The Three Stooges: Difference between revisions

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 ''[[Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World]]'' decades after their heyday. Their popularity is such that video games have been made about them all the way up to the [[Game Boy Advance]] era. And while their broad slapstick has been often derided by critics, it's also a key reason why they're popular even in nations where English isn't spoken. They also had two [[Animated Adaptation|animated adaptations]]: a syndicated series in 1965, with live-action wraparounds between cartoons, and ''[[The Robonic Stooges (Animation)|The Robonic Stooges]]'', a segment of [[Hanna-Barbera]]'s ''Skatebirds''. Unfortunately, neither of these truly took advantage of The Stooges' already cartoon-like nature.

 

 

Trope-wise, it is hard to do [[Slapstick]] without referencing the Stooges. They did it all. Wait. Here is the throw-down: If you can come up with a slapstick bit that was not done by the Stooges, the Wiki will award you a delicious, fresh-baked custard pie.<ref>In your face. Let's not forget tradition!</ref> {{spoiler|Notably, the [[Groin Attack]] trope is not on this page. This could be an oversight or deliberate, due to [[Hays Code]] enforcement. The movie definitely has a [[Groin Attack]], but YMMV-- it's not the original Stooges...}}

* [[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.

* [[Amusing Injuries]]

* [[Ascended Extra]]: The Stooges themselves

* [[Aside Glance]]: Shemp's trademark.

* [[Balloonacy]]: In an odd variation of this trope, Moe ''becomes'' a balloon in one episode. In ''Dizzy Pilots'', Moe falls into a tub of tar, and to get the tar off of him, Larry and Curly cut a hole in his clothes and begin filling it up with gas. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as Moe begins to float away when Larry and Curly aren't looking, and they spend the next sizable chunk of the episode trying to get Moe down. He eventually floats through an opening in the ceiling and into the sky. Hearing Moe cry during the ordeal makes this a candidate for [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

** Played straight in the movie, when a little girl gets lifted by a bunch of balloons. When a bullet pops them and she falls onto a big cake, she says "That was awesome!!!".

* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: While Curly could psych himself up when dealing with the bad guys and occasionally needed to be restrained, he never said, "Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em!"

* [[Berserk Button]]: Curly has 4 of them, each of which turns him into a [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|wrecking machine.]]

** "Too much iron in the water".

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Teddy in the movie- and how.

* [[Comic Trio]]: Goes without saying, but still...

* [[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"

{{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.

* [[Harpo Does Something Funny]]: ''[Moe punishes Curly]''

* [[Hero Syndrome]]: The Stooges flirt with this in Pest Man Wins when they infest a mansion with common household pests in order to exterminate them and get paid.

* [[Hollow-Sounding Head]]: Curly's head is apparently [[Made of Iron]] ''and'' hollow.

* [[Hollywood Healing]]: All three Stooges had the endurance of a typical cartoon character.

* Homage: the minor 1984 hit "The Curly Shuffle" is all about watching the Stooges on late night TV.

* [[Hot Potato]]

* [[I Ate What?]]: A [[Running Gag]] had the characters, whether a stooge or a supporter, to drink brown paint instead of coffee.

* [[Ill Girl]]: The stooges help one reunite with her father in "Nutty But Nice".

* [[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

* [[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]].

* [[Just for Pun]]: Often overlooked by their physical slapstick humor is their witty way with words and puns. Examples can be found in any short- and the movie.

* [[Kavorka Man]]: All three, both onscreen and off.

* [[Kung Foley]]: The Stooges had the most ridiculous and creative foley artists in the history of film. In fact the main reason the television pilot they filmed late in their careers flopped was that it didn't have those ridiculous sound effects. Those noises that went with their unique slapstick were an essential part of their comedy. Without them their classic comedy slapstick is reduced to violence for violence' sake.

** Remember that the slapstick doesn't refer to the stick you use to slap someone. It's the stick you use to create the slapping sound.

* [[Malaproper]]: The Howard brothers in general were masters of this.

* [[Maniac Monkeys]]: Gorillas were always bad news in Three Stooges shorts.

* [[Old Shame]] : Although it came later in their careers, they thought it was a mistake to do ''[[Snow White and The Three Stooges]]'' (since the film gave them little screen time, and barely any slapstick).

** As well as having scenes involving genuine pathos, which was not in their repertoire.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Usually crosses over with [[Not Quite Starring]], often after the actual Stooges [[Author Existence Failure|died.]]

** This actually caused a bit of trouble with [[The Movie]], which was stuck in [[Development Hell]] for 11 years because they couldn't find good comic actors to replace the originals. The roles ended up with Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso as Moe, Larry and Curly, respectively.

* [[Say My Name]]: In "A Pain in the Pullman"

{{quote| "JOHNSONNNNN!!!"}}

* [[Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You]]: In-story, the trio tried two 3-d shorts, 'Spooks!' and 'Pardon My Backfire'. To help enhance the gags, some shots were done at the camera. Which means [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Sppooks.jpg Moe Is About To Poke Your Eyes!]

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: More than once in their shorts, such as this exchange in ''Crash Goes the Hash''.

* [[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 The Ass]]: This often happened to them. They reacted to it in about the same way a cartoon character would.

** 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'.