So You Want to Be a Gladiator

1955 10min

Joe thinks he's back in the gladiator days, and finds himself sentenced to be thrown to the Coliseum lions after breaking a string while playing the lyre for King Nero.

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So You Want... Collection(58)

A collection of short films featuring Joe McDoakes in a variety of situations

So You Want to Be a Detective (1948)

6.8

Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.

So You Want to Be Pretty (1956)

2.0

In this comedic short, Joe and Alice McDoakes each wish their looks were better.

So You Want to Hold Your Wife (1947)

5.0

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes, dissatisfied, attempts to save his five-years marriage to Alice.

So You Want to Hold Your Husband (1950)

Fed up with Joe's indifference toward her, Alice McDoakes takes her troubles to a marriage counselor. None of the courses of action she is advised to take have any impact on Joe, until she is advised to create the impression that she has left Joe for another man.

So You Want to Know Your Relatives (1954)

Do-gooder Joe McDoakes is the guest on the "Know Your Relatives" TV show where, to his chagrin, many of his black sheep relations reveal the skeletons in the family closet.

So You Want to Move (1950)

Joe plans on moving but needs tips on how.

So You Want to Be a Bachelor (1951)

"I never knew what happiness was till I got married—and then it was too late," Joe recalls, flashing back to bachelor days and his courtship with Alice.

So You Want to Build a House (1948)

4.5

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes is evicted from his apartment and decides to build his own home. As the project progresses, his dream house turns into a nightmare.

So You Want to Be on a Jury (1955)

Joe and Homer are both on a jury trying an accident case involving their boss and a gangster. Interference from both sides makes their task difficult.

So You Want to Be a Salesman (1947)

5.0

Joe McDoakes begins a new job as a vacuum cleaner salesman but can't seem to sell any.

So You Want to Enjoy Life (1952)

2.0

Believing he has only a month to live, average guy Joe McDoakes decides to live life to the fullest in the time he has left.

So You Want to Be a Plumber (1951)

3.0

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes decides he should become a plumber.

So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947)

5.8

Aspiring actor Joe McDoakes blows his first part at Warner Bros. and has to settle for being a stand-in.

So You Want to Give Up Smoking (1942)

A semi-humorous look at the various types of smokers and the methods available to them to kick the habit.

So You Want to Be in Politics (1948)

Joe McDoakes becomes enmeshed in a corrupt political election.

So You Want to Be a Gladiator (1955)

5.0

Joe thinks he's back in the gladiator days, and finds himself sentenced to be thrown to the Coliseum lions after breaking a string while playing the lyre for King Nero.

So You Want to Be Your Own Boss (1954)

Joe McDoakes, determined to be his own boss in this Joe McDoakes Comedy entry, opens up a new restaurant. Complaining customers and a sanitation inspector who closes the restaurant are just some of Joe's problems.

So You Want to Be a Baby Sitter (1949)

Joe McDoakes does NOT want to be a baby sitter.

So You Want to Be a Handyman (1951)

Joe MacDoakes' next-door neighbor, Marvin, comes over to help him fix his lawn-sprinkling system, but they get the pipes crossed with the gas-line and almost asphyxiate themselves.

So You Want to Play the Piano (1956)

4.0

Alice neglects her housework because she is enthralled with the long-haired piano player, Gregor Flatorsharpsky, next door. Joe buys a piano, and the accompanying free lessons, and sets out to impress Alice. Alice is vastly unimpressed.

So You Want to Be a V.P. (1955)

8.5

Joe McDoakes is employed as the seventh vice-president in a firm that only makes promotions from the employee ranks.

So You Want to Wear the Pants (1952)

5.0

It's a dangerous hypnotic suggestion when a psychiatrist tells married couple Joe and Alice McDoakes to switch points of view during a session.

So You Want to Be a Muscle Man (1949)

Joe wants to be a muscle man.

So You Want to Get Rich Quick (1949)

Joe comes up with a complicated scheme to bilk his dead uncle out of an inheritance.

So You Want to Be a Gambler (1948)

4.7

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes experiences the pitfalls of gambling.

So You Want to Be an Heir (1953)

Thinking he may inherit a million dollars from his dying grandmother, Joe McDoakes finds himself the target of murderously greedy family members.

So You Want to Be a Cowboy (1951)

Joe McDoakes and his wife Alice attend a western movie and George soon has himself in the movie shown on the screen as Jump-Along Skip-Along McGur

So You Want to Go to a Convention (1952)

Joe has to find a way to go to a convention.

So You Want to Play the Horses (1946)

6.0

In this outing, Joe loves playing the horses and shows what you can do to improve your odds of winning.

