Stan and Ollie managed to milk a lot of gags into the simple act of putting up a radio antenna. This is necessary because that hatchet faced harridan of a wife that Ollie is married to simply has to hear the broadcasts from radio Tokyo.This particular short subject Hog Wild really is one that Ollie takes center stage with. At first it's just him and wife Fay Holderness looking for his hat and of course that familiar derby is right where hats usually are.After that it's a contest to see how many ways can Ollie fall from the roof of a house. That's actually dangerous business I had a cousin who died from injuries sustained from falling from a roof. Still when Ollie does it, it's entertaining. The roof business is more like something I would have expected from the Three Stooges.It ends with Stanley driving away with Ollie on top of a ladder that was attached to the car. It looks like a runaway hook and ladder with poor Ollie hanging on for dear life and Stanley with that look of pure innocence not figuring just to pull the car to gradual stop to solve the problem he created.But this timeless stuff is why Stan and Ollie remain popular.

Hog Wild concerns Hardy, who wants nothing more than to go out on the town with Laurel until his wife insists that he install a radio antenna atop their roof. Hardy still winds up inviting Laurel over to help him with such a project, which will of course go awry in a multitude of different ways. For starters, the roof begins to fall apart due to the carelessness of the men, and eventually results in an epic (for the time), collision, sending the boys into a complete tailspin of idiocy.Hog Wild is standard slapstick Laurel and Hardy fare, but it provides for a certain kind of "one thing leads to another" setup that keeps it going longer than if it was just an assortment of gags (which it still is at times). The verbal banter between the two men is downplayed, and the only real kind of situational gag imposed is at the very beginning of the film, where Hardy is searching for his hat that he is scolding his wife (Fay Holderness) for misplacing when it is already on his head. Certain gags like this feel like cop-outs and deliberate distractions from the fact that the film has nothing going on under its head (sort of like Laurel and Hardy themselves).The short turns a bit more captivating towards the end, when all hell really starts breaking loose. Laurel and Hardy shorts have a traditional potboiler effect to their drama, where events escalate faster than the audience can keep up in the best way possible. Hog Wild has that effect in a low-key sense, making it at least marginally interesting even if the action and the wit isn't as substantial as it could be. This is a fine, effective short all around, despite lacking in the area that Laurel and Hardy are best in, which is verbal banter and quirky exchanges.Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Fay Holderness.

Though all of "Hog Wild" is funny, it's the ending that leaves me helpless with laughter.Since Mrs. Hardy wants to "get Japan" on her radio, Oliver and Stanley are planning to install an aerial on top of the house. You can guess the kinds of mishaps that follow.Eventually, they decide to place the ladder on top of Stan's car. Bad idea. While Oliver is climbing the ladder, Stan mistakenly starts the car, and they go whizzing through the city streets. Stan cries, Ollie hangs on for dear life.When they come up alongside a double decker bus, the women on the upper deck are stunned to see a man on a ladder going by. Oliver, ever the gentleman, tips his hat to them.Well, eventually Oliver is safely on the ground, where his tearful wife informs him that she is crying not because of his horrible experience, but because the finance man has taken the radio away! Oliver squares his shoulders and resolutely marches over to the car where Stan waits.The preceding is funny, but what's coming up is sublime. Stan can't get the car to start. He tinkers. He fidgets. He moves levers, including one that causes the car to backfire with a noise like a sonic boom. Oliver sits there expressionless, while his wife continues to cry over the loss of her radio.Stan keeps working on getting the car to go, including blasting the horn several times. Multiple backfires ring out, to no avail.No matter how many times I've seen this, I laugh myself silly. Stan is so willing to please but incapable, while Ollie is simply above it all as he sits wordlessly.Eventually a streetcar bashes into them, crushing the car into a bizarre vehicle in which the front and back wheels almost touch. The streetcar conductor who has hit them doesn't ask if they are OK. Rather, in an enormous voice he roars for them to get out of the way! Ollie merely looks at him, and then silently motions for Stan to move along. And wonder of wonders -- the destroyed car starts on the first try. Stan signals that he is turning on to the road, toots the horn, and pulls out. Oliver is stoic. His necktie flaps in the breeze.I love Laurel and Hardy, and I'm not sure I can explain why. Perhaps it's their undaunted spirit. In this case, they destroyed Oliver's house for nothing, since the radio was taken away. They now have a destroyed car, which ironically runs better now than it did when it was whole.Stan has yet again helped to ruin everything that Oliver owned, but he is content to continue striving, even in a ravaged car that supposedly will take them back to the remnants of the Hardy house.Meanwhile, Oliver has not a word to say. Broken, but not beaten.The world is a better place because they lived.

"Hog Wild" is not only one of Laurel & Hardy's best films, it's simply one of the greatest shorts ever made. Give the boys a simple situation, let 'em milk twenty minutes worth of inspired gags out of it and you have a damn near perfect comedy.In this 1930s short, Laurel & Hardy are planning to put up an aerial, ("Mrs Hardy wants to get Japan!"). That is all there is to say about the story; what we get is Laurel & Hardy playing with tools, Ollie being pestered by his wife and a hilarious slapstick finale which manages to remain completely in character. With about 18 minutes of pantomime and 2 minutes of dialogue, "Hog Wild" represents Laurel & Hardy at their absolute best. And we know how good that is!