Stylish Stouts: A Weird, Dusty Trip Through Old-School Comedy

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, unless you are deep into the history of early shorts, you can probably skip this. It’s for the folks who love that grainy, jerky, fast-motion humor where everyone is constantly waving their arms around. If you hate slapstick or get annoyed by people yelling without sound, you’re going to loathe every second of Stylish Stouts.

The whole thing feels like it was put together on a lunch break. There’s no real room to breathe. George Shelton and Tom Howard just kind of run at each other for ten minutes straight.

The Vibes

There is this one specific moment where someone drops a hat, and the way they scramble to pick it up is just... aggressively weird. It feels like they were told to 'act funny' and interpreted that as 'move like you’re having a seizure.' It’s not necessarily good, but it’s definitely something you don't see in modern stuff.

It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Sap from Syracuse, though with about half the budget and way more sweat. You can tell they were trying so hard to land the jokes, but the timing is just off. It’s like a clock that ticks a millisecond too late every single time.

Odd Observations

• The background furniture looks like it was borrowed from someone’s grandmother’s attic five minutes before filming started.
• Aileen Cook is clearly doing the heavy lifting here while the guys just sort of flail.
• The pacing is so fast that I actually had to rewind twice just to see who entered the room.
• There’s a door that squeaks in every single shot. It’s maddening.

I found myself wondering if they were actually having fun or if they were just terrified of the director. There’s a desperation to the smiles that feels a little bit dark. 😬

It’s not as coherent as Bobbed Hair, which at least had a point to make. Here, it’s just noise and limbs. But hey, if you want to see what 'comedy' looked like when people were still figuring out how cameras worked, here you go. Just don’t expect to remember much of it by tomorrow.