The Three Stooges - the Really Important Question!

[John in Covina]

There was a time in the mid-80's when the only Stooge fix I could get was on the local Spanish language TV channel, watching "Los Tres Chifaldos". The voices were wrong but the gags still worked.

Question: How do you say NYUK, NYUK, NYUK in Spanish?

 

[John in Covina]

I thought I'd add my thoughts on the Curley Shemp question. As you may know, Moe Curley and Shemp were Howard brothers and Shemp was a stand alone comedic actor. Sadly when Curley had a stroke they asked Shemp to come in to the Stooges.

Curley tends to be the more outrageous, over the top while Shemp seemed to come into reasonable problems where the attempts to make stuff work gets out of hand. It is an apples and oranges comparison in many ways. For me Curley is more likely to evoke outbursts of loud laughter whereas Shemp temds to lead to long continuous snickering.

There are so many great moments with each of them, and for me the memories of watching them after school back in NY being introduced by Officer Joe Bolton are truly priceless. My father who was not a fan would laugh out loud at some of the antics and then complaign about them.

Joe Derita was a kind and honest man who was happy and honored to be asked to join the Stoges whereas Joe Besser was simply a primadonna and a pain in the butt that hated being saddled with the Stooges.

Interesting to see these on DVD as the collections are released, I believe they are up to volume 4. I only have 1 & 2 so far and just got 2, I am working thru it slowly.

 

[carouselvic]

For the sake of accuracy Moe, Larry and Shemp were the original act. When Shemp chose to leave the act Curly replaced him. This was in the Vaudeville days.

 

[John in Covina]

But wasn't that when they weren't the Three Stooges on their own but part of another guy's act. The other guy basically was the Moe personage but maybe a little smarter? Cannot think of the name.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Ted Healy? There are a few short films with him in them, but believe me, they're far from classic.

 

[dhermann1]

It was Ted Healy. Healy was pretty much of a schmuck. He thought very highly of himself, tho hardly anyone else seemed to. His career slowly and steadily went down the toilet after the Stooges left.
Supposedly the reason Curly developed his antics was because he was always forgetting his lines, so he just threw in whatever came into his head to cover. Hey, it worked!
Moe was the "leader" off the set as well. He represented the group with the studios. Somehow their group self esteem was so shakey that they accepted a single check and divided it among the three. As a group they earned what most individual stars of the same caliber would have earned.
Curly was a kind of sad and lonely individual in real life. But then again, many comics are.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Interesting to see these on DVD as the collections are released, I believe they are up to volume 4. I only have 1 & 2 so far and just got 2, I am working thru it slowly.

Volume Five awaits us on March 17. The "Shemp Years" begin!

 

[pipe23]

Question: How do you say NYUK, NYUK, NYUK in Spanish?

No idea. If you go to youtube and search 'los tres chiflados' you can see many of the dubbed shorts, it seems that they didn't have the same people dubbing the voices so there are many styles. I think some of the dubbers didn't even know who they were supposed to be emulating. I certainly didn't know what they were saying (in Spanish), could be NAK, NAK, NAK or even EEEB, EEEB, EEEB. I don't have any Stooges DVD's but some of them do have multi-language options such as Spanish and Portugese.

 

[carouselvic]

For the sake of accuracy Moe, Larry and Shemp were the original act. When Shemp chose to leave the act Curly replaced him. This was in the Vaudeville days.

Our local library has a VCR documentary on the Stooges, can't remember the title. It told their tale from start to finish. It has been too many years since I watched it. One interesting tidbit was Larry Fine loved the ponies, spent his extra time and most all of his money at the track.

 

[BeBopBaby]

Comparing Shemp and Curly is like comparing apples and oranges. I might even go so far as to say I like Shemp better. He was a hilarious comedic actor in his own right. The material he did with Abbott and Costello was gut-bustingly funny. This has to be one of my favorite skits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DyNnlIDqfc

Plus, Shemp had the best death. He died of a massive heart attack in the back of a taxi cab, coming home from the fights, with a big cigar in his mouth right after telling a joke. God bless ya, Shemp.

 

[swanky_frankie]

I thought I'd add my thoughts on the Curley Shemp question. As you may know, Moe Curley and Shemp were Howard brothers and Shemp was a stand alone comedic actor. Sadly when Curley had a stroke they asked Shemp to come in to the Stooges.

Curley tends to be the more outrageous, over the top while Shemp seemed to come into reasonable problems where the attempts to make stuff work gets out of hand. It is an apples and oranges comparison in many ways. For me Curley is more likely to evoke outbursts of loud laughter whereas Shemp temds to lead to long continuous snickering.

There are so many great moments with each of them, and for me the memories of watching them after school back in NY being introduced by Officer Joe Bolton are truly priceless. My father who was not a fan would laugh out loud at some of the antics and then complaign about them.

Joe Derita was a kind and honest man who was happy and honored to be asked to join the Stoges whereas Joe Besser was simply a primadonna and a pain in the butt that hated being saddled with the Stooges.

