Wild Wallops

If sailor-suit clad Billy Dooley wants to marry Olive Hasbrouck, he needs to beat Kalla Pasha in a boxing match.

This was one of the series of comedy shorts that the Christie Brothers produced for release by Paramount. Billy Dooley was a stage dancer who was touted as the coming comedy star in the waning days of silents. While his characterization as a limber-limbed idiot are funny, the Christie comedies of the 1920s were less concerned than their competitors in story or character than in using a series of gags; so the "story" largely consisted of how to get from one gag to the next. This resulted in a very stylized form of comedy that I find unengaging. If your taste is for the funny bits, then this might be more to your taste.

The print I saw had one of those voice-overs explaining what was going on, giving the characters unlikely names and providing over-the-top sound effects.