So You Want to Get It Wholesale (1952)

Joe uses his "contacts" to buy a new oven as cheaply as possible.

So You Want a Model Railroad (1955)

Alice visits Mr. Agony with her latest problem with Joe. They had given Junior a toy railroad for a Christmas present, and Joe had taken it over and become obsessed to the point he has built a railroad empire using all of his time, energy and money. When Alice's mother comes to dinner, Joe even has a rigged-up train serving as the dumb waiter. Mr. Agony helps Alice to solve her problem.

So You Want an Apartment (1948)

5.0

Joe McDoakes and his wife go apartment hunting.

So Your Wife Wants to Work (1956)

7.0

Joe McDoakes' wife Alice wants to return to work to add income to the household. Joe would rather she stay at home to tend to domestic duties. When Alice threatens to return to her old job, a reluctant Joe agrees to her request to get her a job at his office. How will this work out?

So You Want a Television Set (1953)

6.0

Joe and Alice buy a television set and, due to some excuse, or another, the neighbors begin to drop in, stay to watch television, and raid their refrigerator.

So You Want to Be Popular (1949)

Joe McDoakes takes advice on how to be more likeable from his only friend Homer Hotbox

So You Think You're a Nervous Wreck (1946)

6.0

Joe McDoakes attempts to deal with his myriad neuroses.

So You Think You're Allergic (1945)

4.0

Joe McDoakes thinks he's allergic.

So You Think You're Not Guilty (1950)

5.7

Joe McDoakes pleads "not guilty" to a traffic violation but is convicted anyway. Handling this setback in his usual manner, the two-dollar fine quickly pyramids to a 10-year jail sentence.

So You Think You Can't Sleep (1953)

5.0

Average working man Joe McDoakes tries desperate measures to cure his chronic insomnia.

So You Think You Need Glasses (1942)

4.0

A humorous but informative look at how an average man can remedy common vision problems.

So You Think the Grass Is Greener (1956)

When he gets to his office after a usual morning of nagging by his wife, Alice, Joe McDoakes starts to daydream about what life would be like married to the beautiful office blonde.

So You Want to Keep Your Hair (1946)

6.0

Average American Joe McDoakes searches in vain for any cure that will halt his fast-disappearing hairline.

So You're Going to Be a Father (1947)

4.3

In this comedic short, Joe McDoakes goes through the problems and anxieties of becoming a new father.

So You're Going to Have an Operation (1950)

A satiric look at doctors and hospitals through the eyes of Joe McDoakes.

So You're Going to the Dentist (1952)

Joe McDoakes' dimwit neighbor Marvin becomes a dentist, and manages to convince poor Joe to let him become Marvin's first patient.

So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948)

5.7

Joe McDoakes and his wife love to participate in radio show contests, but something seems to interfere every time they are lucky enough to be chosen as participants.

So You're Having In-Law Trouble (1949)

Joe's in-laws come over, and they suck.

So You're Having Neighbor Trouble (1954)

Joe starts having trouble with an obnoxious neighbor.

So You Want to Throw a Party (1950)

4.0

Joe and Alice McDoakes are planning on throwing a party, but Joe mixes up his list of creditors with the list of names Alice gave him to invite. The creditors have a much better time than Joe does.

So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger (1951)

Joe McDoakes, ever obliging and always helpful, volunteers to hang the new wallpaper for his wife.

So You Want to Buy a Used Car (1951)

In need of a new vehicle, Joe goes to the Cagey Car Company lot to get a used car,... with predictable results.

So You Never Tell a Lie (1952)

6.0

When a wristwatch intended for a office contest winner gets mixed up and confused with the one Joe McDoakes purchased for his wife, Joe once again finds himself on the short end.

So You Want to Be a Musician (1953)

Joe McDoakes can't find a job as a bassoonist, so he pawns his instrument.

So You Love Your Dog (1953)

Despite the fact that during the war, Joe McDoake's dog Dusty did everything wrong including giving information to the enemy, Joe brings him home with him.

So You Want to Go to a Nightclub (1954)

In this Joe McDoakes Comedy, Alice insists they go to a night club, although Joe is both tired and broke.

So You're Taking in a Roomer (1954)

Joe and Alice decide to rent a room in their house to their neighbor Marvin, who says he is a potato broker.

So You Don't Trust Your Wife (1955)

5.0

When his wife Alice questions Joe as to whether his insurance policy is paid up, he begins to see a plot to murder him in everything she does.

So You Want to Be a Policeman (1955)

Joe McDoakes is a shy, rookie motorcycle cop.