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The following biography
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Free Encyclopedia.”
The Three Stooges were an American comedy
slapstick act in the 20th century. Commonly known by their first names,
Larry, Moe, & Curly (sometimes spelled "Curley"); Larry, Moe & Shemp;
and other lineups became famous for their work in movies and starred in
many short features that consisted of masterful ways of showcasing their
extremely physical and sometimes controversial brand of slapstick
comedy.
****
History Ted Healy and His Stooges
The Three Stooges got their name and their
start from a vaudeville act called Ted Healy and His Stooges (originally
called "Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen"), which was founded in
1922. Brothers Harry Moses Howard (Moe) and Samuel Howard (Shemp)
(original last name Horwitz) were later joined by violinist Larry Fine
(born Louis Feinberg). Shemp acquired his name from his mother's
attempts to pronounce his name, "Sam", in spite of her thick accent. By
1930, Ted Healy and His Stooges were appearing in Hollywood feature
films, such as Soup to Nuts. Shemp left the act in 1931 for a career in
feature films, notably as trainer Knobby Walsh in the Joe Palooka films,
and in The Bank Dick with W.C. Fields.
When Shemp left the act, Ted and the two
remaining stooges (Moe and Larry) needed a third stooge, so Moe offered
his youngest brother, Jerome. Ted took one look at Jerome and with his
long black locks and facial hair, stated he was not a character like Moe
and Larry, so Jerome left the room and returned moments later with a
shaved head and face; thus, Curly was born. (There are varying accounts
as to how Curly actually came about. There are publications that Moe,
Larry, Ted Healy, and even Shemp actually came up with the concept of
shaving Jerome's head and dubbing him 'Curly'.) According to Moe Howard
in his autobiography, Moe Howard and the Three Stooges, the Stooges
split with Ted Healy in 1934 once and for all because of his alcoholism
and abrasiveness.
Columbia Short Subjects, 1934-1959
The same year, the Three Stooges (as the
Howard brothers and Fine renamed their act) signed on to appear in
two-reel comedy short subjects for Columbia Pictures at just a few
hundred dollars a week. The Stooges went on to star in 190 film short
subjects over the next twenty-three years, the longest such series in
history. Del Lord directed more than three dozen of the Three Stooges
shorts. Jules White directed many others, and his brother Jack White
directed several under the pseudonym "Preston Black".
According to a published report,[1] Moe,
Larry, and director Jules White considered their best film to be You
Nazty Spy (1940). This 18-minute short subject starring Moe as a
Hitler-like character satirized the Nazis in a period when America was
still neutral and isolationist about WWII. You Nazty Spy was the first
Hollywood film to spoof Hitler, and was released nine months before the
more famous Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator.
Curly suffered a stroke on May 6, 1946,
during the filming of Half-Wits Holiday, curtailing his output at 97
shorts. Brother Shemp reluctantly rejoined the act to take Curly's
place. Curly did make one brief cameo appearance (doing his dog barking
routine) in the third film after Shemp returned to the trio, Hold That
Lion!, in an effort to boost his morale. It was the only film that
contained all three Howard brothers simultaneously (Curly's cameo
appearance was recycled in the 1953 remake Booty and the Beast).
Apparently, a scene was filmed for 1949's 'Malice in the Palace' where
Curly appears as a chef. A still from the scene remained on the one
sheet for this film, but it was not used in the final cut. Larry is
instead the "chef" for the film.
Shemp Howard was hesitant to rejoin the
Stooges, as he had a successful solo career going at the time of Curly's
untimely illness. However, he realized that Moe and Larry's careers
would be finished without the Stooge act. Shemp wanted some kind of
assurance that his rejoining was indeed temporary, and that he could
leave the Stooges once Curly recovered. Unfortunately, Curly's condition
grew worse: he died in January 1952.
With Shemp on board, the Stooges went on to
appear in 77 more shorts and a mediocre feature entitled Gold Raiders
(1951). During this period, Moe, Larry, and Shemp also made a pilot for
a Three Stooges television show called Jerks of All Trades in 1949. The
series was never picked up, although the pilot is today in the public
domain and is available on home video, as is an early TV appearance from
around the same time on a vaudeville-style comedy series starring Ed
Wynn.
The quality of the Stooge shorts took a
nosedive in 1952 when director Edward Bernds was fired from Columbia
Pictures. Bernds took producer Hugh McCollum with him, and Columbia
Short Subjects head Jules White was left to both produce and direct the
remainder of the Stooge shorts. Remakes of earlier Shemp shorts occurred
on a regular basis as a cost-saving tactic.
