This Saturday brings a full day of Laurel and Hardy films on Turner Classic Movies. Rest assured: they are not to be missed.

Turner Classic Movies is presenting a full twenty-four hours of Laurel and Hardy films this Saturday, beginning at 6 a.m. EDT. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were both the best and most beloved comedy team of their time, and their better films still hold up superbly.

The TCM festival includes a goodly helping of the duo’s early 1930s short films, which are their best and some of the funniest films of all time. These films were produced by the great Leo McCarey, who also directed some of them.

The humor comes mainly from the two characters’ stupidity, Stanley’s naivete, and Oliver’s attempts to salvage some dignity during the hopless messes into which the characters invevitably plunge themselves. Typically Oliie functions as a father or uncle figure, and Stan as a son or nephew, although the two are nearly always presented as equal partners, as friends and not relatives.

The technique McCarey applied to the films was based on his extensive experience working on silent comedies: start with a small gag and build continuously until something big falls to pieces. Then, start over. Done properly, it worked every time.

The films often show the boys trying to fit into some middle-class, bourgeois setting or other, and failing miserably. Tit for Tat, for example, shows them trying to run an electric-appliance repair shop and running into increasing trouble from hostile neighbors. Another common theme is for the boys to try something naughty—such as going out drinking—and enduring frightful consequences for it. The feature Sons of the Desert, for example, shows them as lodge members trying to attend an out-of-town meeting without their wives knowing.

The values the films present are thus very positive and edifying, and the boys’ struggles to fit into a confusing modern world are something even we space-age twenty-first century ultramoderns can understand.

Also meriting mention is actor Jimmy Finlayson, who frequently appeared as a nemesis to the boys and was hillarious in his bristliness. 

For those who don’t have the full twenty-four hours free for Stan and Ollie, I recommend the following in particular: Blotto, Brats, Laughing Gravy, Pardon Us, Helpmates, Them Thar Hills, Tit for Tat, The Fixer Uppers, Sons of the Desert, Block-Heads, and the especially delightful The Music Box.

The schedule for the TCM Laurel and Hardy day follows: