At Last, the Three Stooges Are Proven Brilliant!
I knew it all the time
By Jerry Constantino
For those who are so young that you never heard of the Stooges, it is important to watch, learn and scratch your heads as to what made your fathers and grandfathers laugh out loud because a new three-volume set of the Stooges will be released on Blu-ray July 23, 2024… just in time for Christmas (?)
I ALWAYS thought the Three Stooges were brilliant. As a bright young man myself, I could see raw intelligence seeping through their every move.
Who could have said it better than Curly when he laughed, “Nyuk nyuk nyuk!” as Moe stepped into a paint bucket while reeling from an opening door hitting him in the face causing him to back into Larry who was carrying a long lead pipe and turned to see what happened when the pipe swung and whacked Moe again in the back of the head? (It’s called slapstick because that’s what it was.) How dramatic. How spontaneous. How cogent. HOW BRILLIANT!
And that was 89 years ago (1935 for the not-so-quick) in a film shunned by ‘The Academy’ (those idiots) called Hoi Polloi. Now how does this prove the Stooges were leap-years ahead of science and, in a word, BRILLIANT? Pay attention.
The Background
In this Stooge adaption of Pygmalion, Professor Richmond, who believes it is the environment, not heredity that dictates social behavior, bets Professor Nichols $10,000 that he can take three unsophisticated men and, through proper training, turn them into gentlemen. By some strange quirk of fate, the Stooges were found as unsophisticated garbage collectors (not that there is anything wrong with that) and deemed to be the perfect subjects for the wager.
After many attempts to teach them proper etiquette (including dance lessons punctuated by an errant bee down the instructor’s bodice), the Stooges are introduced at a fancy society party. It does not go well.
Curly pulls a thread on Moe’s jacket and the jacket falls apart. Larry and Moe prove to be the world’s worse dancers with the biggest feet and Curly shaves in front of guests, gets his hand stuck in a spittoon (what’s a spittoon?), plucks a cherry from the punch bowl and battles Moe who kicks him in the butt, causing the champagne bottle stuck in the back of Curly’s pants (don’t ask) to erupt, spraying all the guests.
Eventually, Professor Richmond concedes his experiment is a failure and forks over the $10,000 to Professor Nichols who, in turn, makes an apology to a lady guest for the rowdies. The lady, now fully indoctrinated, is offended by the remark and slaps the professor in the face. Richmond laughs and in turn, gets slapped by Nichols. Then all the other guests start laughing and slapping and gouging until the party gets helplessly out of control.
The Stooges, disgusted by it all, realize this is what they get for associating themselves with the hoi polloi and hautingly, leave… but not before the professors conk champagne bottles on the Stooges’ heads.
Flashback forward to the present. (Got that?)
The International Journal of Nature reported on a new study that tried to quantify the DNA effect on IQ by tracking changes in intelligence over a person’s life. The study concluded that only 24% of the life-span changes in intelligence could be linked to genes… and an amazing 76% to environmental factors.
Those Stooges… They knew that way back when. In fact, they thought their contribution to science was so significant (and their ratings were good) that they remade this film twice more… in 1946 as Half-Wits Holiday and in 1958’s Pies ‘n Guys while introducing the classic pie in the face art movement.
Didn’t anybody ever watch and learn? As is often the case, the true genius isn’t recognized until years later, posthumously. Where are you, Mr. Nobel?
The Stooges did receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989 and in 1993 they were awarded the MTV Life Achievement Award. That’s not chump change.. or is it?
C’mon, science, get with it… and if you want visual proof go to YouTube and watch Hoi Polloi by the Stooges. Do it now! It’s worth a “nyuk nyuk nyuk” or two!
PS: Thanks Wikipedia, for the background info and Youtube for the visual.
