So You Want to Be a Gambler

What can be someone's tragedy can often times be used to provide some great comic situations. This Joe McDoakes short from Warner Brothers shows the evils of gambling addiction, but provides a few laughs

George O'Hanlon as McDoakes is down to the burlap, not a nickel to his name. But he cons a poor newspaper delivery kid and deposits said nickel in a pinball machine and hits a $50.00 jackpot.

So what does O'Hanlon do? He heads out to the nearest gambling establishment and what happens to him, happens to too many people. I won't go into the situations, but they are whimsically humorous.

We watch this and laugh and it's funny, but how does someone with a real gambling problem look at this short subject? It's like an alcoholic seeing a funny drunk act when his life is told for real in a film like The Lost Weekend.

Food for thought. The last and final gag is laced with irony.