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The Three Stooges: Difference between revisions
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The Three Stooges are best known for the dozens of short subjects they turned out Columbia Pictures starting in the 1930s. In fact, with 190 short films, not including their features, this trio had the longest film series in Hollywood history.
Though there were several members over the years people nowadays are most likely to be familiar with the iconic lineup of Moe Howard, the bully-like leader; Larry Fine, the frizzy-haired sort-of straight man, and Jerome "Curly" Howard, the bald, oddball guy with the weird mannerisms and verbalizations. Like many Hollywood successes the Stooges came about their success largely through serendipity. The Stooges were little more than second bananas and comic foils to vaudeville comic Ted Healy when Columbia offered them their first picture deal and Moe promptly seized the opportunity to make the big time without their notoriously drunk and abusive employer. Unfortunately, elder brother Shemp Howard picked this time to strike out on his own, leaving them one stooge short of a three-stooge deal. So Moe turned to younger brother Curly (who had no prior acting experience) to replace him and the rest is history. Shemp Howard later rejoined the act after Curly suffered a stroke, changing the dynamic and triggering an ongoing "Curly vs. Shemp" debate that presaged the similar [[Mystery Science
The Three Stooges are one of the few rare comedy acts of the black-and-white era that continue to attract fans and remain so firmly embedded in the popular culture that a fifteen second silent cameo depicting them as airport firefighters still provides one of the biggest laughs in ''[[
That's the short version of it. Wikipedia has practically a small [[wikipedia:Three Stooges|book]] on the team, their history and their impact. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
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A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yCdZje_sTF0 movie] was released on April 13, 2012. It was directed by the [[Dumb and Dumber|Farrelly Brothers]], appropriately enough.
Has a [[The Three Stooges
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=== The Three Stooges include examples of: ===
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* [[Absurdly Ineffective Barricade]]: The shorts used this in a couple of varieties, including the door opening outwards and the villains coming in behind them, sometimes handing them things to put on the barricade.
* [[Accidental Athlete]]: One of their early shorts.
* [[Adults Dressed
** They do this twice in the film.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Most of "I Can Hardly Wait", though the audience is shown that it's Curly's dream when it starts in a [[Thought Bubble]]. "Heavenly Daze", and its stock footage reworking, "Bedlam in Paradise", are examples featuring Shemp.
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* [[Butt Monkey]]: The worst things would usually happen to Curly.
** Then again, contrary to the public perception of the stooges, Moe often seemed to get the worst of the beatings, mostly due to accidents caused by himself or Larry and Curly's stupidity, and he'd then take it out on them whether it was their fault or not.
* [[The Cameo]]: Moe, Larry and Curly Joe appeared in the 1963 film ''[[
** Curly himself also appeared post-retirement in the short "Hold That Lion" as a sleeping train passenger who would make dog noises (as Curly would). This would be the only short to include all three of the Howard brothers, Moe, Curly, and Shemp.
*** The scene was also used in "Booty and the Beast".
** Shemp has a wacky cameo as "Wacky" in ''[[The Thin Man (
*** Larry, Moe and Curley show up in a last minute cameo in 1942 screw-ball comedy My Sister Eileen. The central joke of that film involved two sisters who's basement Manhattan apartment is routinely invaded by all manner of hilariously outlandish pests. The final moments of the films see the Stooges (apparently employed as subway maintenance workers) literally drilling their way into the apartment from below.
* [[Car Meets House]]: The climax of ''The Three Stooges Go Round the World in a Daze''
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* [[Concussions Get You High]]: Used frequently, by having whoever was hit on the head take on a silly facial expression and slump over to the sound of chirping birds.
* [[Courtroom Antics]]: "Disorder in the Court"
* [[Cut a Slice, Take
{{quote| '''Moe''': We each took half a slice of ham and half an egg apiece, and gave you a whole bone and a whole egg shell, ''and you're squawkin'!!''}}
* [[The Danza]]: Moe and Larry usually just went by their real names in every short. "Curly" was of course a nickname, and "Shemp" was how the boys' mother pronounced "Sam," his real name.
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* [[Einstein Hair]]: Larry
* [[Everything Explodes Ending]]: ''Three Little Sew and Sews''
* [[Everything's Worse
* [[Extreme Doormat]]: Larry comes across as the most sensible of the three in most of the shorts but apparently only goes along with what the others do--and puts up with Moe's abuse--because he's just very passive. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Arguably]], the fact that Curly and Shemp also put up with Moe's abuse makes them examples of this as well.
* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: Curly, when hungry. At a fancy dinner, he was presented with a crab ("Ooh, a tarantula!") and ate it, ''shell and all''.
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* [[Iron Butt Monkey]]: Though this applies to Curly most of all, all three Stooges have their moments.
* [[ISophagus]]: Played straight in ''[[The Three Stooges]]'' film ''Disorder in the Court''. When the stooges are reenacting a musical performance during a trial Curly slaps Moe on the back causing him to swallow a kazoo. They then find that when they press on Moe's stomach they can hear the kazoo, and soon Curly and Larry begin to make Moe play "Ach Du Lieber Augustine" by pumping his arm and squeezing his stomach, before he coughs the kazoo up
* [[Is There a Doctor In
* [[Jerkass]]: Moe. ''And then some''.
