This film is in the public domain and may be viewed in its entirety on YouTube
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"Cops!" provides examples of:
- The Alleged Steed: The deaf, denture-wearing horse.
- All-Natural Snake Oil: "Dr. Smith, Goat Gland Specialist"
- Bait-and-Switch: A stealthy joke. Buster takes his horse in to visit the goat gland specialistnote and she perks up quite a bit. Buster then glances at the miracle worker's sign and pauses for a few seconds before walking back inside in a suspicious manner — but his intentions are innocent. He's only retrieving his hat.
- Black Comedy: Specifically, Kafka Komedy.
- Blind Alley: Buster is able to hide in a doorway when police officers rush in from all sides.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: There is one at the parade who throws a bomb that lands beside Buster. The latter is then Mistaken for Terrorist.
- Cartoon Bomb: The cartoonish bomb that kicks off the chase.
- Con Man: Buster is being had by one.
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: Buster lights his cigarette off the fuse of a bomb.
- Did Not Get the Girl: At the end the girl refuses to hook up with Buster. Well, she was asking for him to become a business man, not a police officer.
- Downer Ending: See Spurned into Suicide.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Buster manages to dress as a police officer at the end. But it doesn't help his cause.
- Escalating Chase / Everyone Chasing You / Hot Pursuit: At first Buster chased by a squad of police men but ends up pursued by what looks like a few hundreds of them.
- Extendo Boxing Glove: This film provides what is quite possibly the Ur-Example. Buster improvises an ingenious device to signal a left turn with a boxing glove on a pantograph. It works quite well, until he encounters a traffic cop at an intersection, clocking him twice as he makes a u-turn.
- Irony: "Maybe he was arrested for speeding."
- Lemming Cops: At the end, they all rush into the precinct station like lemmings, enabling Buster to lock them up.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: The cops experience Clothing Damage when the bomb goes off at the parade, but nobody seems to have been harmed otherwise.
- Outside Ride: Combined with a Vehicle Vanish (see below).
- Percussive Pickpocket: Early on, Buster steals the rich man's wallet while trying to help him up but then making both of them fall down on top of each other.
- Spurned into Suicide / Suicide by Cop: Implied at the end. After initially escaping the cops and then being rejected by the girl again, he commits suicide by turning himself in to the angry mob of cops.
- Undercrank: Used sporadically in the big Chase Scene.
- Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Buster packing a vase and a pitcher.
- Wire Fu: When Buster is launched from a seesaw.
