I am sure there are worst comedy shorts out there than "Smoked Hams"....but I think you'd be hard pressed to find many. Despite having an interesting cast, this Vitaphone short manages to be unfunny...painfully unfunny as well as tedious and tough to watch.
Daphne Pollard and Shemp Howard play a husband-wife vaudeville-style comedy act. Sadly, their Civil War act is supposed to be bad...and that's the joke...but it's just bad!!! Seeing them performing it is an exercise in masochism.
A mind-bogglingly bad film. Among Vitaphone's lowest points in the history of comedy. Add to that the racially offensive ending and you have a recipe for a lousy short.
