Top Five Gags: The Hayseed

October 26, 1919 – the day The Hayseed was released. As far as Keaton-Arbuckle shorts go, this one’s pretty middling and feels more meandering than usual, but it still includes some fun gags. Here are my favorites (spoilers.)

Horse Upkeep

Easy but delightful gag. Buster pulls up to the post office in the horse cart and then jumps down with an oil can to oil the horse’s legs. The execution is well-timed, with the horse bending each knee as Buster oils its joints, and bonus points for Buster ducking underneath the horse to get at the other side.

Dear Departed Whiskey

This gag is totally random, but it cracks me up. While making his mail deliveries, Fatty stops to pick some flowers and comes across an empty whiskey bottle. He immediately buries it, sets up a stone to mark the “grave,” and scatters his flowers over it. It’s funny enough as it is, but it now occurs to me that Prohibition would been starting close to the time this short was being made, making the “death” of this whiskey bottle even more tragic for Fatty!

Ring Size

Cut and clever. Fatty “discreetly” measures his girlfriend’s ring finger by jamming it into a piece of cheese. He then sticks a pickle in the hole her finger made, notes where it “fits” comfortably, and sends away for a ring, with instructions to fit it to “the third bump on the enclosed pickle” to ensure the right size.

Measuring the Suit

Fatty sends away for a suit as well, and he enlists Buster to help him with the measurements. While it’s an obvious comedy bit, that doesn’t stop the various bits of business within it from being a hoot. I especially like Fatty repeatedly knocking Buster on the chin as he sticks his arm out and Buster attempting to measure Fatty’s generous backside with a yard stick.

Cutting a Rug

At the town dance, Fatty and Buster take turns with an enthusiastic partner. First, Fatty spins her around the floor like a rag doll (at one point knocking Buster off his feet.) Then, when Buster takes over and the two of them stumble together, he does a backward somersault over the top of her as she goes down. Even in a so-so short, Buster’s comic acrobatics are something to see!