To add insult to injury, death paid the
Stooges another visit just three years after Curly's demise. Shemp
Howard died of a sudden heart attack (or stroke, or cerebral hemorrhage,
depending on the publication) at age 60 on November 22, 1955. Archived
footage of Shemp, combined with new footage of his stand-in, Joe Palma
(filmed from behind or with his face hidden), were used to finish the
last four films on Shemp's contract.
Joe Besser replaced Shemp in 1956 and 1957,
appearing in 16 shorts. Besser had a clause in his contract specifically
prohibiting him from being hit too hard, though this restriction was
lifted as Besser's tenure continued (ironically, Besser was the only
"third" stooge that dared to hit Moe back; Larry Fine was also known to
hit Moe on occasion, but always with serious repercussions).
Unfortunately, the market for short subjects had all but dried up by the
time Besser joined the trio. Television was the new popular medium, and
the Stooges were practically dinosaurs. Columbia Pictures, the last
studio still producing shorts, unceremoniously fired the trio in 1957 at
the end of production of their final short, Flying Saucer Daffy. Because
of a production backlog, the final Stooges short, Sappy Bullfighters,
did not reach theatres until June 4, 1959.
Rebirth
In 1959, Columbia syndicated the entire
Stooges film library to television (through its TV subsidiary, Screen
Gems), and the Stooges were rediscovered by the baby boomers. A "Stooge
fandom" quickly developed, and Howard and Fine found themselves back in
demand again with the public. Besser's wife had had a heart attack,
however, and he withdrew from the act. Moe quickly signed Joe DeRita as
his replacement; DeRita shaved his head and became "Curly-Joe" because
of his resemblance to the original Curly Howard.
This version of the Three Stooges went on
to make a series of moderately popular full-length films during the late
1950s and through the 1960s. The trio also filmed 39 short comedy skits
that were broadcast as introductions and closings for a 1965 animated
television series based upon the comedy team. Throughout the 1960's, The
Three Stooges were one of the most popular, and highest paid live acts
in the country.
In 1969, the Three Stooges filmed a pilot
episode for a new TV series entitled Kook's Tour which would have been a
combination travelogue and sitcom that would have seen the "retired"
Stooges travelling around the world, with the episodes filmed on
location. During production of the pilot, Larry suffered a paralyzing
stroke, ending his acting career, as well as future plans for the TV
series. A 50-minute version of Kook's Tour was edited together from
usable material and initially only made available for the home movie
market (years before the popularity of home video); it has subsequently
been released to DVD, though unrestored.
Later years
Larry Fine suffered another stroke in
December 1974. The following month, he suffered a more serious stroke,
and slipped into a coma. Fine died on January 24, 1975, aged 72.
Devastated by his comrade's passing, Moe decided that long-time Stooge
supporting actor Emil Sitka would replace Larry, and be dubbed "The
Middle Stooge".
Several movie ideas were considered,
including one called Blazing Stewardesses according to Leonard Maltin,
who also uncovered a pre-production photo (the film was ultimately made
with the last surviving Ritz Brothers). However, life-long smoker Moe
had fallen ill with lung cancer, and died on May 4, 1975. With Moe gone,
it was inconceivable that the Three Stooges continue without a Howard,
although Curly-Joe did do some live performances with a new group of
Stooges in the early 1970s. It is interesting to note that in 1975, the
world not only lost both Larry and Moe, but also Moe's wife of 50 years,
Helen.
Joe Besser died on March 1, 1988, followed
by Curly-Joe on July 3, 1993, and Emil Sitka on January 16, 1998, making
him the last Stooge to die. Curly-Joe often stated that his time with
the Three Stooges were the 'best years of his life.'
Post-history
Throughout their career, Moe was the heart
and soul of the troupe, acting as both their main creative force and
business manager. Comedy III Productions, Inc., formed by Moe, Larry and
Curly-Joe DeRita in 1959, is today the owner of all of the Three
Stooges' trademarks and merchandising (the company is currently operated
by DeRita's two stepsons).
In Spring of 2000, long time stooge fan Mel
Gibson produced a TV-movie about the life and careers of the Stooges. It
was produced for and broadcast on ABC. This movie was based on Michael
Fleming's authorized biography on the Stooges, The Three Stooges: From
Amalgamated Morons to American Icons. The film regularly runs on the AMC
(American Movie Classics) channel.
