Is This a Joke?

Elissa Landi and Charley Chase host an East Asian themed garden tea party in Hollywood. After introducing a few Hollywood luminaries who are attending the party, they present a number of musical and/or dance performances to entertain the crowd. This set of performances also includes ethnic Chinese actress Anna May Wong modeling some fashions she brought back from her first ever trip to China. Through it all, one of the guests, already inebriated, is having a few problems mixing and serving the cocktails he wants.

A man and a woman have an awkward encounter at an indoor playground.

Alex and Gershon are both playwrights and lovers. Although Gershon is older and they are not both sucessful, they manage to maintain a long term relationship.

Danny ponders a way for rival gangs to avoid violence at an upcoming dance.

A newly arrived guest of a Hollywood hotel charms and amazes the regulars, and they decide to invite him to their Christmas dinner.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.

Professor Pierre Ginsberg is having wife trouble and, on the advice of his lawyer, sets out to wear her down with kindness; she wants constant entertainment his lawyer promises him that a month of dancing and entertainment will eventually kill her or, at least, calm her down some. The exact opposite happens and Professor Ginsberg stands a good chance of dying himself. He manages to sing a song, in the best Willie Howard style, along the way.

Ill-tempered Billy proves troublesome for fellow taxi drivers Franklin and Clyde.

Tasha Grant, at age 17, goes to a party and gets drunk, not even realizing the potential consequences of her actions. This film introduces the danger of alcohol to youth.

A political quarrel between two men that ends in laughter.

During a strike, several workers are killed in a confrontation. The wife of one of them kills the factory owner. At her trial, the owner's son asks for mercy, knowing that his father was wrong. Because of that the wife is freed.

At an island penal institution, new prisoners are brought in one-by-one, and introduced to the harsh realities of prison life. They are put in fetters, sent to perform hard physical labor, and treated brutally. One convict manages to cut through the bars on his cell window. He climbs out, steals a boat, and begins a desperate attempt to escape from the island.

A father and son are working in a coal mine. An explosion occurs, which kills the son.

A young woman receives a message, and hurriedly leaves home. But the message was a trick to lure her into a trap, where she is assaulted and killed. When her body is found floating in the river, it is brought to her father. Once he realizes what has been done to his daughter, the father immediately sets out in an effort to extract vengeance.

Franklin gets into a disagreement with a tough sea captain. However, he doesn't find out until later that the captain is his fiance's father.

Two sailors decide to settle down and get married, and live to regret it.

Andy makes elaborate plans to attend a prizefight, and they all backfire.

A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.

A determined young boy living in a small village strives to obtain enough money to purchase a ticket to the cinema.

Joe has lost everything and is now addicted to coffee.