Guess who's barking up the bush?
Curly: $500 a month? It's a banana!
Moe: "Bonanza".
Curly: "Bonanza", "banana", "bandana"... long as we don't have to work anymore.
In their 49th short subject, The stooges are convinced by their old friend Jerry to take out an insurance policy to be insane for $500 each month. Unfortunately, Curly (whom Moe and Larry nominate to insure) takes this too far, leading to the doctors to operate on him.— Curly and Moe on the subject of Jerry's insurance policy.
This short subject features examples of:
- Butt-Monkey: Not the stooges to this extant, but the Orderly during the chase scenes in the hospital. Always getting bumped into when he has serving trays of dishware.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The stooges return the favor to Jerry, who convinced them to take out a policy, by dunking him in a nearby paint tray.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: The stooges are convinced by Jerry's suggestion to be insured, so they can make $500 a month.
- Gone Horribly Right: Unfortunately for the Stooges Curly is just too convincing as an insane person and qualifies for a lobotomy; this may be because Curly (in character) likely actually does have some sort of psychological condition.
- Inconvenient Itch: The trio gets fleas while hiding in a dog catcher van after escaping the doctor.
- Insurance Fraud: The stooges go along with Jerry's suggestion to buy it to get paid $500 each month if they pretend they're nuts.
- Not Helping Your Case: Moe's fabricated story of Curly being bitten by a dog, then believing he is one, mostly plays out well because the longer Curly keeps pretending, the more concerned the staff becomes. When the doctor asks Moe what became of the dog after it bit Curly, Moe says, "He died.", which is just about the worst thing you could say to a doctor after treating an animal-induced injury of any kind. Honestly, it's impressive how long the doctors restrained themselves from trying to get Curly institutionalized.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Curly pretends to be a dog after being bitten by one (which died some time later). Unfortunately, he plays this too well, which leads to the doctor to operate on his brain. You know what the Stooges do next...
- Punny Name: Dr. D. Lerious. "Delirious", anyone?
- Remember the New Guy?: This short features a character named Jerry who is an old friend of the Stooges. Shame he was never a recurring character back then or later on...
