Of all the silent cartoons, I think the Ko-Ko the Clown shorts are among the very best if not the best. They also hold up very well today...mostly because they were genuinely funny AND the technology still impresses.
When the story begins, Max Fleischer makes a drawing of Ko-Ko and givies it to his very young delivery boy to take to some other location. However, Max knows the boy...and knows he'll dawdle...so he then draws Ko-Ko's pup and gives him instructions to follow the kid. So, you see the pup do what fans love--he enters the real world and follows the boy down the street.
When the boy sees a cute girl eating an ice cream cone, he stops. Instead of encouraging the kid to keep going on his way, Ko-Ko himself leaves the paper and tries to give the kid advice on how to capture the girl's heart. His advice stinks and soon the Pup begins harassing Ko-Ko,...which is a bit unusual because usually the dog and Ko-Ko are buddies. What's next? See the film.
To make Ko-Ko's movements look so fluid, Max actually had his brother, Dave, dress up like Ko-Ko and move about...and this was then traced and made into the animated character. But the animation isn't just the nice part....so is the writing and style, which was sweet and funny. Well worth seeing.