Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle would be a funny and clever comedian but his heyday was certainly long before he made a few shorts for Vitaphone in the early 1930s. Still, despite this, a few (such as "Hey Pop!") were very funny...and many others were definitely NOT. In the case of "How've You Bean" the film isn't bad...it's terrible! It makes you wonder who the comedy writers were....morticians or monkeys? It's a completely unfunny and even embarrassingly bad film...with nothing to recommend it.
The film begins with Abner (Arbuckle) and his friend, Willie (Fritz Hubert) opening a grocery store. All sorts of mayhem ensues but it's not funny...such as a senseless flour fight.
In the next scene, the pair go to a friend's wedding and the film manages to get worse. Mexican Jumping Beans get mixed up in a big batch of beans for the wedding rehearsal dinner...which gets the audience to ask MANY questions. Who serves plates of beans to a fancy dress rehearsal?! How can the two friends have table manners like this and how is this funny?! How can the Mexican Jumping Beans SURVIVE being cooked and start jumping?! And, who thinks any of this is funny when badly animated beans start bounding about??!! It defies my ability to understand how the film could be this unfunny..but it's about as funny as diaper rash.
