Telling Inaccuracies

Released
October 19, 1926

Starring

 * Bonedust
 * Farina
 * Jackie
 * Jay R.
 * Joe
 * Johnny
 * Scooter

Story
A bully named Tuffy moves into town and makes life miserable for the gang. He demands money of each of the gang members, who currently include Jackie, Farina, Joe, Jay R., Bonedust, and Scooter. When the gang members refuse, mainly on account of having no money, Tuffy beats them up in a field next to some woods and rips their clothes to shreds in the process. The gang has to run and hide in the woods and fashion grass skirts before going home.

The next day, the gang, one at a time again, runs into Tuffy, who orders them to bark like dogs, stand on their heads and other humiliating acts. The gang largely refuses, and this time Tuffy, who somehow has a lot of rope, hogties each of them. They struggle for eight hours in the field before they manage to untie each other, but not before being laughed at by many passersby. In particular, an obnoxious neighborhood kid named Billy taunts the gang several times.

The next day, the gang meets in their clubhouse, and decide they have to attack Tuffy all at once, and not meet him one at a time as before. They nervously go to his shack, passing Billy along the way, but instead find his girlfriend Peggy who tells them that Tuffy left for Chicago since he wants to be in charge of a larger region. The gang goes back to their clubhouse, but tells Billy that they beat up Tuffy so badly that he’ll never trouble anyone again.

Meanwhile, Tuffy has stolen some strawberries, and while carrying them home he falls climbing over a fence, and gets himself and his clothes all messy. Encountering a lake, he ignores a “No Swimming” sign and takes off all his clothes to wash himself first, intending to get and wash his clothes next, but a psychotic farmer gets a rifle and shoots at Tuffy, forcing him to swim away and unable to retrieve his clothes. He is carried several miles downstream before he can scramble into the woods and fashion his own grass skirt.

An hour later Tuffy’s mother discovers his stained clothes, and she mistakes the red stains for blood. She runs for the police, encountering Billy on the way. Billy follows Tuffy’s mother and some policemen to the scene of the supposedly bloody clothes, and then tells them that the gang was bragging about making sure Tuffy would never bother anyone again. The police leap to the conclusion that the gang might have murdered Tuffy, and lets Billy lead them to the gang’s clubhouse. Billy asks the gang if they really did make sure Tuffy will never bother anyone again, and the gang says yes. The police, waiting outside, can hear the gang’s claim, so they arrest them and take them to jail.

The next day, Tuffy is found and jailed for illegal swimming and being a nuisance. The gang is released from jail but then receives a week of community service for misleading the police. Of course they must wear only their grass skirts. When they get a chance, they beat up Billy and rip his clothes to shreds, forcing him to make his own grass skirt. The gang gets another week of community service for this, and so does Billy for purposely stirring up trouble.