Fishy Tales

Length: One Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gordon Douglas
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: William Ziegler
Titles:
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: August 27, 1937
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

The Short[]

Plot: Alfalfa is giving a William Tell demonstration for the neighborhood kids with Porky as the oblivious victim; so oblivious in fact that the hungry boy keeps eating the apple Alfalfa is trying to shoot on his head with a popgun. He gets replaced by Buckwheat who's not hungry. The trick is a success, but Alfalfa goes too far in repeating it backwards and ends up hitting Butch in the forehead. Spanky gets him calmed to let it go as an accident, but Junior shoots Butch again. Worse, when he turns around, Alfalfa is seen holding the gun after taking it from Junior. Butch now swears to beat up Alfalfa who faints. He departs with the suction dart still stuck on his head with the promise to return and finish the job. Spanky meanwhile has an idea: Butch won't hurt Alfalfa if he believes he's already injured. In the clubhouse for the Wise Owl Club, Alfalfa places his right leg through the hole in a bed with a dead fish caught by Buckwheat placed in a sock as his other leg. Butch comes to see the injury for himself as Spanky weaves a story on how Alfalfa "dislokated" his leg while defending Butch's honor. The whole misconception works to a point. Juinor is hardly helpful tickling Alfalfa's real foot under the bed as cats and sand crabs from an overturned bucket reveal the hoax. Realizing he's been lied to, Butch is more than ready to fight as Alfalfa crashes through the wall, leaving his outline behind him.
Quotes:

"You're darn right, it's Butch!" - Butch
"I'm trying to get my own self out of it! How far's Europe?" - Alfalfa
"I dont' know what you're gonna do, but I'm gonna run away to New York, or maybe Brooklyn!" - Alfalfa
"Alfalfa's cats... they're worried about his leg." - Spanky

Notes/Trivia:

No adults appear in this short.

Remade by Dell Comics as "A Fishy Story." The story appeared in issue No.936 for the Four Color Little Rascals series. In this version, the Rascals are fed up with the wrath of neighborhood roughnecks Toughey McGurk and the Pirates. In an attempt to get their own form of revenge on Toughey, the kids paint a version of Toughey's face on a picket fence, and charge neighborhood kids to seek a chance in throwing tomatoes at the painting. Spanky grabs a tomatoe and accidentally hits the real Toughey when he and his henchmen come over to put a stop to the Rascals' money-making scheme. The rest of the story, with exception of the ending, is the exact same story of "Fishy Tales," but with the Spanky and Alfalfa roles switched.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Night 'N' Gales
Next Short: Framing Youth