Top Five Gags: Oh, Doctor!

September 30, 1917 – the day Oh, Doctor! was released.  This one is both fairly light on Buster overall (more than, say, The Rough House, but a lot less than the shorts to follow) and features him in one of his more unusual roles ever, playing what appears to be Fatty’s actual child.  He wears short pants, calls Fatty “Pop,” and cries whenever Fatty wails on him, with not even a nod to the fact that Buster is clearly a grown man in his 20s.  Ha!  That said, it means he appears only briefly on today’s post.

Parking the Car

When Fatty and his family get out of the car for an outing, Fatty appears to “drop anchor” beside the curb.  Even better is the fact that the makeshift anchor tied to the car in tiny and can’t weigh more than five pound – great sight gag.

DIY Binoculars

Another sight gag – with his wife hogging the binoculars at the horse race, Fatty improvises, making his own out of a pair of empty wine bottles.  Resourceful and funny!

Giving Junior a Wallop

Only one Buster moment on this list, but it’s a goodie.  Most of these shorts have a hilarious moment that I mention every time I talk about the short, and this is the one for Oh, Doctor!  It’s awesome enough that Fatty smacks Buster in the face and he somersaults backwards over the table, landing perfectly in the chair on the other side.  What make it art is when the camera cuts back to him not two seconds later and he’s already struck a wholly careless pose, nonchalantly reading a book with his feet crossed on the table.  Love it!

Drumming Up Business

Fatty, driving by a snakeoil salesman promising a cure-all to put doctors out of business, decides to do something about it.  He hops out of the car while it’s still running and watches it plow right through the crowd.  The kicker is when he strolls up afterward handing out business cards to all the new prospective patients.

The Only Remedy

Fatty and the lovely lady both know her claim to need a doctor is just an excuse for canoodling, and their early maintenance of that pretense is just flirting.  When Fatty declares that “courage” is the only remedy for what ails her, he opens up his doctor’s bag, revealing several bottles of liquor, two glasses, and a cocktail shaker.