WHY I THINK THE THREE STOOGES SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
The Three Stooges were a major, national phenomenon. More dominant than Babe Ruth (in the film industry) and more long-lived than Nolan Ryan (1922-1970), the Stooges were the best entertainment that America had to offer. They are eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame and they do have a series of baseball cards from 1959 Fleer, so how come they can’t be included?
The Three Stooges have included many men among their ranks, but the four instantly recognizable Stooges are Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and Shemp Howard. The other four Stooges were Joe Besser, Curly Joe DeRita, Fred Sanborn, and Joe Palma. Palma’s role was unique, as he was the double for Shemp after Shemp died of a sudden heart attack in 1955. The Stooges still owed Columbia Pictures four shorts, so they used recycled footage and scenes with Palma to make it. After a while America began to realize that Shemp was not the actor, and that Palma had been falsely advertised as Shemp. He is now known forever as “Fake Shemp”, and the term is used universally whenever a double in a similar situation is used.
The comedic style that was used by The Three Stooges was slapstick. Moe was always punching, kicking, flicking, biting, and poking the other Stooges whenever they did something dumb, or when he did and felt guilty. His most famous move, the “double eye poke”, was originally performed off-stage by Shemp when he was playing in a game of bridge with Larry and Moe. He accused Larry of cheating, and when Larry denied it, he got a finger in each eye. Moe thought that it was so funny that he made it a regular part of his routine.
At any rate, baseball is entertainment. The Stooges had many references to baseball and even a series of baseball cards in their honor. The fact that they have not been honored with a plaque in Cooperstown is downright “Stoogey.”
DID YOU KNOW?
-also had a cartoon, “The New 3 Stooges”, for a few years, featuring Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe
-made about a half dozen movies, and a 2012 movie was made about them
-In the 1950’s, when kids started imitating their act for real, they had to make special commercials to discourage them
-when Joe Besser joined the Stooges, he was reluctant to be the victim of Moe’s abuse, so Larry volunteered to take all of the hits for him
-Curly Joe didn’t even think that the Stooges were funny
-Larry is commonly featured with a violin, which he used to strengthen an arm that he spilled acid on when he was four years old
-that I am just kidding about the whole thing
April Fool’s!
Okay, maybe this wasn’t that funny. In all seriousness, my next player will come out tomorrow, preferably by noon o’clock. I’ll see you then!
Yeah, I was thinking " he can't be serious" and "April fools is tomorrow." I've never actually watched the 3 Stooges, so I can't really weigh in on this one.
ReplyDeleteWell, this was supposed to be tomorrow's player (I always try to publish them the night before). I actually wrote this post a while back, planning to publish it around this time of year. At any rate, I wanted to see your reaction. But in all seriousness, every trivial fact is correct, even the 1959 Fleer one.
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