Three Stooges appreciation thread

[Calboner]

There has been too much shallow and frivolous discussion here. It is time for a more serious topic. Let us now praise famous idiots.
:stooges:

Three really stupid guys who inflict incessant violence upon one another, either accidentally, through preposterous ineptitude, or intentionally, in accordance with ritual forms, with the accompaniment of comic sound effects, and always without causing actual bodily harm: now there is a formula for awesomeness, at least with Moe, Larry, and either Curly or Shemp doing it. (Let the memory of the unspeakably awful Joe Besser perish.)

Opinions of the various stooges?

Favorite acts of ritual violence?

Favorite scenes?

Stooges: Moe is one of my heroes -- the great master of ritualized violence. Of the others, I am in the minority that favors Shemp over Curly. Shemp brings a suave touch to stoogery, and I find his howls of pain and terror to be particularly hilarious.

Favorite acts of ritual violence: At the top of my list would be the double fist swing, by which Moe first, swinging downward hits his fellow stooge or stooges (standing beside him) in the belly with the base of his fist (bass drum sound) then, swinging upward, in the forehead with the top of the fist (coconut sound). The ritual question "See that?" said with fist held out in front, with all its permutations, would come next. Head conks in general are awesome. I don't like the face slaps, except when a fourth party deals one to all three of the stooges in rapid succession in a single motion. That is sublime.

A favorite scene: I was recently watching Scrambled Brains, in which the boys get wedged into a telephone booth with Vernon Dent, the cube-shaped guy who always has a foul temper. To make matters worse, he is carrying bags of groceries. The stooges end up in a close-quarters food fight with him before causing the booth to topple. Superb.

 

[nudeyorker]

This is something that I'm going to have to look at again. When my brother and I were young he used to just love watching The Three Stooges on television. I just did not get it and/or appreciate it then. I'm going to see if I can find them on DVD to see if I can find that magical thing that so many people I know keep talking about that completely eluded me in the past.
I'll report back... This has alway been like anchovies on pizza to me; you either like it or you don't.

 

[Calboner]

Now, you see, I never saw the Stooges when I was a child, other than a few glimpses. I consider myself very fortunate on this account, as it means (1) that I and my brothers never tried to replicate any of the Stooges' acts of violence among ourselves, and (2) that their shorts did not acquire the associations of "kid stuff" for me. I only started watching them when I was in my thirties. I remember being surprised to discover that they use their own actual names (or their professional names, anyway) as characters in the shorts. It took me a while to sort out which name went with which stooge. Now I even know the names of the supporting actors who appear repeatedly in the shorts!

 

[B_hungbradk]

Favorite Episode is where Curly poses as the slave girl the Roman Emperor Octavius has the hots for. When the Emperor chases Curly around his bed chamber, it is a hoot. The Stooges had wonderful comic timing.

 

[Calboner]

Favorite Episode is where Curly poses as the slave girl the Roman Emperor Octavius has the hots for. When the Emperor chases Curly around his bed chamber, it is a hoot. The Stooges had wonderful comic timing.

I remember that one. I think that the emperor was called Octopus Grabus. That one contains one of my favorite sequences of ritual violence. The Stooges are running from Roman soldiers and take refuge behind a curtain. One of the soldiers sits down on a bench on the other side of the curtain. Curly raises a hammer to bop the soldier on the head and accidentally hits Moe with it. What ensues is hilarious. You can see it at YouTube here: it all happens in the first 15 seconds of the clip.

 

[DiscoBoy]

I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but I recently noticed that AMC has been airing episodes of The Three Stooges late at night/early in the morning.

 

[Calboner]

I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but I recently noticed that AMC has been airing episodes of The Three Stooges late at night/early in the morning.

I don't have premium cable, but I have all the shorts on a set of DVDs that I got from eBay. It is a non-commercial compilation that I think somebody just made from television broadcasts. The quality is uneven, but the great thing is that I can put a disk into the player and immediately play an episode instead of having to jump through all the stupid bullshit that commercial DVDs are laden with.

 

[crescendo69]

I watched them everyday after school while in elementary. They even had a short musical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6ilCbQgLE

I wish I could find a magazine I bought in the 70"s listing all their works. They also made several movies. I just found this site for downloads: ThreeStooges.net :: Home Page

I remember my two older brothers and I trying to act like the stooges occasionally, but alas, their acting skills seemed to exceed ours.:tongue:

I remember having a three stooge nightmare when I was young, but its exact nature escapes me.

