Cancel culture may yet come for the Three Stooges.
Moe and Larry and Curly (who was replaced by a series of lesser partners after a career-ending stroke) worked as prolific slapstick vaudevillians. They relocated to Hollywood and produced an astounding 190 comedy shorts as well as subsequent feature films. They got a second bump in the 1970s when a new generation of children discovered their comedy as part of afternoon daytime programming.
Stoogemania bypassed our home until I got to college. The “midnight movie” circuit was in full swing. I attended a politically incorrect double bill of Little Rascals/Three Stooges shorts. Between Buckwheat’s “white measles” spots and the casual Asian racism of the Stooges’ World War II shorts, it was an intense, although hysterical late night.
Decades later, I stumbled onto the Stooges through my TiVo. The system makes recommendations based on algorithms from your recordings and viewing history. Having just watched Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. and a couple of Charlie Chaplin shorts, TiVo decided I might fancy the Three Stooges.
The episodes sat unwatched until my sons earned evening screen time and left the selection to my discretion. “Let’s try the Stooges,” I suggested. Exhausted from a Saturday of shopping and pandemic park activity, they acquiesced.
True to form, the first episode saw the boys (as they are referred to frequently) as cavemen seeking food. Curly is tasked to hunt a duck in a nearby stream. First, the animal avoids him. Then an obvious prop duck grabs Curly’s butt, ear, and nose (with accompanying sound effects). Next, the Stooges meet three cavewomen. The encounter evolves (pardon the pun) into a battle with three other cavemen. Naturally, the women club the Stooges and drag them into a cave, procreating generations of future eye-poking behavior.
Armed with additional viewing information, TiVo grabbed another bunch of Stooges episodes. I deleted everything with Shemp Howard (sorry Shemp) and kept the “original trio.”
When my 10-year-old saw there were a bunch of Stooges shorts, he decided to start cleaning the deck, beginning with the 1946 post-War short, “Three Loan Wolves.”
