Perpetually punching peasant machine

Steve says: "Its an animated gif of a machine that is driving along and punching people standing at the side of the road. Quite incredible. I would really like to know the story behind this." Link

[#1 posted by fabmandan , October 23, 2007 2:15 PM]

That's from the Little Rascal's.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , October 23, 2007 2:20 PM]

I may be wrong about this, but I remember MANY MANY YEARS AGO watching an episode of "The Little Rascals" (aka Our Gang) wherein they came up with this kind of punching glove on an extension, and they were driving down the street punching people just like in this video. I remember laughing so hard at that vignette that I hurt myself. See if anyone else comes up with the Our Gang/Little Rascals connection.

[#3 posted by Stefan Jones , October 23, 2007 2:24 PM]

I'm trying to remember which episode of the Little Rascals. I have it narrowed down to:

Little Rascals make a fire engine; end up going to a real fire.

Little Rascals make a race car; compete with dorky rich kid.

Both involve a slapped-together vehicle. I suspect it's the latter adventure, which features a wild down-hill race.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , October 23, 2007 2:27 PM]

and.. as I just found out, the website's homepage is NSFW!

[#5 posted by Anonymous , October 23, 2007 2:34 PM]

It's from "Free Wheeling," where Dickie, the rich kid with the stiff neck, goes on a wild ride in Stymie's custom-made taxi.

Of course, hilarity ensues.

[#6 posted by HunterZ , October 23, 2007 3:26 PM]

Why is the link to a .jpg file if it's supposed to be an animated .gif?

[#7 posted by CarnyTrash , October 23, 2007 3:45 PM]

Strangely, I was just thinking about this Little Rascals short a couple of days ago. KBHK 44 in San Francisco would run "the Little Rascals/Our Gang every day after school in the mid 1970s. I loved this particular episode!

[#8 posted by SpiderWrench , October 23, 2007 3:50 PM]

It is definitely from the Little Rascals and I am almost positive it was a scene shot in Dover, NJ on South Morris St.

[#9 posted by afo , October 23, 2007 6:52 PM]

turns out gif/jpg/png extensions are, after a cursory glance, functionally interchangeable. must be some minor ramifications in there somewhere...!?

[#10 posted by tednugnt , October 23, 2007 7:12 PM]

i loved this episode of the 'little rascals.' watching episodes of them on sat morning during the 80s in san diego is one of the highlights of my childhood.

[#11 posted by Dr. Atomic , October 23, 2007 7:23 PM]

Little Rascals is spot on. That particular episode, with Stymie, Breezy, Dickie, and Spanky, is called "Free Wheeling", done in 1932.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0022916/usercomments

[#12 posted by joe , October 23, 2007 9:29 PM]

@ AFO

You can call the file whatever you'd like but as long as the server sends along the correct content type, there's no problem.

In Firefox if you view the image (just the image) you'll notice that even though it says .jpg in the URL, the title of the window says GIF.

[#13 posted by Mark Jaquith , October 24, 2007 1:02 AM]

As I recall, the car was powered by a dog on a treadmill inside the engine compartment. My favorite part about the scene is how happy the people look -- right up until the moment they get clocked. They can see the car punching everyone up the road, but they seem optimistic that they'll be spared.

Oh, and the punching action is manually triggered by the Rascals.

[#14 posted by Landowner , October 24, 2007 5:07 AM]

I too must be a real geek. Because thats a great video, but what I'm really thinking is. "An animated jpg? Unpossible!"

[#15 posted by Suburbancowboy , October 24, 2007 6:19 AM]

The vehicle is being driven by a drunk donkey.

This is one of my favorite Little Rascals films.

[#16 posted by spike55151 , October 24, 2007 2:39 PM]

How Strange! Could this be the origin of the "Happy Slapping" Phenomenon (and the ritual filming of it for internet distribution purposes)?