When they try and swear in Curly for the witness stand. "Take off your hat. Put your left hand here , raise your right hand. Take off your hat!"

This film featured Jerome “Curly” Howard, who died in 1952.

n/t

...and still do.

The abuse mortified me. I think it's because my parents NEVER spanked or raised voices.

What was that bullying supposed to teach kids--or people in general? 😧

watched them . but for me, I might have seen maybe 3 episodes and called it a day.

Yet we knew that it was comedy and never tried to throw bricks at each other.

nyuk nyuk. slowly i turned , step by step. and yes i thought they were funny.

My Mom hated the Stooges.

I thought they were not-funny and abusive.
There certainly is a lot worse now.

Last edited Sun Nov 30, 2025, 12:21 PM - Edit history (1)

The punches, pokes, slaps, and shoves were all deliberate, though, and not accidental (like hitting people with the ends of the ladder, or a board when you turn).

... plus Shemp, Laurel & Hardy... I'm surprised at how violent they are. Laurel and Hardy did a piano like the ice block you mentioned. They would be dead after almost every segment. The Stooges would be dead, or badly bruised. Both teams are played for a couple hours every Saturday, on ME TV in Los Angeles. The old cartoons were even more violent. It's shocking to me, now.

Love the Stooges.

Just a lot of slap stick comedy. Lol

My uncle decided to take us to the movies. It was the 3 Stooges who were hunting a bear.

Suffice it to say when the bear was getting the better of the Stooges my cousin and I started screaming, our uncle had to extricate us from the movie theater before it was over.

Some of the old Laurel and Hardy films absolutely cracked me up, and Abbott and Costello were hilarious (I still laugh at the classic "Who's on first?" bit), but the Stooges just seemed kind of dumb. About all they did was yell and hit each other.

Later in life I realized that the reason I didn't 'get' the Stooges, was because I didn't grow up with brothers. The Stooges were just exaggerating the antics of young boisterous and out-of-control brothers.
Also, my grandparents wouldn't let me watch them -- they were DANGEROUS!

There wasn't enough plot to interest me and the hallmark petty violence seemed unrealistic, what idiot would stay around someone who constantly physically attacked them.
I really loved, and still love, the Marx Brothers. Abbot and Costello are good too. As for cartoons, Jonny Quest was my favorite.

They rarely made me laugh hard but I would get stuck in their craziness. For some reason the "Slowly I turn, step by step......" used to just crack me up.

Moe making pancakes on the steam press, Shemp laughing while reading comics, broom antics... My favorite!

they were that funny. Just wildly violent, glorifying bullying and putting the slap in slapstick.

Last edited Mon Dec 1, 2025, 11:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Step by step, inch by inch...

Moe, Shemp, and Curly were all brothers. Can you imagine their poor mother?

... since he was instrumental in their renaissance.

I thought the Ice Man short you cite was particularly interesting because my great-uncle was an ice man. He probably humped countless chunks of ice up Pittsburgh's stairs in his time.

-- Mal

Even as a kid, I thought the act was stupid and pointless. My Dad used to watch the shorts on TV. I asked him why the Stooges were always hitting each other. He said: “It’s called slapstick humor”.

I didn’t see the humor then and don’t now. My Dad was a puns-and-practical-jokes kind of guy. That was his level of humor. This may sound snotty, but I’m more of an aficionado of wit. Oscar Wilde, that sort of thing.

the army and sank a ship. They had a dog wash business one time.

fluffing bully.

Last edited Sun Nov 30, 2025, 08:52 PM - Edit history (1)

That's when I became a big fan.

As far as my favorite Stooges short, it's this one.

No the hitting didn't bother me.
Even as a kid, I knew they were faking it.
It was just brain candy.

During the 30s and 40s, slapstick humor was popular and the Three Stooges were great at it. With the advent of TV, their movies appealed to teenagers and younger kids. Even today, you can sometimes see comical references to The Three Stooges in movies and on TV.

I watched the reruns as a kid and always thought this one was funny.

The television bursts with water while showing nigra falls.

... As Captain Penny always said, "Laugh at them, laugh with them, but don't do as they do!", as a condition to keeping the stooges on his show after moms with kids who did as they did and almost poked some other kids' eyes out and flooded WEWS channel 5 with complaints.

If you watch carefully, you'll see Curly carrying a block of ice

And the Swingin the Alphabet scene to me is one of the most memorable. Not side-splitting funny, but I'd describe it as "cute." And it's non-violent!

I was in a motel room with a bunch of people watching a morning of Stooges.

What we noticed was how the studio cut out certain parts of one short and pasted them in new shorts, particularly four in a row that we watched.

Specifically, the Stooges were in a "Pygmalion" scenario, with a professor trying to pass them off as erudite, educated, couth gentlemen. The Stooges are in a home of Old Money; Larry almost biting into a pie; Moe taking it away; Moe sees someone coming and throws it in the air, where it sticks to the ceiling; a rich woman accosting Moe and demanding that he tell her all about himself; Moe nervously watching the pie unstick from the ceiling; and finally, the Doyenne remarking that Moe looks like the World is going to crash in on him; he escapes, she looks up, and the pie vertically falls on her face.

We were hysterical every time that cut came on in a new Stooges short. We were saying the script in unison as it replayed.

And no, we weren't drunk or high. It was just so ridiculous.