So! Who likes the Three Stooges?

[Tim McG]

I'm a fan....you?

Edited March 23, 2008 by GoodSpeak

[Tim McG]

BTW....Shemp was cool, too.

[Jazzmoose]

Big time. Gimme that ol' lowbrow slapstick anytime. In fact, that was one of the things that attracted me to my ex; she was the first woman I met that dug the Stooges!

Hmmm....now that I think about it, that's a rather odd thing to build a relationship on...

[poetrylover3]

They were funny in person, too. Part of their stage show included showing how they did some of their tricks. You still needed quick reflexes to avoid pain as I found when I tried it at home with my brother the next day. Are they still featured on the AMC Channel?

[Christiern]

I always found the Stooges to be an annoying intrusion, esthetically revolting to look at--this is obviously humor to some people, but it never struck me that way.

The Marx Brothers? That's an entirely different matter--love the Marxes.

[Brownian Motion]

I've never "got" the humor of sub-moronic behavior. Hate these guys, and hate Lucille Ball's character as well.

[AllenLowe]

I actually think Curley was a hipster and have named by new production company - Big Fence Productions - in his honor (from a line in an old short)

[connoisseur series500]

Only one of the Stooges was funny, and it was Curley.

[Teasing the Korean]

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/...oges_stang.html

Are You a Larry, Curly or Moe?

As Found in the Chapter 10 "Weird Politics" Introduction in High Weirdness by Mail

Copyright © 1988,

by

Rev. Ivan Stang.

==============================================

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 it as a 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.

Among the listees in this book 1 , the naive, pleasant New Agers and "nice" UFO contactees, for instance, are Larrys (as are normals at large)--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, and 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, both. They hate each other, but only because they want to control ALL the Larrys and Curlys themselves. They don't actually enjoy their dominance; it's simply part of their nature. Nor are they any less foolish for the fact that they make the decisions. They suffer a chronic paranoia that is unknown to their less demanding underlings. Larrys and Curlys die in wars started by rival Moes--the Larrys willingly, the Curlys with great regret. Concepts like "Hell" and "Sin" were invented by Moes to keep Larrys in line; the Larrys, in turn, being far more numerous, exert social pressures on the Curly minority to also obey...mainly so the Larrys won't feel like suckers.

The Moes also invent myths, like that of the "Grouchos, Harpos, Chicos, and Zeppos," to throw the more rebellious Curlys off their trail and keep them unsure of the real situations.*

I am a Moe, though not a particularly powerful one; that is why I know these things, and it is also why I dare to tell you -- for most of you will think it's just a funny joke. A few will know it is the truth, but will fight far harder against my Moe enemies than you will against me, a relatively harmless Moe. My fellow Moes--enemies and uneasy SubGenius allies alike--will know what I'm REALLY saying, and chuckle in appreciation while plotting my downfall. In vain. ALL in VAIN, boy...

1 High Weirdness by Mail, by Rev. Ivan Stang, 1988, a Fireside Book, published by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY.

* When the Curlys finally die of overwork, the Moes find that they cannot live in an all-Larry world; they select special Larrys and vainly try to mold them into False Curlys...but it isn't the same.

Edited March 23, 2008 by Teasing the Korean

[7/4]

[Bright Moments]

don't forget joe besser!

[catesta]

I've never "got" the humor of sub-moronic behavior. Hate these guys, and hate Lucille Ball's character as well.

Maybe only "sub-moronic" people don't get the humor.

Me, I still laugh my ass off every time I see them.

[AllenLowe]

dowager lady:

"I have been to the Great Wall of China. Do you know the great Wall of China?"

Curley:

"No, but I know a big fence in Chicago."

[Alexander]

Even if you don't find the Stooges particularly funny (I do), you have to admire their skill as slapstick performers. They had amazing timing and physical endurance (during their vaudiville days, they really had to hit each other in order to make the sound audible to the people in the back row. Of course, they knew all kinds of tricks to keep themselves from really getting hurt). Even more demanding was having to coordinate a new set of routines for each short (admittedly, there is a lot of variation on some basic themes. Still, they had some amazing routines, especially the "Top Man" Chinese acrobat bit).

I've never seen why a person has to be a "Stooge-man" or a "Marx-man." I enjoy them both.

Edit: The acrobat routine was Japanese, not Chinese. It appears in "No Dough Boys" in which the Stooges (in costume and make up as Japanese soldiers for a film they are appearing in) are mistaken for real Japanese soldiers, both by the public at large and by a Nazi spy. The boys try to play along, including performing some "Japanese acrobatics." Although the film indulges in some very dated and very non-PC Japanese stereotypes ("Velly solly"), it's not as brutal or offensive as some other anti-Japanese propaganda of the period (especially "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips"). I still think Moe's line, "Maki, Waki...come backy" is funny.

Edited March 24, 2008 by Alexander

[Christiern]

Alexander: I've never seen why a person has to be a "Stooge-man" or a "Marx-man." I enjoy them both.

Nobody has said that one has to be one or the other, but each group had its approach to humor, and there was a difference in those approaches, hence universal appeal is not guaranteed.

[Dave James]

I love these guys. I've been a sucker for a pie in the face since I was a kid. We have all their short films on DVD. We watch them sometimes while we eat dinner. I already liked my significant other when we first met, but when I found out she had the complete Stooge collection, that pretty much sealed the deal. Also, I disagree that Curley was the only funny one. It's easy to ignore Larry, but if you isolate on him, he's just as funny in his own way as are the other two. I'll tell you who the genius was in this operation, though, that's the guy who decided to add sound effects to the equation. What would it be like if an eye gouge wasn't accompanied by a tweaked violin string?

Up over and out.

[Tim McG]

Slap-stick comedy transends all generations and all time periods.

Mindless humor at its best!

Hey Moe! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Edited March 24, 2008 by GoodSpeak