The Three Stooges: Moe, Curly, & Larry
My three oldest boys: Brad, Jeremy, & Ben(Any resemblance?)
If someone were to conduct a poll to determine who likes or dislikes The Three Stooges, I'm confident it would show a demographic split along gender lines. Of course there are exceptions, but the guys tend to think the Stooges are brilliant comedic relief while the gals think they're stupid (of course they're stupid; that's the point!) I don't know about your family but that trend holds true in mine. My mother, for one, never quite understood the appeal of slapstick humor - particularly when her boys were performing their own version of Moe, Larry, and Curly. You know, as hard as we tried, we never could quite get the timing right and my little brother's head just didn't give the same solid, wooden tone when struck. At any rate, Mom pulled the plug on our antics long before anyone got a concussion or had their eyes poked out. Instead of watching our favorite buffoons on after-school TV, we were told to engage in more civilized activity. Truth be told, we just took our act on the road; walked down the street and let one of our neighborhood pals fill in as Shemp; nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
As I grew into a young man, my fondness of the Stooges did not abate. As a matter of fact, I and my two closest friends from our church youth group were Stooge fans (hmm, another threesome; how curious). We would often attend a Three Stooges Film Festival; it was held at an old theater in a nearby town a couple of Saturdays each month. You wouldn't believe the array of knuckle-heads that were drawn to those events. Never before had I seen so many guys dressed up as Curly. It was a hoot; even now, I'm chuckling as I write this; such wonderful memories! Sometimes, I wish I could return to those days when I had time for such nonsense. Nevertheless, well into my middle-ages, I'm still a fan. I don't know, I suppose it's therapeutic for guys to sit back in a comfortable chair and watch some other poor fellow turn something simple into a complete catastrophe. Perhaps it gives us a brief escape from some of our own fiascos.
The foundation for the Stooges' brand of comedy is our own fallen nature; their scripts were forged from some of our more base elements such as our tendency to retaliate when provoked. A pie is thrown: "Oh, a wise-guy, eh?" A return volley: Another cream-topped pastry misses its mark striking someone else instead; the mayhem multiplies exponentially until everyone in the room is launching multiple sorties of projectile desserts. What makes this funny is perhaps what separates the men from the women. While the ladies in the audience might be disgusted by the mess and offended by people assaulting each other, the gentlemen secretly long (if they're honest) to engage in a little smash-mouth from time to time; the Bozo who cut him off on the freeway, the unreasonable boss, the guy at work who doesn't pull his own weight...We're combative by nature; much more so than our feminine counterparts.
A few months ago, I had a moment where I engaged in a little smash-mouth and ended up feeling like a complete stooge; a total "Moe Howard" extraordinaire. I'll share it with you in my next post.
As I grew into a young man, my fondness of the Stooges did not abate. As a matter of fact, I and my two closest friends from our church youth group were Stooge fans (hmm, another threesome; how curious). We would often attend a Three Stooges Film Festival; it was held at an old theater in a nearby town a couple of Saturdays each month. You wouldn't believe the array of knuckle-heads that were drawn to those events. Never before had I seen so many guys dressed up as Curly. It was a hoot; even now, I'm chuckling as I write this; such wonderful memories! Sometimes, I wish I could return to those days when I had time for such nonsense. Nevertheless, well into my middle-ages, I'm still a fan. I don't know, I suppose it's therapeutic for guys to sit back in a comfortable chair and watch some other poor fellow turn something simple into a complete catastrophe. Perhaps it gives us a brief escape from some of our own fiascos.
The foundation for the Stooges' brand of comedy is our own fallen nature; their scripts were forged from some of our more base elements such as our tendency to retaliate when provoked. A pie is thrown: "Oh, a wise-guy, eh?" A return volley: Another cream-topped pastry misses its mark striking someone else instead; the mayhem multiplies exponentially until everyone in the room is launching multiple sorties of projectile desserts. What makes this funny is perhaps what separates the men from the women. While the ladies in the audience might be disgusted by the mess and offended by people assaulting each other, the gentlemen secretly long (if they're honest) to engage in a little smash-mouth from time to time; the Bozo who cut him off on the freeway, the unreasonable boss, the guy at work who doesn't pull his own weight...We're combative by nature; much more so than our feminine counterparts.
A few months ago, I had a moment where I engaged in a little smash-mouth and ended up feeling like a complete stooge; a total "Moe Howard" extraordinaire. I'll share it with you in my next post.
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