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.
