Hoi Polloi

Hoi Polloi is a 1935 slapstick comedy short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the tenth entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot In a cinematic adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, Professor Richmond champions the belief that social behavior is predominantly shaped by environmental factors rather than inherent traits. His colleague, Professor Nichols, insists that social behavior is determined by heredity. Proposing a high-stakes wager, Richmond says it would take him no more than three months to transform an individual from the lowest stratum of society into a gentleman through training and exposure to refined surroundings. Nichols accepts the wager on condition that Richmond refine three individuals, thereby testing the limits of Richmond's theory. Soon afterward, the professors encounter the Stooges, employed as garbage men, and recruit them as test subjects. Despite earnest efforts to instill proper etiquette and refinement, the Stooges continually falter...