** In ''Pop Goes The Easel'', his [[Jerkass]] attitude gets cranked [[Up to Eleven]] when, following a clay fight, Moe demands to know who started it, Larry says "YOU did!", Moe responds by angrily yelling "Oh YEAH?!", and then promptly spins around with his hand extended, [[Hair-Trigger Temper|slapping Larry, Curly and three or four other guys with one continuous slap]].
* [[Jerk
* [[Juggling Loaded Guns]]: "Disorder in the Court" introduces a gun as evidence. Curly is told to try to pull the incredibly rusty trigger, after being told "[[Tempting Fate|Never fear, it's not loaded.]]" After one harmless click, he then accidentally shoots off the baliff's toupee when his finger gets stuck in the trigger guard.
** ''Any'' time the Stooges or someone around them insisted a gun wasn't loaded, it was. In "Even as I.O.U." Curly gives a baby a pacifier. When Moe sees that it's a revolver, he reaches in to get it, but is stopped by Larry, who warns that the kid might pull the trigger. Curly insists it isn't loaded, and seeks to prove it...by cocking the hammer and thoughtlessly discharging it in an enclosed space. Pretty much every rule of gun safety is blithely disregarded.
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'''Moe''': What's the matter?<br />
'''Larry''': *smugly* I've got my eyes closed. (gets slapped by Moe) }}
* [[The Movie]]: Will be directed by the [[
** A TV biopic came out a few years ago-- with [[The Shield|Michael Chiklis]] as Curly!
* [[Murphy's Bed]]: How many times have their bunk beds collapsed? It doesn't help that they always put the heaviest person, Curly, on the top bunk. Curly often steps on Moe's and Larry's heads on the way up to the top. The trio have often had bad luck with beds that fold into the wall as well.
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* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: In one short, when Moe asks Larry to think of a password to enter their room, he deadpans "Open the door!" Cue Moe's standard pretend-to-be-pleased-then-[[Dope Slap|dope-slap]]-the-idiot routine.
* [[Perpetual Poverty]]: Many shorts started with the Stooges either losing a crappy job or having no job at all. Likely [[The Great Depression|a reflection of the times]]. This is a main theme in the movie.
* [[Pie in
** Although, as some Stooges historians have noted, not nearly as often as the general public might think. Something like 10 or 12 out of almost 200 shorts actually feature pie-throwing.
** It wasn't always pie either, sometimes it could be mud, cake, sculpting clay (in an episode where the stooges start a fight at an art school), or any other messy substance.
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'''Curly''': Hey! That's an insult!! }}
* [[Shoehorned First Letter]]: In the short "Sing a Song of Six Pants," the stooges are trying to guess the name of the owner of a suit when they know his initials are TH. They come up with Thomas Hedison and [[Teddy Roosevelt|Teddy Hoosevelt]].
* [[Shot in
* [[Shout-Out]]: Dozens.
** Any comedic fight scene in which one character attempts to poke another character in both eyes at the same time, only to be foiled by the second character holding up a flattened hand in front of their nose. This gag appears in [[Evil Dead]], during the scene where Ash is being beaten up by skeleton arms rising out of the earth.
** Many trios who posess or somehow acquire hairstyles (or the equivalent) reminiscent of the Stooges'.
*** ''[[
*** During the "Beware the Creeper" episode of the Batman animated series, the Joker's henchmen-of-the-episode sported Stooge-like haircuts, and the bald one even engaged in Curly-like self-face-slapping.
* [[Signature Laugh]]: Curly's "Nyuk-Nyuk-Nyuk".
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** This is even [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''Beer Barrel Polecats'', when Moe and Larry are breaking rocks over Curly's head in prison while he nonchalantly sews a uniform. He stops them at one point when Moe is grabbing another rock.
{{quote| "Hey wait a minute, that's a ''real'' one! I'm no fool."}}
* [[Tap
* [[There Is Only One Bed]]: In episodes where they weren't sleeping in three stacked bunk beds that were almost certain to collapse, the stooges all shared one bed, which usually resulted in more hilarity.
* [[Think of the Censors]]: In ''Gypped in the Penthouse'', a beautiful woman takes Shemp's ring and hides it in her cleavage, leaving Shemp with a problem:
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** The stooges had wanted to do a full length feature film for years, but weren't able to do one until the late 50's, by which time it was Moe, Larry and Curly Joe.
** Curly was supposed to have a part in "Malice in the Palace" as the cook who the stooges mistakenly think is chopping up a dog and a cat and cooking them, but unfortunately Curly was too sick to play the part so it was given to Larry. Had Curly been able to do it, it would have been the only time Curly would appear in a Shemp short as more than just a brief cameo.
* [[What Happened to
* [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?]]: The stooges are basically doing something different in every episode, that is when they actually have a job.
* [[Yellowface]]: In "No Dough Boys", a wartime short, the stooges are dressed as Japanese soldiers for a photo shoot, and later stumble upon a hideout with Nazi spies and have to take on the identity of the Japanese spies they were expecting to meet with.
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'''Moe''': Shut up! ''(slaps him)'' }}
* [[Young Gun]]: Billy the Kid in ''The Outlaws Is Coming''.
* [[You Wouldn't Hit a Guy
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[[Every Episode Ending|Dum-dada-dum-da-dum. Da!]]
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