Chances are if you are the same age as most of the Major Spoilers Crew, you grew up watching The Little Rascals, Tom and Jerry, and The Three Stooges. Some people really “get” the Stooges, while others scratch their heads and wonder why everyone else is laughing so hard. Still there are some who have never heard of The Three Stooges. This poll is not for them.
Over the course of The Stooges career, from 1922 – 1975, four different actors played the Third Stooge. What we want to know is, who was the best one?
VOTE!
[poll id=”199″]
20 Comments
I’ll watch any of them. But it’s always Curly for me.
I picked Shemp solely because of his literally undying contribution to the Evil Dead movies.
Nuk nuk nuk. No contest…
I know the other 3, but who is Joe Besser?
Anyway I picked Curly Howard though Shemp is a close second.
I know the other 3, but who is Joe Besser?
Joe Besser briefly served as a stooge in the late fifties, after Curly’s stroke but before they recruited Joe DeRita.
And behold the first major spoilers poll of the week in the over three years I’ve been coming to this site that I won’t vote on. I don’t like any of them. I never liked the Stooges, I never found the funny. In my option a waist of a PoW. nuk nuk shut up please.
… I wasn’t born when this was shown in re-runs, no idea who these guys are beyond “physical comedy pioneers”.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Shemp!
Coitently this should be no question, it is Jerome Horwitz for the win.
Who was the best Third Strooge?
I was the best 3rd Strooge. ^_^ (not voting on the poll cuz I’m not a big fan of stoogery, though I appreciate their contributions to the genre of physical comedy. I’m more a Marx Bros. type, fwiw.)
I actually liked Shemp as a compatriot/foil in a few Abbott & Costello movies, but as a stooge, he’ll always be second to Curly.
This is possibly the worst contest ever. The original curly was a genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXRPdOIHxk
You’re kidding right? Curly all the way. The others were okay, but it just wasn’t the same without Curly.
Curly all the way! He’s the one who everybody imitates or quotes today, and he appeared in most of the TTS stuff I’ve seen. Shemp would be runner up in my humble opinion. The Three Stooges are a lot like Gilligan’s Island. They were hilariously funny at the time they were new, but the humor don’t always hold up when seen today. For that reason, I don’t watch them any more. I’d rather remember them as being hilariously funny than to watch them again and find out I just didn’t know any better when I enjoyed them fifty years ago. After all, I used to think “Mr. Ed” and “My Mother the Car” were pretty funny when I was a kid, and now I have to switch them off and rush to the vomitorium when they come on TV.
This is a little bit off-topic, but the way you feel about old tv is the same way I feel about old comics: The memories are great, but actually re-reading the stories sometimes makes me cringe. (Yes, I’m looking at YOU, my stacks & stacks of Archie digests..)
A pox on those not voting for one of the Howard brothers.
the 3 what? who?
The stooges never really made an impact on this side of the pond :)
When I think of the Stooges, the image that first pops into my mind is of Moe, Larry, and Curly. I know that Shemp had his place, but those three are like the Holy Trinity of Funny.
Gotta go with the Real 3rd Stooge,Curly. Even later in the Scooby Doo Movies, they have Larry, Moe, and Curly. Also the comedy doesn’t feel as forced as some of the later Curly or Stooges relations with the exception of Shemp who in my book was a close second…
Curly of course.
The placeholder Joes only got votes from their relatives.