Only a few years ago, all I knew about
The Three Stooges was that they were outrageously stupid, hit each other a lot, and that one of them (Moe) had a penchant for clunking the others’ heads together.
But when I watched my first Stooge short (“False Alarms”, still one of my faves), I quickly discovered another aspect of their comedy that was often just as funny as the physical humor: the language. You’ll notice that in the “Funniest Quotes You've Heard
Funniest Quotes You've Heard” thread, I’ve made no less than four posts devoted to Stooge quotes. Let them do the talking.
There's also the Stooge quote in my signature (the only quote at this time which is not my own). While the quote is itself hilarious, my real reason for including it is becauseóas someone who suffers from chronic Writer's Block, frequently draws a blank in the middle of a conversation, and whose brainstorms often fail to whip up more than a light breeze :póit reflects how I feel a lot of the time.
:
Then there are the insults. While Moe’s put-downs and one-liners are not as elaborate as those of Groucho Marx (my other favorite old-time comedian apart from the Stooges), I often find them to be equally hilarious. One of my all-time favorites was in
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, in which, after hearing a knock on the door, Moe says to Larry:
Open the door, Squirrelbait!
I love this insult not just because it cracks me up on its own, but when you stop and consider what one would use to bait a squirrel, you realize that Moe is actually calling Larry “nuts” in a much funnier way.
(Some of my other favorite Stooge insults include “mophead”, “beetlebrain”, and “overstuffed baboon”.)
And, of course, there are the Stooges’ catchphrases. Those are fantastic.
I can actually do a pretty accurate imitation of Curly’s “n’yuk-n’yuk-n’yuk!” and “woo-woo-woo!”,
: and when I want to affirm something, I often say, “soitenly!”
Some of my other family members have picked up the same habit. Evidently there’s such a thing as Stooge-itis, and it’s contagious.
