Even as IOU

Despite all the physical abuse the Three Stooges dished out to one another, the comedians' hearts melted when it came to babies and animals. In the past, Three Stooges films have portrayed Curly's love for dogs, which in real life he had a passion. In September 1942 "Even as IOU," their 65th short film, the Stooges find themselves owners of a washed-up race horse. Fleeing from the police after caught selling fraudulent racing forms, the three find a mother and daughter with their furniture laid out behind a billboard. They've had their house repossessed, leaving them with just a piggy bank of loose change. The Stooges promise to parlay the mother's life savings, going to the track to bet on a long-shot. Their horse wins, but two shysters convince them to buy their talking horse, which turns out to be an aging race horse. Stuck with a bad purchase, the Stooges decide to keep the equine when Curly accidentally ingests a Vitamin Z pill for the horse, which hits home for survivors of Covid-19 when the horse medicine ivermectin was purported to treat the virus ripping through the world in 2020.

Several topical subjects of the WW2 era crop up in "Even as IOU" when Curly mentions to the mother she could take out an "FBI loan." He mistakenly confuses the FBI with the FHA, short for the Federal Housing Administration under President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" where the government made low interest home loans to alleviate the housing crises. Later, while the Stooges accept the challenge to increase the wealth of the mother by taking her piggy bank, the Stooges call it "a lend-lease" transaction. This was the 1941 Lend-Lease Law which had neutral United States supply England as well as other Allied countries equipment and goods so they could keep up with the Nazi war machine.

The Stooges' love for horses is quite evident when the old horse Seabasket (a variation of the legendary Seabiscuit) gives birth to a promising future racehorse, causing the three to hug the baby colt knowing it had the potential of being a prize-winning horse.