Stoopnagle and Budd were a comedy team in 1930s American radio. They weren't a cross-talk act, because Budd Hulick was strictly the 'straight man' and feed, while Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle got the laughs ... if there were any.
Despite his elaborate name, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle was (in the team's very occasional film appearances) a conventional-looking man in a business suit. His real name was Frederick Chase Taylor, and he was a cousin of H.P. Lovecraft(!), no less. Budd looked conventional too, being slightly smaller than Stoopnagle but also wearing a suit and a trilby. They were, after all, radio comedians who didn't rely on their looks.
On his own, Stoopnagle would tell conventional fairy tales but would embellish them with spoonerisms about the 'dappy dappy hays'. In the story of the Three Little Pigs, Stoopnagle would relate how the wolf 'blew the smith to house-ereens'. Then he would explain how Cinderella 'slopped her dripper'. Stoopnagle's fairy-tale routines were later recycled wholesale by Grand Ole Opry (and 'Hee Haw') comedian Archie Campbell. Stoopnagle would occasionally conscript Budd into his tongue-twisting tales, such as the one about Phoebe B. Beebee and her new canoe canal in Saugatuck, near Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Most of the Stoopnagle and Budd routines consisted of Budd interviewing Stoopnagle about his latest inventions. This format was similar to the one later used on 'Your Show of Shows', in which Carl Reiner (playing a reporter) would interview Sid Caesar (playing a professor) who was allegedly an expert on some subject. Stoopnagle's inventions were, of course, completely useless. My favourite was his goldfish bowl lined with picture postcards ... so the goldfish swimming inside the bowl will think it's going someplace.
'Stoopnocracy' was one of the Screen Songs shorts produced by the Fleischer animation studio and released through Paramount. Each Screen Song began and ended with an animation sequence, sandwiching the live-action sequence (and a sing-along) by a popular showbiz act of the time. The Screen Songs printed the lyric on the screen (in white) so that the audience in the cinema could sing along, with a bouncing ball so that the audience wouldn't lose their place.
Here, we get some amusing gags featuring a 'Funny Farm' (madhouse) which sends out a lorry (driven by cartoon animals) to grab other cartoon animals who are acting crazy, and to haul them off to the loony-bin. There's one outrageous racial gag: we see a smiley-face sun in the sky (like the one in 'Roger Rabbit'). A cat with a spring-loaded tail splatters black paint on the sun, leaving the sun wearing blackface! The sun even says "Mammy!".
Cue the live-action sequence. Budd interviews Stoopnagle about his latest inventions, which include some spherical dice (for people who'd rather play marbles) and an ashtray that never wants cleaning because it's attached to an electric fan (which blows away the ashes).
The sing-along sequence of this Screen Song instalment surprised me, since Budd was always subordinate to Stoopnagle in the act ... but here he gets to lead the sing-along. Stoopnagle's latest invention is 'a Bing Crosby cigar': anyone who smokes it will sound like Bing Crosby. Budd promptly lights it, and then proceeds to lip-synch Der Bingle's voice singing 'Please'. This idea was funnier when Paramount recycled it 12 years later in 'Out of this World', an Eddie Bracken movie.
So far, 'Stoopnocracy' has been clever and funny, but now it just gets dumb and racist. In a jump cut, Stoopnagle magically produces a 'baby' in the form of a Negro boy (about nine years old) dressed in baby clothes, who proceeds to lip-synch Cab Calloway's rendition of 'Minnie the Moocher' while the bouncing ball bounces the lyric. I've seen quite a few of these bouncing-ball sing-alongs, but this is the only one I've seen featuring a song with a scat lyric. Several times, the bouncing ball seemed to lose its place among the scat syllables, and I couldn't blame it. Matters are not helped when the scat lyrics (printed in white) get lost in the white folds of the black boy's baby costume.
From here, we go back to the Fleischer animation, and a couple of amusing gags about "chest-nuts" (hitting each other in the chest) and "wall-nuts" (climbing the walls). 'Stoopnocracy' would have been a lot funnier if they'd left out that black kid. Normally, when a showbiz act from the stage or from radio makes a rare film appearance, I'm willing to add a couple of points to my rating of that film for its historical value. The film appearances of Stoopnagle and Budd are very rare indeed, but Stoopnagle and Budd weren't a very important act anyway. I'll rate this one only 5 out of 10.
