Joe McDoakes' wife Alice wants to return to work to add income to the household. Joe would rather she stay at home to tend to domestic duties. When Alice threatens to return to her old job, a reluctant Joe agrees to her request to get her a job at his office. How will this work out?
Alice neglects her housework because she is enthralled with the long-haired piano player, Gregor Flatorsharpsky, next door. Joe buys a piano, and the accompanying free lessons, and sets out to impress Alice. Alice is vastly unimpressed.
In this comedic short, Joe and Alice McDoakes each wish their looks were better.
Joe McDoakes is employed as the seventh vice-president in a firm that only makes promotions from the employee ranks.
Joe thinks he's back in the gladiator days, and finds himself sentenced to be thrown to the Coliseum lions after breaking a string while playing the lyre for King Nero.
When his wife Alice questions Joe as to whether his insurance policy is paid up, he begins to see a plot to murder him in everything she does.
Do-gooder Joe McDoakes is the guest on the "Know Your Relatives" TV show where, to his chagrin, many of his black sheep relations reveal the skeletons in the family closet.
It's a dangerous hypnotic suggestion when a psychiatrist tells married couple Joe and Alice McDoakes to switch points of view during a session.
When a watch intended for a contest winner at the office gets mixed up and confused with the one Joe McDoakes purchased for his wife, Joe once again finds himself on the short end.
Believing he has only a month to live, average guy Joe McDoakes decides to live life to the fullest in the time he has left.
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes decides he should become a plumber.
"I never knew what happiness was till I got married—and then it was too late," Joe recalls, flashing back to bachelor days and his courtship with Alice.
Joe MacDoakes' next-door neighbor, Marvin, comes over to help him fix his lawn-sprinkling system, but they get the pipes crossed with the gas-line and almost asphyxiate themselves.
Joe McDoakes asks for a raise and is informed by his boss that the employee selected by him to run the office while he is on vacation will get a raise.
Joe plans on moving but needs tips on how.
Joe McDoakes pleads "not guilty" to a traffic violation but is convicted anyway. Handling this setback in his usual manner, the two-dollar fine quickly pyramids to a 10-year jail sentence.
Joe McDoakes and his wife love to participate in radio show contests, but something seems to interfere every time they are lucky enough to be chosen as participants.
Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes is evicted from his apartment and decides to build his own home. As the project progresses, his dream house turns into a nightmare.
In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes experiences the pitfalls of gambling.