the audience "Ha! Fooled you!". Just then, the stick explodes in his hand off screen. "Fooled me, too."