Spike TV currently airs selected Three
Stooges shorts in their Stooges Slap-Happy Hour. Several of the Stooges'
shorts and films are in the process of being colorized by Legend Films.
Members
Moe Howard
Real Name: Harry Moses Horwitz
Born: June 19, 1897
Died: May 4, 1975
Stooge years: 1922, 1926, 1929-1970
Larry Fine
Real Name: Louis Feinberg
Born: October 5, 1902
Died: January 24, 1975
Stooge years: 1925-1926, 1929-1970
Curly Howard
Real Name: Jerome Lester Horwitz
Born: October 22, 1903
Died: January 18, 1952
Stooge years: 1934-1946
Shemp Howard
Real Name: Samuel Horwitz
Born: March 4, 1895
Died: November 22, 1955
Stooge years: 1922-1925, 1929-1932,
1947-1955
Joe Besser
Born: August 12, 1907
Died: March 1, 1988
Stooge years: 1957-1959
Curly-Joe DeRita
Real Name: Joseph Wardell
Born: July 12, 1909
Died: July 3, 1993
Stooge years: 1959-1970
Emil Sitka
Born: December 22, 1914
Died: January 16, 1998
Sitka was officially named a member of the
Stooges following Larry Fine's stroke, but never got to perform with the
group.
Catchphrases
Although The Three Stooges are best known
for their physical comedy, the group's dialogue is also highly quotable,
with many of their lines (or signature nonverbal vocalizations) having
become popular catchphrases. Here are some examples:
"Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!" (Curly laughing)
"Why I oughta..." (Moe)
"What's the big idea?" (Larry)
"Eeeb-eeeb-eeeb-eeeb!" (Shemp)
"Hey, that hurts!" (Joe)
"Soitenly!" (certainly) (Curly)
"You imbecile!" (Moe, to the others)
"I'm a victim of soicumstance!"
(circumstance) (Curly)
"Spread out!" (Moe, to the others)
"Waah, w-ohh!" (Shemp, which was a
wolf-whistle towards women that sounded like a steam whistle)
"Yauauaua!" (Curly)
"La-la-la, la-la-la..." (Curly, humming)
"Mmmmmmmmh!" (Curly) (when frustrated;
difficult to transcribe exactly)
"Rrrowf! Rrrowf!" (Curly) (when angry or
defiant)
Other attempt: (Ruff! Ruff!)
(Sometimes Moe on some Shemp and Joe
shorts)
"You knucklehead!" (Moe, to others)
"Hellooooo (1st Stooge)...Hellooooo (2nd
Stooge)...Hellooooo! (3rd Stooge) ... Hello! (All Stooges)"
"You chucklehead!" (Moe, to the others)
"You chowderhead!" (Moe, to the others)
Slapstick
Slapstick was a mainstay of Stooge humor.
The key was that, no matter how hard anyone was poked, slapped, punched
or prodded, the pain immediately went away, and no one was ever really
hurt by it. Even Moe dragging a handsaw across Curly's head would result
only in a momentary "OH! OH! OH!" and then a "Oh, LOOK!" as they gazed
at the bent and/or dulled teeth of the now completely useless saw. Moe
would inevitably blame Curly for the damage... "You and that iron head
o' yours. You've ruined the saw!"
Examples of archetypical Stooge slapstick:
One pokes the other in the eyes with the
first and second fingers of one hand. After a while, the other Stooge
catches on and holds his palm perpendicular to the edge of his nose to
block this. The first Stooge then uses the index finger of each hand to
jab both eyes at once.
Here is an example:
Moe: (holding out his hand) Pick out two
fingers.
Curly: (pointing out Moe's first and second
fingers) One, two!
(Moe immediately pokes Curly in the eyes.)
Curly: YEOW!!
One stooge, usually Moe, strikes his own
outstretched fist with his other fist. After being struck, the hand
revolves downward, back and onto another Stooge's head. This move is
known as the "Around-The-World Bop".
Moe: See that?
Larry: (jeering) Ahhh.
(Larry slaps Moe's hand, which flies up and
knocks Larry's head.)
Sound effect: *BONK!*
Larry: (in pain) Ow!
In a variant of this maneuver, one Stooge
strikes his own outstretched fist with his other fist; usually, it is
either Curly or Larry who is the one that does this, except after being
struck, the clever trick backfires as the hand revolves downward, back
and onto Curly's or Larry's own head.
Curly: See that?
