Oliver Hardy, who uncharacteristically has solo scenes without partner Stan Laurel, rated this film as one of his five favorites.
Wartime rationing had an impact on the duo's films. In this case, shoes were rationed to three pairs a year, and the dancers had to rehearse in bare feet. Also, because so many young men had joined the armed forces, the original plan to have 150 jitterbug teams in the jitterbug scene had to be reduced, and the 50 couples planned were reduced to 30. Not only that, but the "zoot suits" the duo wore needed a special dispensation because it was at the time considered a profligate use of material.
The movie Jane Eyre (1943) starring Orson Welles was being filmed at 20th Century-Fox at the same time as "Jitterbugs". Welles visited Laurel and Hardy on the set while they were filming their "Original Zoot Suit Band" performance scene and posed for photos, playing musical instruments with Laurel & Hardy and co-star Robert Bailey. Welles played saxophone, Laurel played trombone, Hardy played trumpet and Bailey played clarinet.
According to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy biographer Scott MacGillivray, the scene where Laurel tears up his gasoline ration cards elicited groans from wartime audiences who were coping with gas shortages.
Cy Slocum, who played a bouncer in this movie, was Oliver Hardy's stand-in and stunt double in the Laurel and Hardy movies of the 1930s.