Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb is an American short film in 1938 starring The Three Stooges.
Curly wins a $50,000 paycheck for writing the best jingle to a radio contest. Prior to collecting the paycheck, the Stooges decide to live hefty and upper-class by renting out a luxurious hotel room. Due to their clumsy antics, they end up trashing the room and upon collecting the check, they realize that the IRS has taken out 99.9903% of their winnings and leave them with a measly $4.85 to cover the hotel damages worth thousands of dollars. The Stooges immediately make plans to ditch the hotel bill and hope to return to their poor, unemployed lives debt-free.
Tropes
- Gold Digger: Lil, Marge, and Daisy who want to marry the Stooges to get a cut of their "fortune".
- Oh, Crap!: When Curly, Larry and Moe (in that order) see just how much the government shortchanged them with the $50,000 prize from the radio contest. Curly and Larry even Faint in Shock.
- Oral Fixation: One of the three lady gold diggers can be seen chewing gum constantly.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: This film came out in the Great Depression when the United States still had high unemployment and inflated prices on basic necessities. The Stooges should've known to save their $50,000 prize in such an emergency crisis rather than splash it on a hotel room. They lose most of their prize money to taxes.
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Recycled Script: This short was remade in 1952 as "A Missed Fortune" with Shemp. - Self-Deprecation: Larry Fine, in real life, often squandered his money on hotels instead of buying his own house.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: The Stooges panic, scream or faint at how much they've been taxed for Curley's prize money. It doesn't help that the hotel manager promises to bring them yet another bill to pay for the damages they've done to the room such as Curley completely wrecking the bed belonging to King Henry VIII.
- Taxman Takes the Winnings: The IRS eats up almost all of Curly's paycheck save for a measly $4.85. Their bill even provides the trope's main image.
