The Comical side of Suspenders and Braces

Suspender straps are made from various materials, including boxcloth, cloth, and elastic. Most suspenders use elastic material. This flexibility and stretch is helpful when bending, rotating, and shifting throughout the day. But stretch has its downside: it snaps and gets caught in things. As such, suspenders and braces can be used for humor and comical relief. How many vintage films have you seen where a man bends down an his rear suspender straps pop off and are now dangling over his head? Or someone pulls back a strap to test out the stretch? Or when suspender buttons pop off and the victim's pants fall down.

Here are some examples I’ve come across where braces help get a laugh.

Tintin in "The Crab with the Golden Claws"

After crashing their plane in the middle of the Sahara desert, Tintin and Captain Haddock set off to find civilization. The beating sun causes them to strip their layers of clothing, with Haddock revealing that he is wearing a pair of Y-back braces.

Captain Haddock wears black braces

The heat eventually gets to Haddock, and he suffers a heat stroke. Haddock imagines Tintin as a bottle of champagne and starts wrestling him to the ground. During the skirmish Haddock’s front braces surprisingly pop off. Haddock comes to his senses for a moment, but then sees a mirage and makes a dash for it. With his front buttons popped off, this leaves his braces dangling behind him. Snowy the dog dashes off in pursuit of Haddock. The closest thing Snowy can grab to slow Haddock down are his flapping braces, which Snowy does.

Snowy trying to slow down Haddock

But it’s futile. The rear brace buttons pop off, Haddock tumbles over, and Snowy receives the full impact of the snapped braces in his face. Ouch! Now Haddock has to wander through the desert with sagging pants.

Laurel and Hardy in "Bacon Grabbers"

Classic comedians, Stan and Oliver, are trying to enter a house through the second floor using a ladder, but it doesn’t quite reach the top. Oliver decides to elevate the ladder up to his waist, so Stan can reach the second floor. While wrestling and juggling of the ladder, the ladder ends up sit on Oliver’s waistline, on top of his brace buttons. As with Tintin, Oliver’s four front brace buttons conveniently pop off very quickly from the strain. While Stan is being obstructed with a dust broom, Oliver’s braces are now dangling behind him. However, his jacket is still on, which would inhibit the straps from falling below the waistline. But for the sake of the joke, the straps are now dangling below.


A curious dog comes out of nowhere and starts tugging on Oliver’s dangling brace straps. However, the rear buttons are remarkable strong and remain attached to the pants, unlike the front ones – but that’s all for the gag. Oliver is left holding up the ladder and holding up his pants, which are being dragged down by the dog’s grip on his braces. All for the comical moment.

A dog finds Oliver's dangling braces

These two comical moments are the norm - braces pop off and the loose straps are used for the ensuing gag. The next example is different and probably more common.


Ginger Rogers in "Monkey Business"

In this 1952 movie Cary Grant plays Dr. Barnaby Fulton, a research chemist trying to discover the fountain of youth. He is under the supervision of Oliver Oxley. Barnaby’s wife, Edwina Fulton, is played by Ginger Rogers. Barnaby accidentally digests a dose which temporarily causes him to act like a teenager. After recovering, Barnaby is quick to retest his theory of the mixture and Edwina willingly joins in. Barnaby’s boss, Oliver is also very curious to see the results and wants to watch. That sets the scene for Barnaby, Edwina, and Oliver together in the laboratory with all eyes on Edwina. She takes the mixture, but doesn’t react immediately. Barnaby and Oliver begin discussing if it will take effect or not.

Stepping back, Oliver Oxley is a middle-aged man with a large midsection. Similar to Oliver Hardy above, he is wearing a customary 1950s work outfit - a 2-piece dark suit with a white dress shirt and spotted tie. This was the standard style for office men during the 50s, worn by young and old alike. His pants are high-rise with the waistline coming above his navel. He wears a pair of inverse-U braces to hold his pants at a constant height - a belt not be effective to hold up the pants of this portly gentlemen. This is all evident because Oliver's left hand is in his trouser pocket, pushing his suit jacket back and displaying the inverse U-tabs of his braces. I'd also guess that his brace straps are polka-dotted to coordinate with his neck tie.

The camera angle focuses on the discussion between Barnaby and Oliver, with Edwina sitting on a chair to the left. During the scene you can see Oliver’s diaphragm expand and contract as he inhales and exhales. His pants waistband is larger than his waist -  but thanks to his braces - his trousers do not slip down. Instead, his braces keep the waistline at a comfortable position throughout his breathing. His brace buttons are positioned perfectly along his waistline to support his waistline and pants. He looks very comfortable and calm, with his hand in his pocket, unaware that his loose waistline is an important part in the next joke.

Edwina sitting down and looking at Barnaby and Oliver

Turning back to Edwina, she would be familiar with men’s pants style of her day. She would know that the waistline of pants have room between their stomach and waistline, and, most importantly, are held up by braces. In fact, she would see that Oliver is wearing braces. As the youthful mixture takes effect, Edwina looks at Oliver’s waistline. She could have pulled on his braces, but that would have been too obvious. Instead she looks around and finds a nearby bucket of small fish.

With Barnaby and Oliver deep in discussion the camera angle changes to focus on Edwina. She scoops up a small fish from the bowl and brings it to Oliver’s waist. She pulls his waistline back at the front as he exhales, and drops the fish down the inside of his pants.

 

While still pulling his waistline, she looks up to see if Oliver has noticed, which he hasn’t, for the sake of the joke. 

Edwina lets go of the waistline, which gently slips back into place, thanks to the tension of Oliver's braces. One would think that the pullback of Oliver's waistband would alert him to look down, but he's oblivious for the sake of the joke. It could also be that because Oliver is wearing inverse-U brace tabs instead of inverse-V braces tabs. As a result, when Edwina pulls on the waistband, the inverse-U braces adjust and slide along the arch, so Oliver does not feel the change in tension. If he was wearing inverse-V brace tabs, the tension would have pulled his front brace straps forward slightly as the brace buttons are pulled together.

 

Oliver is unaware that a fish is now in his pant leg, much to Edwina's anticipation. As an aside, compare the above screen shot to the one below, you can notice the change in Oliver's diaphragm when he inhales and exhales. The larger, more comfortable waist size of Oliver's pants are adequately supported by his braces.

As the fish begins nipping on his leg, Oliver starts to twitch. It’s a humorous moment and makes the transition from adult-Edwina to youthful-Edwina seamless. All thanks to a pair of pants worn with braces!

Here's the full sequence in a gif:

 

Ginger in "Ginger" Cartoon Magazine

This 1951 teenager magazine focused on braces in a short story:

If you think about it, there are a series of conveniences that would not ordinarily happen - the skirt has buttons already to attach the braces, the rear strap gets caught in the tree branch, and the skirt and slip remain up on the tree when Ginger jumps down. Ordinarily, the braces would pop off or the branch would break, and the skirt would follow Ginger down the tree. But that's all for the laugh.

Poppy (1936)

This vintage movie has Poppy attempting to connect his rear braces to his waistband - but after he's put his pants on already. Watch here from the 3:37 to 4:26 mark. Being a larger man, he struggles to hook the buttons on. It doesn't help that he's wearing a gloves. He tries and they snap back up, startling him. It's good comic relief. One of the comments also mentions that they like the suspenders snapping.


Discussion:

• What scenes from movies or television shows have you seen that use suspenders or braces to get a laugh?
• Do you have any memories of comical moments with braces?