Moe: (jeering) Ahhh!
(Moe slaps Curly's hand, which flies up and
knocks himself on the head.)
Sound effect: *BONK!*
Curly: (in pain) Owowow!
The triple slap: a straight man slaps the
faces of all three Stooges in one energetic sweep.
Sound effect: *SLAD-DA-DAP!!*
One Stooge, typically Moe, grasps another
Stooge's nose then vertically strikes the grasping fist, making the
sound of a honking horn-like device.
Sound effect: *HONK!*
Other side-aching classics include:
(Three Stooges are cops)
Moe: Next time you handle a gun, shoot
yourself in the head.
Curly: (Pulling out a pen and pad of paper)
I'll make a note of it. How do you spell head?
Moe: B-O-N-E Head.
(He hits Curly on the head with the gun)
Curly: (Painfully) Ow! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh...
look!
(The butt of the gun is smashed)
(Three Stooges are in a shop. They manage
to tick off Moe as always)
Moe: (Laughs with the humor)
Curly/Larry: (Both laugh too)
(Moe slowly puts his hands on their
shoulders, then claps their heads together)
Sound effect: BONK!
(While building a room, Curly as assigned,
takes an electric saw and cuts a piece of wood by six inches, but cuts
it on the table Moe is standing on while measuring the ceiling base
line)
Moe: Give it to me.
(Takes one step towards the end of the
table, and the whole thing collapses, with him crashing on his back. He
gets up as though nothing happened, and walks to the left end of Curly
and Larry)
Curly: What happened?
Moe: Nothin.
(Slaps them both)
Sound effect: LOUD SLAP!
(He grabs a 2x4 and chases after them, but
cannot get through an unfinished door with the 2x4 in his hand, so he
tosses it to the floor)
Moe: Shut that door!
(Curly does so, but it collapses on Moe)
Curly: (With Moe yelling angrily) Where is
he?
Larry: (Pointing to door on ground) In
there!
Moe: Get me outta here!
(Carelessly, Curly stands on the door)
Moe: Ow! Get the door open!
(Curly gets off, tries to open it, but it's
locked)
Curly: I can't, it's locked! I ain't even
got a key!
Moe: Get the saw!
(Again, Curly does so, and cuts a body hole
in the door, barely missing Moe, but cuts a hole in the floor as well.
Larry gives the hole piece a few taps, and Moe falls through the floor
and on to the bottom next one.
Moe: (Screaming as he falls to the bottom
floor)
Sound effect: CRASH!
(They look as Moe pushes the wood and
rubble off of him down below)
Curly: What're ya doin' down there?
Moe: (Gesturing them with his index finger
to come down there) C'mere...
Curly: (To Larry) I think he wants ya.
Moe: Both of ya!
(After they reach the bottom floor)
Curly: (Helping Moe up) Hey Moe! It was an
accident! It'll never happen again, we couldn't help it!
(Moe punches them both in the stomach, and
with them both bent forward from the punch, he hits them in the
forehead)
Sound effect: BOUNCE... BONK!
Larry: Hey, you only fell 14 feet! Why are
ya gettin sore?!
Moe: (Pretending to be surprised) Is that
all it was?
Larry: Yeah!
Moe: (Now pretending to be sorry) Aw, well
I'm sorry fellas, (chuckles)
(He puts his hands on their shoulders as
though he's making amends, but then claps Larry's and Curly's heads
together)
Sound effect: BONK!
In some brief scenes for certain episodes,
Moe would be seen with his hair standing straight in fright as he yelled
in terror. This was done with an air hose off-camera (usually below as
it takes an extreme close-up of him) blowing his hair upward as he
yells. His voice was later dubbed in.
Other bizarre events frequently occurred,
including a scene in which Moe sits in a chair that has a bear trap set
in it, which immediately clamps down on Moe's butt. He runs around the
room with the trap on screaming, "Larry! Larry! An octopus has got me!"
See Three Stooges Online's Slapshtick for
more examples.
Sound effects
The use of clever sound effects was
important to the overall effect of the action. A good example would be
Moe whacking one of his fellow Stooges on the head with a hammer.
Typically, the sound of a hammer striking an anvil or a block of wood
was used, suggesting the characters were "hard-headed" in more ways than
one. A blow to a kettle drum accompanied blows to the stomach, and for
pokes to the eye, a plucked violin string made the sound, or sometimes a
high pitched piano sound. When appendages such as fingers, noses, toes,
etc. were pinched, crunched, vice gripped, etc. a noise like a cracking
nut generally accompanied.
