The Three Stooges - the Really Important Question!

[John in Covina]

Rarely seen today at the movie theater is the Short Subject or Short. During the Great Depression theaters had an eveings program worked out which could include live music or a series of cartoons, a newsreel and one or more short subjects like comedies from the Three Stooges, Hal Roach's Little Rascals (Our Gang Comedies) or Laurel and Hardy. All before the main feature. There were actually a number of comedic shorts that you will rarely see any wheres these days.

Back to the Three Stooges, there is often a demarkation of aficionados as to who they liked better: CURLEY or SHEMP.

IF you can please define the difference in comedic style as you see it and as to why you favor one over the other!

Please comment in this thread.

 

[KilroyCD]

Soitenly, nyuk nyuk nyuk!

"I'm tryin' to think, but nothins' happening!" - Curley

Actually, I like both characters. Curley, however, appeals to me more because of two things. His repertoire of comic vocalizations appealed to me more, plus I feel he was even more prone to physical (slapstick if you will) humour.

 

[carouselvic]

I know Moe loved them both, as tho they were all brothers.

 

[dhermann1]

Love 'em both, but Curley has to be top dog. Shemp was more classic Vaudeville Shtick comedian, you could see him actually being a stooge in the audience for Ted Healy's act. But Curley was truly a visitor from another planet. I think being more "normal" enabled Shemp to be more versatile as a working actor. Curley could never do anything but be Curley.

 

[just_me]

I liked them both a lot. As someone else wrote, Curly was more like a visiter from a another planet than the rest of the Stooges. Shemp was just really entertaining and he did act in other movies. (Can you imagine what it must have been like in their house (the Marx brother house too)? )

 

[Caity Lynn]

I find it hard to find anyone who knew there WAS a fourth stooge...but I prefer Curly, simply because I like him better and have no real reason as to why.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always felt sorry for Shemp, in the same way I always felt sorry for Zeppo. Wasn't there *some* other way you could have made a living?

 

[carouselvic]

I find it hard to find anyone who knew there WAS a fourth stooge...but I prefer Curly, simply because I like him better and have no real reason as to why.

A fourth stooge, how about a fifth and sixth, Joe and Curly Joe.

 

[Caity Lynn]

^ are you serious?

 

[carouselvic]

For Sure, Toots!!

 

[Caity Lynn]

I'm in shock....how could mygrandfather have left this world, even after making me watch over 6 straight hours of the stooges and have NOT imparted that bit of information to me?!

 

[carouselvic]

Even us grandpa's have our faults. Nuck Nuck

 

[dhermann1]

There were actually two others, Joe DeRita, and Joe Besser, for a total of 5.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Stooges#The_comeback:_Larry.2C_Moe_and_Curly-Joe
Supposedly . . . . there's a C-Town supermarket in Park Slope, Brooklyn that used to be a vaudeville theater. It's reputed to be where the original "stooges" act was developed back inthe 1920's.

 

[pipe23]

Curly, Shemp and Curly Joe were all good in their individual ways, but I always though Larry was the funniest Stooge. He was the subtle one, if anyone of the Stooges could be called subtle.

 

[carouselvic]

There were actually two others, Joe DeRita, and Joe Besser, for a total of 5.

How many? Is this some of that new math?

 

[just_me]

I always felt sorry for Shemp, in the same way I always felt sorry for Zeppo. Wasn't there *some* other way you could have made a living?

I don't think there is anything to feel sorry about.

Zeppo was stuck being the straight man after his brother Gummo left the act. Zeppo was fed up being the straight man and left the act and became a successful agent.

Shemp was very funny and left to act in other movies. When he left the stooges, Curly took over. Shemp came back after Curly had a stroke.

 

[dhermann1]

There were actually two others, Joe DeRita, and Joe Besser, for a total of 5.

How many? Is this some of that new math?

Uhhh . . . . errr . . . . make that 6. :eusa_doh:

 

[Nathan Dodge]

It's odd hearing of people not knowing there were "Curly replacements", which owes more to the Stooges being absent from TV in recent years. Time was, the Stooges were on every day after school and on sunday mornings, too. The death of the independent, local station reflects this. The fact that people are unaware of the act's history shows how a show quickly gets dumped off the pop culture radar if it's not constantly rerun, IMO. Hopefully, the DVDs will rectify this.

I prefer Curly (Jerome Howard) over Shemp, though the latter certainly had his moments.

Shemp edition of Stooges out on DVD March 17!

 

[David V]

Stooge-A-Palooza, Saturdays at 7 PM on WCIU, channel 26, Chicago
Sundays at noon on WWME, channel 49, Milwaukee

 

[pipe23]

There was a time in the mid-80's when the only Stooge fix I could get was on the local Spanish language TV channel, watching "Los Tres Chiflados". The voices were wrong but the gags still worked.