Even now, I exhibit some of their personality traits due to years of arduous self-conditioning. When surprised, I may let out a loud "whoop whoop woo", and when scared perhaps a "ngang ngang ngang".

 

[Calboner]

One source of amusement for me is the cheesiness of some of the production techniques. An instance is the use of fast motion in this sequence (watch at 0:39-44; by the way, this clip has been "colorized"):

The Three Stooges: Shemp VS an Ironing board

But no cheesy device convulses me with laughter so much as the use of dummies. There's a short (Goof on the Roof) in which a dummy representing Shemp falls through the roof of a house directly into the television set in the living room below. Like the ironing-board bit, it is done in fast motion, but it's not fast enough to make the dummy look life-like. Makes me laugh out loud every time.

 

[witch]

I had the opportunity to meet the Three Stooges as a little kid, they came to our theater to open a film and then came down to the seats to talked with us kids.


I remember that they were small men ( most of the kids were as tall as them) , funny and very very intelligent, nothing like their Stooge personas

 

[accemb]

"Slowly, I turn....step by step....inch by inch......"

 

[accemb]

Here in the New York area, the shows in the early 1960s ran on Channel 11 and were hosted by a guy in a cop uniform called "Officer Joe Bolton". "Officer Joe" always reminded us that we couldn't go around slapping people and poking them in the eyes with two fingers like the Stooges did. Although those us who had pesky little brothers were so tempted....

 

[Calboner]

I had the opportunity to meet the Three Stooges as a little kid, they came to our theater to open a film and then came down to the seats to talked with us kids.

I wonder who the third stooge was. I would guess it was Curly Joe De Rita. I have never seen any of the movies with him in them.

I remember that they were small men ( most of the kids were as tall as them) , funny and very very intelligent, nothing like their Stooge personas

You can see how small they are from the movies. Only some of the women are shorter, and none of the men are. According to my sources, Shemp was 5' 5" tall, and he seems to have been the tallest of the bunch. As for intelligence, Moe seems to have had it on the ball, as he was the only one who knew how to manage money. I don't know about the others.

"Slowly, I turn....step by step....inch by inch......"

Apparently that sketch was a common vaudeville routine, not (as I had assumed until now) an invention of the Three Stooges at all.

 

[Cant_Stop]

I know it isn't a popular opinion but I've always been more partial to the marx bros.

 

[MASSIVEPKGO_CHUCK]

Mt Grandfather had the rare opportunity once to actually sit next to Moe when he (My grandfather) was in Las Vegas at a poker table.

Talk about a total antonym to his screen character- He said Moe was the friendliest, most even tempered guy he'd met in Vegas.

 

[Calboner]

I know it isn't a popular opinion but I've always been more partial to the marx bros.

By comparison with the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers are cerebral.

When I laugh at the Three Stooges, or at least when I think about them, I also laugh at myself. I find it ridiculous that I can be amused by such primitive humor. I do not get this kind of secondary laughter from the Marx Brothers because their humor actually appeals to my intelligence.

 

[red7.5]

What about the classic episode where Moe impersonates Hitler?

 

[Calboner]

What about the classic episode where Moe impersonates Hitler?

He does that in more than one of the shorts. You are probably thinking of You Nazty Spy, from 1940, in which he plays the dictator of Moronica, a parody of Hitler. But there are at least two wartime shorts in which he and the other two Stooges find themselves among Nazis and Moe disguises himself as Hitler to escape.

 

[witch]

I wonder who the third stooge was. I would guess it was Curly Joe De Rita. I have never seen any of the movies with him in them.

You can see how small they are from the movies. Only some of the women are shorter, and none of the men are. According to my sources, Shemp was 5' 5" tall, and he seems to have been the tallest of the bunch. As for intelligence, Moe seems to have had it on the ball, as he was the only one who knew how to manage money. I don't know about the others.

Apparently that sketch was a common vaudeville routine, not (as I had assumed until now) an invention of the Three Stooges at all.

yes it was Joe DeRita, he tryed to teach us that hand, snapping finger trick:smile:

 

[justmeincal]

By comparison with the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers are cerebral.

When I laugh at the Three Stooges, or at least when I think about them, I also laugh at myself. I find it ridiculous that I can be amused by such primitive humor. I do not get this kind of secondary laughter from the Marx Brothers because their humor actually appeals to my intelligence.

Well said. You are wise for such a young whippersnapper!