For some reason, sound effects were not
used in the Jerks of All Trades (1949) television pilot. Some believe
that this is the main reason their pilot failed to sell. The silly sound
effects made the hitting, poking and punching come across as a joke.
Without the clever sound it came across as just violent.
Music
Several instrumental tunes were played over
the opening credits at different times in the production of their short
features. The most commonly used themes were:
"Three Blind Mice", beginning as a slow but
straightforward presentation, often breaking into a "jazzy" style before
ending. Another version was played fast all the way through.
The verse portion of "Listen to the
Mockingbird", played in a comic way, complete with sounds of cuckoo
birds and such. Ironically, the actual song is mournful.
The Columbia short subject “Woman Haters”
(1934) was done completely in song. It was sixth in a “Musical
Novelties” short subject series, and appropriated its musical score from
the first five films. The memorable “My Life, My Love, My All,” was
originally “At Last!” from the film “Um-Pa.”
“Swinging the Alphabet” (B-A-bay, B-E-be,
B-I-bicky-bi…) from the 1938 “Violent is the Word for Curly” is perhaps
the best-known original song performed by the Stooges on film.
The “Lucia Sextet” (Chi mi frena in tal
momento?), from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
(announced by Larry as “the sextet from Lucy”), is played on a record
player and lip-synched by the stooges in “Micro-phonies” (1945). The
same melody re-appears in “Square Heads of the Round Table” (1948) as
the tune of “Oh, Elaine, can you come out tonight?”
“Micro-phonies” also includes the Johann
Strauss Jr. waltz “Voices of Spring” (Frühlingsstimmen) Op. 410
The Moe-Larry-Curly Joe version of the
Three Stooges recorded several musical record albums in the early 1960s.
Most of their songs were adaptations of nursery rhymes. Among their more
popular recordings were "Making a Record" (a surreal trip to a recording
studio built around the song "Go Tell Aunt Mary"), "Three Little
Fishes", and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".
Feature motion pictures
The Three Stooges also made appearances in
many feature length movies in the course of their careers:
Soup to Nuts (1930)
Turn Back the Clock (1933)
Meet the Baron (1933)
Dancing Lady (1933)
Myrt and Marge (1933)
Fugitive Lovers (1934)
Hollywood Party (1934)
The Captain Hates the Sea (1934)
Start Cheering (1938)
Time Out for Rhythm (1941)
My Sister Eileen (1942) (Cameo)
Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943) (scenes
deleted)
Rockin' in the Rockies (1945)
Swing Parade of 1946 (1946)
Gold Raiders (1951)
Columbia Laff Hour (1956)
Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)
Stop! Look! and Laugh! (1960)
Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962)
The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962)
The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a
Daze (1963)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
(Cameo)
4 for Texas (1963) (Cameo)
The Outlaws Is Coming (1965)
Kook's Tour (1970)
****
Television
In addition to the unsuccessful television
series pilots, Jerks of All Trades (1949) and Kook's Tour (1970), the
Stooges appeared in a short-lived television show called The New Three
Stooges which ran from 1965 to 1966. This series featured a mix of
thirty-nine live action segments which were used as wrap-arounds to 156
animated Stooges shorts.
An episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New
Scooby-Doo Movies aired in the early 1970's featuring animated Stooges
as guest-stars. Due to this guest appearance there was a short-lived
animated series, also produced by Hanna-Barbera, entitled The Robonic
Stooges featuring Moe, Larry, and Curly as bionic cartoon superheroes
with extendable limbs, similar to the later Inspector Gadget.
The Stooges were brought back to life (so
to speak) in a 2000 TV movie. Moe was played by Paul Ben-Victor (who
also had a small role as a fan who thinks he's Moe in 'StoogeMania'),
Larry by Evan Handler, Shemp by John Kassir, and Curly by Michael
Chiklis. The executive producer was Mel Gibson.
Tributes
The song "Hairstyles and Attitudes" by
Timbuk 3 describes scientific research which "categorize[s] us into
three basic types based on which of the Three Stooges we most closely
resemble".