Despite his elaborate name, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle was (in the team's very occasional film appearances) a conventional-looking man in a business suit. His real name was Frederick Chase Taylor, and he was a cousin of H.P. Lovecraft(!), no less. Budd looked conventional too, being slightly smaller than Stoopnagle but also wearing a suit and a trilby. They were, after all, radio comedians who didn't rely on their looks.
On his own, Stoopnagle would tell conventional fairy tales but would embellish them with spoonerisms about the 'dappy dappy hays'. In the story of the Three Little Pigs, Stoopnagle would relate how the wolf 'blew the smith to house-ereens'. Then he would explain how Cinderella 'slopped her dripper'. Stoopnagle's fairy-tale routines were later recycled wholesale by Grand Ole Opry (and 'Hee Haw') comedian Archie Campbell. Stoopnagle would occasionally conscript Budd into his tongue-twisting tales, such as the one about Phoebe B. Beebee and her new canoe canal in Saugatuck, near Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Most of the Stoopnagle and Budd routines consisted of Budd interviewing Stoopnagle about his latest inventions. This format was similar to the one later used on 'Your Show of Shows', in which Carl Reiner (playing a reporter) would interview Sid Caesar (playing a professor) who was allegedly an expert on some subject. Stoopnagle's inventions were, of course, completely useless. My favourite was his goldfish bowl lined with picture postcards ... so the goldfish swimming inside the bowl will think it's going someplace.
'Stoopnocracy' was one of the Screen Songs shorts produced by the Fleischer animation studio and released through Paramount. Each Screen Song began and ended with an animation sequence, sandwiching the live-action sequence (and a sing-along) by a popular showbiz act of the time. The Screen Songs printed the lyric on the screen (in white) so that the audience in the cinema could sing along, with a bouncing ball so that the audience wouldn't lose their place.
Here, we get some amusing gags featuring a 'Funny Farm' (madhouse) which sends out a lorry (driven by cartoon animals) to grab other cartoon animals who are acting crazy, and to haul them off to the loony-bin. There's one outrageous racial gag: we see a smiley-face sun in the sky (like the one in 'Roger Rabbit'). A cat with a spring-loaded tail splatters black paint on the sun, leaving the sun wearing blackface! The sun even says "Mammy!".
Cue the live-action sequence. Budd interviews Stoopnagle about his latest inventions, which include some spherical dice (for people who'd rather play marbles) and an ashtray that never wants cleaning because it's attached to an electric fan (which blows away the ashes).
The sing-along sequence of this Screen Song instalment surprised me, since Budd was always subordinate to Stoopnagle in the act ... but here he gets to lead the sing-along. Stoopnagle's latest invention is 'a Bing Crosby cigar': anyone who smokes it will sound like Bing Crosby. Budd promptly lights it, and then proceeds to lip-synch Der Bingle's voice singing 'Please'. This idea was funnier when Paramount recycled it 12 years later in 'Out of this World', an Eddie Bracken movie.
So far, 'Stoopnocracy' has been clever and funny, but now it just gets dumb and racist. In a jump cut, Stoopnagle magically produces a 'baby' in the form of a Negro boy (about nine years old) dressed in baby clothes, who proceeds to lip-synch Cab Calloway's rendition of 'Minnie the Moocher' while the bouncing ball bounces the lyric. I've seen quite a few of these bouncing-ball sing-alongs, but this is the only one I've seen featuring a song with a scat lyric. Several times, the bouncing ball seemed to lose its place among the scat syllables, and I couldn't blame it. Matters are not helped when the scat lyrics (printed in white) get lost in the white folds of the black boy's baby costume.
From here, we go back to the Fleischer animation, and a couple of amusing gags about "chest-nuts" (hitting each other in the chest) and "wall-nuts" (climbing the walls). 'Stoopnocracy' would have been a lot funnier if they'd left out that black kid. Normally, when a showbiz act from the stage or from radio makes a rare film appearance, I'm willing to add a couple of points to my rating of that film for its historical value. The film appearances of Stoopnagle and Budd are very rare indeed, but Stoopnagle and Budd weren't a very important act anyway. I'll rate this one only 5 out of 10.