The Rough House Trivia Quiz

Answer: With a teacup

Fatty has his trousers, socks, and shoes on under his nightshirt. He makes multiple calm trips to the kitchen for cups of water, even pausing to kiss the maid and eat a donut, before his wife and mother-in-law realize what's going on. When they become alarmed, Fatty yells out the window to the gardener (played by Buster Keaton with a greasepaint beard), who provides a hose with which Fatty sprays everybody and everything that isn't the burning bed before Al comes to his aid.

Agnes Neilson, who plays Roscoe's mother-in-law, also played his mother-in-law in "A Reckless Romeo" and his wife in "Coney Island".

Answer: A pan of dough

He gets up out of the dough and puts it in the oven to bake, then starts scraping the dough off his bottom with a spatula. Al later gets a bowl of dough hurled at him and dumped on his head -- which gets a laugh out of Buster Keaton.

Al St. John was Roscoe Arbuckle's nephew. When Arbuckle moved to feature films, Al did a couple of small parts in Keaton two-reelers before moving out on his own. He eventually found his niche playing sidekicks in westerns, using the nickname "Fuzzy".

Answer: The Dancing Dinner Rolls

Until "The Rough House" -- long believed to be lost -- was rediscovered, the Dancing Dinner Rolls bit was presumed to be entirely Chaplin's. Roscoe's version uses pastries and isn't as inventive, but rather leaps out at modern eyes as an anachronism. But then, film fans familiar with Buster Keaton's "Princess Rajah" dance got a surprise when a print of "The Cook" was discovered -- and Roscoe Arbuckle was seen doing Keaton's bit years before Keaton first performed it.

Answer: He's riding a bicycle and clotheslines himself.

Keaton rode bikes in several of his films -- a prototype bicycle in "Our Hospitality" (1923), a ramshackle wooden bicycle in "The General" (1926), and as a monkey in "The Playhouse" (1921). The "Gentleman's Hobby Horse" he rode in "Our Hospitality" was such an accurate replica that the Smithsonian asked for it when Keaton was finished.

In this film, we see Buster as well as Fatty and Al abusing food. Buster tramples all over the meat he was delivering, after he drops it on the soapy, wet floor. He and Al wring it out.

Answer: The maid is receptive to his flirtation.

One major difference between the Comique films and Keaton's independent films is seen in the way Keaton's characters relate to women. His character is typically fairly flirtatious in a Comique film; Buster's character is much more shy with women in Keaton films.

It was Buster who slipped on the bar of soap. Roscoe gets the meat in the face. And poor Buster gets nothing but abuse for his trouble. While he's exchanging smiles with the maid, Al yanks his feet out from under him with a mop.

Though Keaton had a reputation as "The Great Stone Face" who never laughed or smiled, he actually laughs and smiles quite a bit in the early Comique films he made with Roscoe Arbuckle. It wasn't until he took over the studio that he solidified the deadpan reactions he was to become so famous for.

Answer: On the bottom of his shoe

Buster knocks himself down when he jams the knife into the door frame while chasing Al. Then when he finally throws the knife, Al catches it in his teeth.

Answer: All of these and more

Cameraman Frank D. Williams cranks slowly while Buster is dodging Al's broom swings in the kitchen, to create an effect of Al whirling while Buster bobs rapidly. Film is run backward to create the illusions of Al catching a knife in his teeth and Fatty setting a table by opening a bundled tablecloth.

When Fatty gets knocked on the head, he sees stars that are drawn right onto the film. Williams also makes a cop and the newly-deputized Buster and Al appear and disappear by stopping and starting the filming while the man who plays the police chief remains frozen in place to allow the other men to enter and leave the room.

Answer: He kisses the maid.

He slides into the kitchen, knocking the maid down. Before he runs off, he picks her up by the head, kisses her, and drops her.

In spite of what the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia say to the contrary, Alice Lake portrays the maid. She was a fixture at Comique, playing the girl Fatty flirts with in "A Reckless Romeo" (1917), the maid in "Oh, Doctor!" (1917), the manicurist in "The Bellboy" (1918), the moonshiner's daughter in "Moonshine" (1918), the flirty patient in "Good Night, Nurse!" (1918), and the waitress in "The Cook" (1918).

Answer: He pours hot coffee down the back of Al's pants.

Fatty just grabs hold of Al's pants, pulls them away from his body, and starts pouring hot coffee. Al very quickly lets go of Alice.

It's Al who knocked Buster off his feet earlier with the mop. Big Joe Roberts picks Buster up by the seat of the pants and tosses him out the door in "Hard Luck" (1921). Fatty hits a bank robber with a chair in "The Bell Boy" (1918).

Answer: He's feeling the maid's ankle.

Fatty started out with a legitimate bit of first aid, checking the maid's ankle for injuries after she took a number of slips on a wet floor, got bowled over by Buster, and got roughed up by Al. But Fatty lingers a bit too long and even stops to kiss the dainty ankle just as the women of the house are coming in. Fatty's mother-in-law roughs him up and his wife sends the maid packing, insisting that Fatty clean up the mess.

Answer: To slice vegetables

Fatty also has an unorthodox way of setting the table. He loads everything onto a tablecloth, carries it as a bundle into the dining room, then opens the bundle to reveal a pre-set table.

Answer: A scalp massage

Fatty starts by removing the man's toupee, and it goes downhill from there, with Fatty tucking the guest's napkin under his chin and anointing his bald pate with what appears to be vinegar. He finishes up with a butter rub then replaces the hairpiece.

Answer: A sponge

He dunks the sponge in the tureen, then squeezes the soup into the bowl. When the man with the toupee indicates he doesn't want his soup, Fatty sops it up with the sponge and squeezes it back into the tureen.

Answer: gas

For some reason the gasoline only fumes and pops, rather than bursting into flame, when Fatty touches a match to it. And it's never explained why an open jug of gasoline would be stored in the kitchen right next to the stove.

Answer: He shoots up a door while smoking a cigarette.

The detective chases the thieves into the bedroom and shoots at them through the door. Fatty joins in, quite casually and really paying no attention to what he's shooting. After he chases a thief out of the house, he shoots the detective in the butt. But eventually Buster, Al, the the unnamed cop collar the bad guys.