Interesting to see these on DVD as the collections are released, I believe they are up to volume 4. I only have 1 & 2 so far and just got 2, I am working thru it slowly.

I never got into Joe Besser..[huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was Ted Healy. Healy was pretty much of a schmuck. He thought very highly of himself, tho hardly anyone else seemed to. His career slowly and steadily went down the toilet after the Stooges left.
Supposedly the reason Curly developed his antics was because he was always forgetting his lines, so he just threw in whatever came into his head to cover. Hey, it worked!
Moe was the "leader" off the set as well. He represented the group with the studios. Somehow their group self esteem was so shakey that they accepted a single check and divided it among the three. As a group they earned what most individual stars of the same caliber would have earned.
Curly was a kind of sad and lonely individual in real life. But then again, many comics are.

Healy was a pretty sad case himself -- and came to a bad end: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=700725&postcount=162

Healy's work with the Stooges can still be seen in a few films from the early '30s, most notably the 1933 MGM musical "Dancing Lady," where they appear with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. One of the more -- ah -- absurd films of the time.

 

[BeBopBaby]

I vaguely remember seeing a very early talkie in which the Three Stooges appeared. They were still doing the vaudville act. I remember a variety show at a supper club and the building catching on fire. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I vaguely remember seeing a very early talkie in which the Three Stooges appeared. They were still doing the vaudville act. I remember a variety show at a supper club and the building catching on fire. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

"Beer and Pretzels." I think it's on one of the Astaire-Rogers DVDs, the second set, that is.

 

[Bassman]

I love the Stooges. I used to occaisionally watch them on Spanish language TV also but I remember them being called "Los Tres Cucucomicos" (sp?).

There was a time in the mid-80's when the only Stooge fix I could get was on the local Spanish language TV channel, watching "Los Tres Chifaldos". The voices were wrong but the gags still worked.

 

[Hawkcigar]

:eusa_clap ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ←:eusa_clap



How could you not love that mug? I just always thought Shemp was the funniest of the Stooges. [huh]

 

[funneman]

As a long time Stooge-aholic I feel compelled to add my two-cents.

As I understand it:

-The family name was Horowitz. Howard was a stage name.

-The first film appearance of Moe, Larry and Shemp is “Soup to Nuts” (1930)
They are not listed as “The Stooges” and Moe is listed as Harry Howard.
They appear briefly in the film as firemen. (BeBopBaby).

-Curly replaced Shemp in 1933. Shemp replaced Curly in 1947.

-Moe took over the role of un-official leader of the Stooges after they dumped Healy.

-Curly is spelled Curley in some shorts.

-All three Howard brothers appear together in one scene in the 1947 short “Hold that Lion”. This was shortly after Curly’s stroke, as such he has no lines, but he does have hair.

-I think I read somewhere that Moe helped start the “Actor’s Home” after
Curly had his stroke.

-Shemp starred in “The Bank Dick” with W.C. Fields and in the “Joe Palooka” series.

-Larry Fine is the unsung hero of the group. Next time you see a Stooge short watch
how hard Larry works in each and every scene.

As a kid I watched so many Stooge shorts, I could tell by the first few notes of the opening theme, if Curly or Shemp would be in it. Growing up I loved Curly simply because he was so silly and over the top. Later I learned to love Shemp. He always seemed to bring a special Golden Era/Vaudville spark to every film he was in even if it was set in the Old West. I really like the gangster shorts he starred in.

Sing a “Song of Six Pants” is a perfect example as is “Hot Ice”

Here is one of my favorite Shemp hat scenes, but it’s badly edited. Larry’s part is
cut out for some reason and ruins the pattern, but you’ll get the idea. It begins at 3:57:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t0rxA0T6Ek

Curly does the same kind of gag in the one where their father gives them money to buy new clothes to wear for his wedding. Curly's scene reminds me of the hat scene in Steamboat William, with Buster Keaton.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Shemp also appears (uncredited) in ANOTHER THIN MAN.

 

[Widebrim]

Chowderhead...

Although Curly is in a class by himself, I have always been a Shemp man, ever since seeing them on channel 52 in L.A. during the early '70s. For me, the high point of any Stooges short is when Moe pokes Shemp in the eyes to the accompaniment of those violin strings. Pure joy. Shemp's "ebibibibieee" sound is also sure to get me going. One of his best lines is, "I would if I could, but I can't." Also, what had to be an ad-lib is when Shemp looks at the photo of an attractive starlet, one in which her bosom is prominently featured, and says, " Wow! What a beautiful pair of eyes!" I think the best stunt Shemp ever did (helped by a stuntman, of course) was when he got on top of an ironing board (the type that recedes into a wall), had the thing close on him and stuff him inside the wall, and then promptly fell out of it onto the ground. It still makes me scream. My parents must have thought I was partly insane, hearing me go beserk with laughter every time I watched the Stooges all those years ago.lol

 

[funneman]

Shemp: Why this suit is made from two-hundred percent wool.
Man: Two-hundred percent?
Shemp: Yeah, these sheep led double lives.lol