The three stooges

[ColoradoGuy]

It's Saturday morning again, a special day for my 10-year-old son. First, a leisurely breakfast with actual fried meat (bacon or sausage) and grilled carbohydrate (pancakes or waffles). Then -- best of all -- an hour or two (depending upon parental tolerance) of The Three Stooges on an obscure cable channel that broadcasts the episodes one after another all morning.

Like much of pop culture, the stooges now have a learned following that takes them far more seriously than they did themselves. (Here's an example.)

But there is something interesting there. The constant subverting of authority figures, the triumph of well-meaning buffoons, the punning wisdom of fools -- it's wonderful stuff for a 10-year-old who spends his week at school learning long division.

I'm old enough to recall when the stooges shorts were on the movie screen at the Saturday afternoon matinee before the main feature came on (and when you carried the quarter that the movie cost in your mitten, plus a dime for candy, so you wouldn't lose your money on the way there.) Maybe it's a boy thing, but I found them exhilarating. No superheroes, just ordinary schmucks doing their best to get by, and ultimately prevailing.

[robeiae]

Equally as good: many of the old Abbott and Costello flicks.

When I was younger, TBS would show these on Saturday mornings, followed by Tarzan movies at noon.

[ColoradoGuy]

Originally Posted by robeiae

Equally as good: many of the old Abbott and Costello flicks.

At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, they have the "Who's on first" routine on endless loop. I could not get the kid to leave.

[Chris P]

B-A-Bay,
B-E-Bee,
B-I-Bicky-Bi,
B-O-Bo,
Bicky-Bi-Bo,
B-U-Bu,
Bicky-Bi-Bo-Bu.

Curly's a dope!

[Chris P]

More seriously, I was recently contemplating the loss of the "straight man" in comedy: Bud Abbott, Dean Martin, and even Bob Newhart and John Cleese, who do excellent straight men but both are funny when the roles called for it.

But then I remembered the Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. Perhaps comedy hasn't always had straight men but you sure don't see many anymore.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by robeiae

Equally as good: many of the old Abbott and Costello flicks.

Abbott and Costello were much better, IMO. And Laurel and Hardy were brilliant. But perhaps not as much as the Stooges to a ten year old.

[C.bronco]

Originally Posted by robeiae

Equally as good: many of the old Abbott and Costello flicks.

When I was younger, TBS would show these on Saturday mornings, followed by Tarzan movies at noon.

Yes! I was a fan of those when I was 8 - 10 years old. I didn't discover the true joy of The Three Stooges until I was in my 20's. Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

[ColoradoGuy]

Originally Posted by Haggis

Abbott and Costello were much better, IMO. And Laurel and Hardy were brilliant. But perhaps not as much as the Stooges to a ten year old.

That's my point. Laurel and Hardy, and to some extent Abbot and Costello, are for adults. It's the liberating anarchy of the three stooges that appeals to the 10-year-old who spends most of his day being told what to do by others.

The Marx Brothers have that quality, too, especially the anarchic Duck Soup. (Groucho claimed Margaret Dumont never knew what they were doing was satire, which is pitch-perfect, really)

[robeiae]

Well, I think it's an interesting discussion.

But--to unfortunately belabor the point--I brought up A & C because in most of their movies, they're trying to make their way in an adult world and failing tragically, but in funny ways. As you said: "...just ordinary schmucks doing their best to get by, and ultimately prevailing."

I think in that respect they are quite similar to the Stooges. There was just a little more plot...and a little more of an attention requirement.

Also, both involved attractive, intelligent women who should have been out of their league...

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by ColoradoGuy

That's my point. Laurel and Hardy, and to some extent Abbot and Costello, are for adults. It's the liberating anarchy of the three stooges that appeals to the 10-year-old who spends most of his day being told what to do by others.

The Marx Brothers have that quality, too, especially the anarchic Duck Soup. (Groucho claimed Margaret Dumont never knew what they were doing was satire, which is pitch-perfect, really)

Yep. Totally agree, though the Marx Brothers may fall in between the Stooges and A & C in that regard. But all of those acts were brilliant in their own way.

I like the idea of "liberating anarchy," because it's not simply physical humor that's the difference. Harold Lloyd's humor was mostly physical but, I believe, way more appealing to an adult than that of the Stooges.

Originally Posted by robeiae

Well, I think it's an interesting discussion.

But--to unfortunately belabor the point--I brought up A & C because in most of their movies, they're trying to make their way in an adult world and failing tragically, but in funny ways. As you said: "...just ordinary schmucks doing their best to get by, and ultimately prevailing."

I think in that respect they are quite similar to the Stooges. There was just a little more plot...and a little more of an attention requirement.

Also, both involved attractive, intelligent women who should have been out of their league...

Except that A & C were clever. With clever bits and clever lines. The Stooges were, well, stooges. It's not that I don't appreciate it. I do, and I'm pretty much a little boy too when I'm not being very, very old, but it seemed funnier when I was younger. You know, back when they were first making those films.

[robeiae]

Originally Posted by Haggis

Except that A & C were clever. With clever bits and clever lines. The Stooges were, well, stooges. It's not that I don't appreciate it. I do, and I'm pretty much a little boy too when I'm not being very, very old, but it seemed funnier when I was younger. You know, back when they were first making those films.

I assumed you had only heard them on the radio...or as you might say, the "wireless."

[robeiae]

Originally Posted by Haggis

Except that A & C were clever. With clever bits and clever lines. The Stooges were, well, stooges.

Hence the additional attention requirement.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by robeiae

I assumed you had only heard them on the radio...or as you might say, the "wireless."

Well, vaudeville first, of course....

Originally Posted by robeiae

Hence the additional attention requirement.

For sure. But I get Chris' point too. The Stooges have no attention requirement. Which is one of the reasons they were so successful.

[RemusShepherd]

The best philosophical take I've seen on the Stooges is from the Church of the Sub-Genius, believe it or not. I saved it in my quote file:

There are three kinds of people -- I call them Larrys, Curlys, and Moes. The Larrys don't even know that there are three types; if they're told, it's an abstraction, because they cannot imagine anything beyond Larry-ness. The Curlys know about it, and recognize the pecking order, but find ways of living with it cheerfully...for they are the imaginative, creative ones. The Moes not only know about it, but exploit and perpetuate it.

The naive, pleasant believers of all kinds are Larrys -- ineffectual, well-meaning do-gooders destined always to be victims, often without once guessing their status. Like sheep, they don't want to hear the unpleasant legends about "the slaughterhouse"; they /trust/ the strange two-legged beings who feed them. The artists, unsung scientific geniuses, political writers, and earnest disciples of the stranger cults are Curlys -- engaging, original, accident-prone but full of life, intuitively aware of the Moe forces plotting against them and trying to fight back. They can never defeat the Moes, however, without BECOMING Moes, which is impossible for a true Curly.

The Moes, then, are the fanatics, the ranters, the cult gurus, the Uri Gellers AND the Debunkers; they are the Resistance Leaders and the Ruling Class Bankers. They hate each other, but only because they want to control ALL the Larrys and Curlys themselves....Larrys and Curlys die in wars started by rival Moes -- the Larrys willingly, the Curlys with great regret.

Not sure what context that was written in -- or even if context makes sense when referencing the Church of the Sub-Genius -- but I always thought it was a great insight.

[BenPanced]

I thought the Stooges were hysterical when I was 14.

But then I turned 15.