Pardon Us – A Barrel of Chaos or Just Barrel Aged?

So, Pardon Us, that old Laurel & Hardy flick from 1931 – I watched it again last Tuesday night with a cuppa and one of those kanelbullar left over from my mum’s fika. Ridiculous combo. Anyway, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the main boys here, legends by any stretch, and you can feel Hal Roach’s fingerprints all over the slapstick. Roach, that fella who knew exactly how far you could push a joke before it got stale… except, hmm, here I think maybe he tested my patience at times.

The film is so full of chaos, bad luck and physical comedy. Two blokes try to sell homebrew, end up in prison, and… well, then it all unravels. It’s built on misunderstandings, classic mix-ups, all that jazz. I honest-to-God laughed at Hardy’s frustrated faces – you know when he looks at the camera like “Vad gör vi här?!” But the story has these chunks that drag. Prisons have never felt so… elastic? It keeps stretching and the guards all talk like they swallow porridge whole. I’m not sure if it was a parody of American tough guys or just weird dialogue, but my ears got tired.

So here’s a personal memory: When I was maybe ten, my uncle put this on his Betamax (yeah, that was almost exotic in Sweden then) and we kids had no idea what all the prison stuff meant. We just tried to imitate the slapstick – ended up with a broken lamp in the living room and a mum who definitely didn’t find it as funny as we did. So, there’s this thread, y’know, about being in over your head and thinking you’re clever… only to end up cleaning the mess. Feels like most Saturday mornings to me.

Is it a masterpiece? Nah. But there’s something about the physical dumbness that still makes me giggle. Like watching an AI try to learn how to ride a bike. Sometimes, simple is gobsmackingly funny.

Anyway, watch it with friends. Or when you want to remember what humour was before sarcasm took over the universe.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

please note that there may be geographical blocking implemented.