Tassels in the Air

Infobox Film
name = Tassels in the Air


caption =
director = Charley Chase
writer = Al Giebler
Elwood Ullman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Symona Boniface
Bess Flowers
Bud Jamison
Victor Travers
Leo White
cinematography = Allen G. Siegler
editing = Art Seid
producer = Charley Chase
Hugh McCollum
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US April 1, 1938
runtime = 17' 09"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:143112
imdb_id = 000030834
preceded_by = "Wee Wee Monsieur"
followed_by = "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb"

"Tassels in the Air" is the 30th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are inept janitors who stencil the wrong occupation names on the doors of their office building. As a result, their janitors' room is labeled as belonging to Omay, a famous interior decorator. Mrs. Smirch (Bess Flowers), who wants to hire Omay to redecorate her house, mistakes Moe for the real Omay. The Stooges agree to do the job and proceed to make a mess of Mrs. Smirch's house.

Notes

* The title "Tassels in the Air" is a play on the old expression, "Building castles in the air," i.e. dreaming of achieving the impossible. [Solomon, Jon. (2002) "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion", p. 127; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0971186804]
* Curly goes crazy whenever he sees tassels. The cure is to tickle his chin with a paintbrush.
* Many of the gags used in the table painting scene would be reused by Moe, Larry, and Shemp in their unsold television 1949 pilot "Jerk of All Trades", which, coincidentally, also featured Symona Boniface. The gags would be recycled again the following year in "A Snitch in Time".

Quotes

**Moe: "Immegay the altsay."
**Moe: "Eekay araychay on."
**Curly "(irritated)": "Hey, are you guys talking behind my back?!"
**Moe: "That's pig Latin."
**Larry: "Sure, anybody can understand it. It's very simple."
**Curly: "Well I can't, and I'm simple."
**Moe: "My name is Moe. In pig Latin, that's Oh-may."
**Larry: "My name is Larry. Now, what's that in pig Latin?"
**Curly "(guessing)": "Oh-may?"
**Larry "(annoyed)": "It's Arry-lay!"
**Moe: "Boy, are you um-day."
**Curly "(excited)": "Oh, you mean I'm um-day in pig language?"
**Moe: "You're um-day in any language."
**Moe: "Now I'll explain it so even you can understand it. Moe: Omay. Larry: Arry-lay. Curly?"
**Curly: "Curly-cue!"

**Butler: "Gentlemen! You're not going to paint that table?"
**Curly: "Why soiteny!"
**Butler: "But you can't do that! It's a rare antique!"
**Moe: "What, that old thing?"
**Butler: "It once belonged to Louis XVI!"
**Larry: "Oh, secondhand, eh?"

**Thaddeus Smirch "(seeing Moe about to paint)": "Boy, I'd love to help. I haven't had a brush in my hands for years."
**Moe "(annoyed)": "Sure, you can help. Go mix me a batch of spotted paint."

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).