Meanwhile, his sister and his principal, who both hate him for being able to get away with such outrageous feats, plot to capture him and prevent his imminent graduation. A simple plot description cannot do justice to this film, any more than a plot description can do justice to any good comedy. The fun is in what Hughes does with the situation. Hughes demonstrates much more directorial ability than he ever has before. It's a true pleasure to watch real preparation of a bit of comedy, rather than just having it thrown at us.
Preparation is probably the weakest element of most of today's screen comedians.
Coming from a tradition of standup comedy and one liners, they lack the experience to really prepare a gag, which used to be the forte of the old comedians trained in vaudeville and burlesque. When you can make the audience see the gag coming, and yet find some slight additional twist that they hadn't foreseen, then you get a much bigger laugh than if you just drop the gag in their laps. Somewhere, Hughes seems to have learned how to set the audience up. Maybe he spent a few weeks watching Chaplin. Hughes' editor also deserves great praise, as he has complemented his director's timing perfectly.