In 1983, the very first film documentary
about the lives and career of The Three Stooges debuted at The Gordon
Theatre in Hollywood, the same day as The Three Stooges received their
star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Produced by Mark Gilman, the film
was later released to television under the name of STOOGE SNAPSHOTS: 50
YEARS WITH THE FUNNIEST GUYS IN THE WORLD. It was later re-released on
home video with added footage as LOVE THOSE STOOGES. It was hosted by
comedian Steve Allen and included filmed interviews with
producer/director Jules White, writer/director Ed Bernds, writer Elwood
Ulmann, actors Emil Sitka, Jock Mahoney, Julie Gibson, Ted Healy's Three
Stooges (Mousie Garner, Dick Hakins and Sammy Wolfe) and Curly's ex-wife
Elaine and daughter Marilyn.
Jules White, the producer of the 1934
Columbia short Men in Black (1934), was nominated for an Oscar in the
Short Subject (Comedy) category of the 7th Academy Awards. This was the
only Oscar nomination for the Three Stooges series.
The 1984 song "The Curly Shuffle," recorded
by Jump N'The Saddle Band, expressed admiration for the Stooges and
included several Curly imitations in the chorus.
In the television show Friends in Joey and
Chandler's apartment there is a small statue which contains the Stooges'
heads.
The 1985 film, Stoogemania tells the story
of an obsessed Three Stooges fan, and includes clips of their classic
Shorts.
The Evil Dead film series has a number of
stooge inspired moments. Among these: the blood flowing in the basement
in Evil Dead (an homage to 1940's A-Plumbing We Will Go), the fight with
his hand in the kitchen in Evil Dead 2, and the fight with the skeleton
hands and with the little Ashes in Army of Darkness.
The 1992 Seinfeld episode "The Suicide"
features Jerry's reference to The Three Stooges to his very enamored
neighbor, Gina. Gina: "Who are these Stooges you speak of?" Jerry:
"They're a comedy team." Gina: "Tell me about them, everything" Jerry:
"Well, they're three kind of funny looking guys and they hit each other
a lot." Gina: "You will show me these Stooges?" Jerry: "I will show you
these Stooges."
In John Badham's movie Short Circuit,
Johnny 5, while watching T.V., sees the original Three Stooges in their
first short for Columbia Pictures, Woman Haters, made in 1934 at
Stephanie's (Ally Sheedy) house. He later reprograms three of the Nova
Robots into a breed of the Three Stooges, almost in their likeness.
The 1994 Song, "Two Reelers" by Frank Black
tells the story of the four "original" stooges and Jules White, and
protests the dismissal of the Three Stooges as mere low-brow slapstick:
"If all you see is violence/Well then I make a plea in their
defense/Don't you know they speak vaudevillian?"
A 1987 computer game by Cinemaware, The
Three Stooges, has the stooges trying to save an orphanage where they
engage in wacky adventures and engage in some of their classic comic
scenes. The game was also ported to the NES in 1989 by Activision, and
then to Game Boy Advance in 2002 by Metro 3D.
In the 1995 computer game Space Quest 6,
there was a minigame called Stooge Fighter, which was a parody of Street
Fighter starring the stooges.
In the computer game remake of Quest for
Glory 1, three guards attempt to kill the hero in the Brigand fortress.
These three guards are none other than the three stooges
In an episode of the cartoon Pinky and the
Brain entitled "Pinky & The Brain And... Larry", Pinky and The Brain are
inexplicably joined by a third wheel Larry in their plan to get into the
White House posing as wallpaperers, whose unwelcome addition to the team
causes Stooge-style antics to ensue.
The King of the Hill episode "A-Fire
Fighting We Will Go" contains several references to the Stooges.
The independent comic book Cerebus contains
an homage to the Stooges as the "Three Wise Fellows" in the graphic
novel Latter Days. The three comically kidnap the main character,
convinced that he is the messiah (Also parodying the Torah), and, while
waiting for him to speak the "Word of Truth", engage in hijinks such as
clamping pliers on one another's noses over theological arguments.
The Super NES RPG Final Fantasy VI features
as bosses the "Three Dream Stooges" (also named Larry, Curly and Moe),
who entered Cyan Garamonde's mind while he was facing his inner demons
in Doma Castle.
Homer Simpson from the TV show The Simpsons
imitates Curly occasionally, while character Mr Burns suffers from
'Three Stooges Syndrome', where he has every disease known to man (and
several only found inside him), but survives because they all cancel
each other out. Also, when George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter
appear in a season 14 episode, they emitate the Stooges.
