One Insane Ride

Released
December 27, 1925

Starring

 * Farina
 * Jackie
 * Joe
 * Johnny
 * Mary
 * Mickey

Story
Johnny and Jackie run a taxi service using an old car with no engine or brakes, but is pushed by Johnny's grandfather's horse. Mickey, Joe, and Mary are stuck doing chores, but when Johnny comes by, he and Jackie convince them to go for rides for the one-cent fare. Farina chases the taxi, but doesn't have any money so he isn't allowed to ride. Eventually Johnny's grandfather shows up and takes the horse away. The gang convinces some drivers to tow the car to the top of a hill, and then they can coast back down to where they started.

Mad at the gang, Farina tells all their parents what they've been up to, and the parents come and take the kids away. Mickey, Joe, and Mary are punished for skipping chores, and Johnny and Jackie are punished for their dangerous activity and driving without a license. They are sentenced to wearing grass skirts for another month. When they are all gone, Farina hooks the taxi to a parked truck, climbs onto the taxi kneeling on the seat, and takes the wheel. The truck pulls the taxi over the hill, and then the taxi breaks loose, going down the wrong side, which is a long, steep drop. Farina causes lots of damage as he forces people and other vehicles off the road, typically into muddy ditches or wet cement. One effect is him knocking over a fire hydrant, causing many finely-dressed ladies to get drenched. Another mishap is a piece of flypaper flying off a windowsill and into his face. When he yanks it off, it sticks to his grass skirt while still stuck to his hand. When he uses his other hand to pull the flypaper off, he accidentally rips off his grass skirt.

Finally Farina rams into a truck carrying a huge number of watermelons, which roll down one last hill and up against the taxi which overturns at the bottom. Dazed, Farina struggles to the top of the ten-foot high pile of watermelons. Near the top, he stands on one melon, and he falls through it up to his waist, his legs straddling a piece in the middle of the bottom. His feet stick in two more watermelons, and when tries to push himself up, his arms get stuck in two more. He thrashes around, and finally rolls off the pile but another melon is stuck on his head. Remarkably, no one offers to help, and the bystanders mostly run away. He has a hard time getting rid of the watermelons, but solves that problem by eating most of them. After a while all that's left is the watermelon around his groin. Farina has to walk home twenty miles mostly uphill only wearing the watermelon, a trip that takes three days. He has to sleep by the side of the road for two nights. But when does make it home he is also sentenced to another month in a grass skirt, but figures it is worth it because he got the free taxi ride.