At one point Joe cuts off a pedestrian who was trying to cross the street. The man simply climbs into Joe's back seat then exits the other side and continues on his way. He doesn't even close the car door behind him.
Joe tops him two seconds later, by pulling out then stopping dead in the intersection in order to close his car doors — and instigating a traffic jam in the process.
Fridge Horror: Joe mentions he is almost 36. The Judge says he wasn't expected to die for another 20 years. So he was supposed to die at 56? Even for the 1950s, that's awfully early. Then again, considering Joe's driving...
Moment of Awesome: Joe spinning through the intersection while narrowly avoiding two other cars is quite an impressive stunt, especially considering the cars involved. Even the MST3k crew was quite impressed, with Tom simply saying "That was great!"
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While we're certainly not meant to approve of Joe, he's supposed to be a sort of Everyman who reflects our own poor choices behind the wheel. The judge's inquiry as to whether we are qualified to pass sentence on Joe is thus intended to be an Armor-Piercing Question, but it's undermined by that fact that Joe is an utter maniac who bears no resemblance to the average driver.
Values Resonance: The entire short is very much a case of this, but especially the anti-drunk driving message — produced in an era when the general public's attitude towards it was more lax, the judge's conviction that alcohol is a danger to anyone on the road is surprisingly modern-sounding. (The main reason is that the science examining alcoholism and driving was there, but the volume of cars in The '40s was not nearly as high as it would be two decades later, when drunk driving accidents would skyrocket from the sheer number of car owners.)
