Follies of the Madmen #297

They are jealous of the fourth man in that while they have their hockey photos (photos at the time were a much higher value object than they are now, and hockey players in Canada are celebrities), he has a beer. The inference being that a beer is a better thing to have.

Maybe they're holding program books -- showing off that they got tickets to a game. But they're still jealous of him holding a beer.

I like these two similar explanations--except they overlook that fourth program book on the table!

The fourth guy put down his program book to pick up the beer.

"Hey, you hoser! Gimme a Molson, too. Then take off, eh!"

The three men with a hockey program seem to be looking to where a bartender would be. It may have been a promotion with a free beer on specially stamped ones and the man with his beer has cashed his in?

I like BMN's idea: "Surrender your book for a beer!" "Okay, we will!"

The three guys are simply jealous because they may have a program, but they don't have a beer, while the fourth one has a program and a beer. They are looking away at the beer salesman (probably a guy with a box hanging from his shoulders) because their intention is to buy a beer the first chance they get. They are not moving because they are at a hockey tournament, hence the program.

Not shown in the picture is the fourth guy's lady friend and she is quite good looking. 😉

The man on right is smug because he can read. (His program book is open.) The other 3 can't read; they don't know what to do with their books. They are making sarcastic faces toward him, because he's showing off, and they are thinking, "Big deal, hoser."

The guy with the beer is the guy in the photo

He's probably with the Montreal Canadiens. Molsen owned them. The picture is not clear enough to see a number or the uniform. And I'd get fired if a went through all these trying to find his photo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961–62_Montreal_Canadiens_season