The three stooges

MrGamma

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Interesting. Slap stick is generally seen as immature nowadays, yet the mass appeal with all ages in the year 1930, gives me a little more insight into the healing laughter they may have provided.

I guess 1930s culture was very different. Stooges. The etymology behind that word has roots in criminal mob culture, correct?

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=stooges&searchmode=none

Or am I confusing that with Stool Pigeon?

As I said upthread, I think it's the liberating anarchy.

Hmmmnnn... sort of a laughing in the face of fear with just truth?
 
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Shadow_Ferret

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In high school I had a book on Great Comedy Teams. It gave a decent background on each and where they fit in, then gave a complete list of all their films. I used to mark off every time I saw a film. The Three Stooges section had half a dozen marks by every film.

I still enjoy them. To me, they represent the working class during a time when the working class was struggling. Many stories are the Three Stooges against the rich, the sophisticated, the establishment. Sure, much of their schtick was inane slapstick, but at the same time, they were satirizing the divide in society between the haves and the have nots, using themselves as the brunt of the jokes.
 

ColoradoGuy

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I still enjoy them. To me, they represent the working class during a time when the working class was struggling. Many stories are the Three Stooges against the rich, the sophisticated, the establishment. Sure, much of their schtick was inane slapstick, but at the same time, they were satirizing the divide in society between the haves and the have nots, using themselves as the brunt of the jokes.

That's a good summary -- I agree.
 

blacbird

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That's my point. Laurel and Hardy, and to some extent Abbot and Costello, are for adults.

Even as a 10-year-old, I found the Stooges ridiculous and unfunny. Laurel & Hardy, on the other hand, i adored. And W.C. Fields. But most of all, the Marx Bros. I still watch their stuff.

Groucho claimed Margaret Dumont never knew what they were doing was satire, which is pitch-perfect, really

Groucho Marx was one of the great humorists in American history, a perceptive genius with the soul of a dark pixie. If ever there was a unique talent, it was Groucho Marx.

caw