Tribute to a famous trio by...another
famous trio: the legendary Canadian rock group Rush. The Stooges
television series theme music, a derivative of "Three Blind Mice", was
used by Rush as introductory music during the Signals through Hold Your
Fire tours, and again for the Vapor Trails tour. A picture of the
Stooges and their names is included in the Counterparts linernotes, and
they are included in the "assistance, inspiration, comic relief"
listing.[1]
Doctor John Zoidberg, from the animated
series Futurama, makes Curly's trademark "Woo, woo, woo" sound when
running away from trouble (sometimes after squirting ink), and sometimes
makes Shemp's trademark "Heep, heep, heep" sound when frustrated.
In 1999's The Mummy , Rick O'Connell uses
Moe's eyegouging gag on one of the revenant mummy swordsmen in the the
chambers underneath the statue of Anubis in Hamunaptra .
In Louis Sachar's children's novel The Boy
Who Lost His Face, a group of three children (one of which being a girl
called Mo) is nicknamed after the Stooges.
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Carbon
Creek" features a group of Vulcans stranded in a small American town in
the 1950s. One of the Vulcans is annoyed at being nicknamed "Moe"
because of his resemblance to "something called a 'Stooge'". Another
Vulcan, who is depicted as being familiar with human pop culture, agrees
with the assessment.
An episode of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch
featured the Stooges being brought to the present age via a time machine
invented by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to battle the Three Tenors.
The folk trio Modern Man perform the song
"Moe" (written by pianist/singer George Wurzbach), about a boy whose
father looks like Moe Howard.
The appearance of the Second Doctor in the
British science fiction series, Doctor Who, played by Patrick Troughton,
was often compared to that of Moe Howard (due to his hairstyle),
although it's not known if this was intentional.
In the English version of the anime series
Neon Genesis Evangelion, the three characters Shinji Ikari, Toji
Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida are collectively referred to as 'the three
stooges' on several occasions.
The Berkeley band Funky Nixons used the
Stooges' musical "hello-hello-hello" routine to open their shows for
many years, and the song "Criticize" included a tribute to the Stooges
The DVD version of Star Wars Episode I: The
Phantom Menace has three pit droids squabbling during the podrace, meant
as homage to the Stooges.
In The New Batman/Superman Adventures
cartoon, the Joker has three henchmen named Mo, Lar, and Cur. Mo has the
black bowl cut, Lar has the ring of brown hair, and Cur is bald.
In the cartoon Animaniacs, the Warner
brothers and sister (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot) often do the musical
"hello-hello-hello" routine when they enter a scene.
In the opening sequence of the SpongeBob
SquarePants television series, SpongeBob uses his nose to play the same
end-notes that are used in the opening of the Stooge shorts.
The firmwares of D-Link products such as
routers are notorious for containing the following hidden data string
(probably as a joke from the programmers):
Hey Moe, it don't woik. NYUK NYUK NYUK NYUK
*bop* Owww!
In 1979, Ral Partha released a 25mm figure
released a "Three Headed Troll" figure. Each of the heads was one of the
Three Stooges.
The youthful protagonists of the Captain
Underpants series of books attend Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
In Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Dracula
(played by Stooge fan Leslie Nielsen) is finally defeated by the
eyepoke.
In an episode of The Simpsons, Bart must
aid Principal Skinner in stargazing late at night. As Skinner points out
a myriad of star constellations, he points out one saying "Look, its the
Three Wise Men", in actuality the Three Stooges.
In the first episode of the second season
of The Pretender, Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) pretends to be Dr. Howard, a
University anatomy professor, while working with Dr. Fein, the head of
the department. One of their students calls to them, "Dr. Howard, Dr.
Fein, Dr. Howard!"
In 2004, Big Idea added a short to their
movie, "Sumo of the Opera". Mr. Lunt is Moe, Jerry the gourd plays
Larry, and Larry the cucumber plays Curly. The three have to push a
player piano up a large, steep flight of stairs.
In the series Home Improvement, Brad, Randy
and Mark all dress up as Moe, at a Halloween party in tribute to Moe.
In the Jackie Chan Adventures episode
"Sheep In, Sheep Out", when Daolon Wong sends the Shadowkhan after
Jackie, Jade, and Uncle, Jade says, "Larry, Moe, and Curly must be on
vacation!"
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX episode "Champion or
Chazz-been", Reggie guesses that Chazz's facedown card involves the
Ojamas, and when Chazz asks why, Reggie replies with "You built your
entire deck around The Three Stooges!" as one of his ways of making fun
of the Ojama cards throughout the duel. Chazz later refers to the Ojamas
as the Stooges when they keep bugging him in "I've Seen the Light".
