Joe McDoakes is an American short-film comedy series produced and directed by Richard L. Bare for Warner Bros. A total of 63 black-and-white, live-action, one-reel films were produced and released between 1942 and 1956. The Joe McDoakes shorts are also known as the Behind the Eight Ball series (for the large eight ball Joe appeared behind in the opening credits) or the So You Want... series (as the film titles began with this phrase). The character's name derives from Joe Doakes, which was a popular American slang term for the average man.

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The theme song of the series is "I Know That You Know" by Vincent Youmans from his Broadway musical Oh, Please! (1926), used later in the MGM musical Hit the Deck (1955).

George O'Hanlon, who would later provide the voice of George Jetson in Hanna-Barbera's animated sitcom The Jetsons, starred as the series' title character, Joe McDoakes. These one-reel shorts were written by Bare and O'Hanlon, although Bare usually received sole screen credit as the writer. Art Gilmore served as the narrator through 1948. Gordon Hollingshead, who won five Academy Awards for producing other short subjects for Warner Bros., was also credited as a producer on the series until his death in 1952, although his role on this series was primarily as liaison between the studio and the director.

The series began with So You Want to Give Up Smoking, produced by Bare to teach his students at the University of Southern California the fundamentals of filmmaking. It was acquired by Warner Bros. for $2,500 and became the first of a series of short subjects. Only one more short was produced before World War II caused the suspension of the series, but production resumed in 1945 with So You Think You're Allergic.

These first three shorts were filmed silent, with narration added in post-production in the manner of the popular Pete Smith shorts produced at MGM from 1931 to 1955. They also resembled the Smith shorts in their focus on actual, everyday problems (such as smoking cessation, eye care and coping with allergies) in an instructional but humorous way.

In 1946, the series began using live sound recording, and the addition of dialogue afforded the films a new dimension. The action was now played strictly for laughs, with many familiar character actors such as Fritz Feld, Ralph Sanford, Philip Van Zandt, Fred Kelsey and Leo White frequently appearing. Semiregular actors included Clifton Young and later Del Moore as Joe's loudmouthed pal Homer, Rodney Bell as dumb Marvin and Ted Stanhope as an all-purpose authority figure. Many of the shorts are domestic comedies in which McDoakes persists in some sort of endeavor, with often disastrous consequences.

Warner Bros. contract player Jane Harker costarred as Joe's wife Alice in eight comedies, beginning with So You Want to Play the Horses in 1946 and ending with So You Want to Build a House in 1948. Screen newcomer Phyllis Coates assumed the role of Alice in So You Want to Be in Politics. Coates had married Bare that same year, and the working relationship would survive their later divorce. Former singing star Jane Frazee assumed the role beginning with So You Want to Be Your Own Boss (1954), but Coates returned in 1956 for the last three installments. While the Alice character appeared in most of the shorts, the actresses playing the role were not credited. In several of the films, Alice does not appear, and in some, Joe is a bachelor, as there is no continuity between installments.

In the late 1940s, the series won three consecutive Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Short Subject, One-reel for So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947), So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948) and So You Think You're Not Guilty (1949). For most of the series' run, the shorts were the only live-action comedies offered in 10-minute length, making them attractive for theater owners to include in their programs. The series ran until 1956, when the decline of the studio system brought an end to the production of short subjects by Warner Bros. and most of the other Hollywood studios.

Appearance credits for uncredited actors may be incomplete or incorrect because of inaccurate sources.

Warner Archive Collection has released the entire series of 63 shorts in DVD-R format as The Joe McDoakes Collection. Individual shorts also appear as extras on DVD and Blu-ray discs of some Warner Bros. films of the period:

• So You Want to Give Up Smoking is on the DVD of All Through the Night
• So You Think You Need Glasses is on the DVD of The Man Who Came to Dinner
• So You Think You're Allergic is on the DVD of Objective, Burma!
• So You Think You're a Nervous Wreck is on the DVD of A Night in Casablanca
• So You Want to Be in Pictures is on the DVD of The Hasty Heart
• So You Want to Be a Detective is on the DVD and Blu-ray of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• So You Want to Be on the Radio is on the DVD and Blu-ray of Adventures of Don Juan^[4]
• So You Want to Be an Actor is on the DVD and Blu-ray of My Dream Is Yours
• So You Think You're Not Guilty is on the DVD and Blu-ray of White Heat
• So You Want to Hold Your Husband is on the DVD of Tea for Two
• So You Want to Move is on the DVD of Rocky Mountain
• So You Want a Raise is on the DVD of Montana
• So You're Going to Have an Operation is on the DVD of The Flame and the Arrow
• So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger is on the DVD of Jim Thorpe — All-American
• So You Want to Be a Bachelor is on the DVD of Starlift
• So You Want to Enjoy Life is on the DVD of Big Jim McLain
• So You Want to Wear the Pants is on the DVD of April in Paris
• So You Want to Learn to Dance and So You Want a Television Set are on the DVD of By the Light of the Silvery Moon
• So You Love Your Dog is on the Blu-ray of Calamity Jane
• So You Think You Can't Sleep is on the DVD of Trouble Along the Way
• So You Want to Be an Heir is on the DVD of South Sea Woman
• So You Want to Know Your Relatives is on the DVD of His Majesty O'Keefe
• So Your Wife Wants to Work is on the DVD of The Spirit of St. Louis

• List of live-action short subject series by Hollywood studios § Warner Bros.