Pop Goes the Easel is a Three Stooges short that is about the Stooges after failing to find jobs in the midst of the Great Depression try to entice a store owner to hire them by sweeping his floor with his brooms. The owner mistakes this for stealing their brooms and order a cop to chase them. The Stooges stumble into an art school still being pursued by the cop.
Tropes
- Covered in Gunge: In something of a precursor to their traditional pie fights, the Stooges make a mess of the art school studio by tossing lumps of clay and plaster at each other.Larry: (placing a single flower on Curly's clay-topped head) Here's a flower for your hat, madam!
Curly: (taking the clay off his head) Here's mud in your eye, mister! (shoves the clay in Larry's face) - Disguised in Drag: As per usual, done by the Stooges to avoid the cop.
- Genius Ditz: Curly proves he can be an excellent secretary, as he can spell chrysanthemum. Moe gets angry when Curly wasn't there when he was needed to spell it.
- Hypocritical Humor: Moe for slapping Larry for not knowing how to spell chrysanthemum.
- Idiot Ball: Moe for not dropping the broom when the cop chases after him, even when Curly and Larry dropped the brooms they snatched.
- Language Fluency Denial: All three of the Stooges use this trick against the cop, with Moe pretending to be French, Larry pretending to be Indian, and Curly pretending to be mute.
- Obfuscating Disability: Played for laughs when Curly briefly pretends to be deaf and mute to avoid suspicion from the cop.Cop: Ah, deaf and dumb.
Curly: (immediately) Soitenly! - Police Are Useless: The cop chasing the Stooges does have persistence and determination... but he's not very bright.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: While pretending to be a foreigner who doesn't speak English, Larry says something that resembles "hock mir nist ken tschanik!" or "don't knock a teakettle" (which means basically "stop spewing nonsense").