In The Simpsons episode "Large Marge",
Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush immitate The Three
Stooges by hitting each other with tools.
Also in another episode of The Simpsons,
Homer is watching a version of the Three Stooges in their late years.
This scene involves Moe slapping Curly with Curly replying that he hit
him on the paralyzed side of his face and after being slapped on the
side he feels pain exclaims "I don't want to do this anymore Moe".
In Disney's Gargoyles episode entitled
"Turf", Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington (commonly known as "the Trio")
are fighting over a female gargoyle, Angela. While Lex and Broadway
argue, Brooklyn steps between them, pushes them apart and says "Knock it
off, muttenheads!"
"Jon's," a bar/restaurant on South Street
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, features several likenesses of Larry
Fine, who was born at the establishment's current location at 3rd and
South Streets, in its decor, most notably an exterior mosaic of the
actor.
In an episode of M*A*S*H, Dr. Winchester is
disgruntled when Col. Potter orders him to show three buddhist about
medicine. During the tour of the O.R., Dr. Winchester calls the 3
buddhist Larry, Curly, and Moe. One monk asks why he keeps calling them
that. Winchester answers that the in his country, they were 3 highly
respected philosophers. In the end of the episode, it is revealed that
the buddhist knew of the Three Stooges all along.
In a sketch for MadTV, the Three Stooges
are spoofed as drug dealers along with David Faustino as the cartel.
In the film Conspiracy Theory, Mel Gibson's
character Jerry Fletcher disguises himself in medical scrubs to elude
capture. He introduces himself as Dr. Fine, a clear reference to the
Three Stooges film Men in Black.
In one Full House episode, Danny, Jesse,
and Joey all dress up as the Three Stooges.
In a Halloween episode of Roseanne, Dan
dresses up with a mask that has two of the Stooges' heads beside his
own.
The eclectic group NRBQ recorded an
instrumental entitled "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard" on their first
LP, Boppin' the Blues (with Carl Perkins) in 1970 as an homage to the
Stooges' famous hospital routine.
Trivia
Legend has it that the eye poke started
when Shemp accused Larry of cheating in a card game, and Shemp poked him
in the eyes. Moe, watching all this, laughed so hard he fell off his
chair and through his patio glass door. Larry's eyes were reportedly
tearing for days after the incident.
Stooges folklore has it that the Soviet
government asked permission for the aging Stooges shorts to be shown on
Soviet TV, and that the Stooges declined, their theory being that the
Soviets planned to use the Stooges as Cold War propaganda, i.e.,
evidence that the American people were pathologically violent and/or
stupid.
The legend of the Sword of Damocles gets
mentioned in Half-Wits Holiday (1947), when a pie gets thrown up and
stuck to the ceiling during a party. One of the guests (Stooge female
stalwart Symona Boniface) starts talking with Moe Howard, who is getting
increasingly nervous as the pie starts coming loose. Finally the guest
asks, "Young man, what's wrong? You act as if the Sword of Damocles was
hanging over your head", to which Moe replies, "Lady, you must be
psychic!" and walks away. She comments, "I wonder what's wrong with that
young man?" as she looks up, and gets the pie right in the face.
The contact point of the "eye poke" was
actually the brow bone, not the eyes. The illusion looked real on
television. In the 1950s, after numerous complaints by parents of
children imitating the Stooges' eyepoke, they went on TV to demonstrate
how exactly they did it safely.
In later years, during live performances,
when one Stooge would go to poke another in the eyes, or slap, or
whatever, the Stooge on the receiving end (usually Moe) would stop the
offender and say, "Ah, ah, ah...we don't do that anymore, remember?"
The stooges break the fourth wall in the
episode Rhythm and Weep (1946), when Larry says to the camera (while
hugging his sweetheart) "This I like, and I get paid for it, too."
In the 1947 short, Hold That Lion!, Curly
makes a cameo appearance - WITH HAIR - as a sleeping train passenger,
with a clothespin on his nose. This was the only time there were four
Three Stooges in one scene (Moe, Larry, Shemp, and Curly).
Further reading
Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe
Howard [2], (Citadel Press, 1977).
The Complete Three Stooges: The Official
Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon [3], (Comedy III
Productions, Inc., 2002).
The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff
Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [4](Citadel Press, 1994).
The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History,
From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming
[5](Broadway Publishing, 2002).
One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures;
by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [6], (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).
References
1 Newspaper article about the anti-fascist
short You Nazty Spy
****
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