Very astute and reasoned breakdown. But your last line I have to chock up to “to each their own”.
You are the first person I have met that has even tried to argue that the Stooges are a “thinking person’s comedy”.
I do agree there is nothing to be ashamed of however.
Jim
Bingo.
That’s the one.
I’m another woman who’s a big 3 Stooges fan. I love Curly. I like the Marx Bros. too, but for different reasons.
On a day-to-day basis, I’m lots more likely to quote the 3 Stooges than the Marx brothers. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I suspect it isn’t very flattering. :eek:
I guess you haven’t seen “Duck Soup”. In one part Firefly (Groucho) repeatedly insults the Ambassador of Sylvania, causing him to declare war. Other people try to intervene, but Groucho insults him again, and war is inevitable. The movie ends with the country in ruins, pretty much, so I wouldn’t say there are no repercussions.
And Groucho addressed the matter of the weak plots of their first movies in his autobiography, stating that it was because the early ones were drawn from their vaudville acts, but that the later ones were more fleshed out because they had more time and resources to commit to them. (He and his Bros. moved to Hollywood to concentrate on making movies after the Wall Street Crash.)
I’m a Marx Bros. Fan. FTR. The Stooges’ violence mostly repulsed me. (Pulling hair out? Violently and painfully? How is that funny? Ick.)
May be, but it’s cartoon violence. Moe may rip a chunk of Larry’s hair out, but Larry never seems to run out of hair or bleed profusely from the scalp.
A four year old child would know the answer of this thread - run out and get me a four year old child!
Obviously, you know my pick is Chaplin.
Unfortunately the later movies are… you know.
[/QUOTE]
You make some good points. I think the greatest thing about the Stooges is that, whereas the Marx Bros’ comedy typically deflated the pompous and the privileged – people who, in other words, deserved it – the Stooges often wreak their havoc on ordinary, completely innocent folk, people just trying to go about their lives but for the intrusion of these three idiots. And best of all, the Stooges usually succeed in dragging the poor saps down to their own knuckle-walking level; at their best, the Stooges illustrate – no kidding – a downright Hobbesian view of humanity, in which the veneer of civilization is easily peeled aside to reveal the dumb, self-centered beast within. The Stooges are at their best when they show how, deep down, we’re all Stooges, all able to mete out a slap or throw a pie when properly motivated.
I will leaven these remarks with three admissions:
Mine too, but I didn’t know that was an acceptable answer. 
:eek: I had always heard that as “and that’s why DONKEYS were born”
are you sure that is the line?
The answer to what makes you laugh harder, what you find funnier, or what you enjoy more can never be wrong. You can only get into arguments when you try to justify your choice. This being the Dope, the justifications were bound to fly sooner rather than later.
Are there people who like the Archies better than the Stones? There must be: people are that varied. And the Stones have put such out a tremendous amount of self-indulgent crap over the years that the vast majority of their former fans pay them no attention these days, unless they get to hear the oldies in concert.
But nobody can seriously argue that the Archies are better than the Stones, or even that their best was better than the Stones at their best. You don’t have to be gazing-down-their-nose rock snobs to reject that argument.
The Marxes were the premier group in all of vaudeville, the one group that W. C. Fields - an almost untouchable acknowledged worldwide star - said he could never follow. They melded all the different traditions of vaudeville into an intricate ensemble. And they got the most brilliant writers in New York and Hollywood to write their scripts, which they then honed through dozens of drafts. They are simply the best comedy group in the history of Hollywood.
The Stooges were sausage, grind-'em-out, one note, blink-and-they’re-gone filler. They were never, on their best day, “thinking person’s comedy.” They were for eight-year-olds of all ages and Mel Gibson.
Laugh at the Stooges all you want. If you like them better, you like them better. If you find them funnier, laugh away. Nobody really cares which you pick. But spare me the reverse snobbishness and pretentiousness of trying to claim that the Stooges were somehow superior. The Archies weren’t better than the Stones, no matter how much you like “Sugar, Sugar” and despise “2000 Light Years from Home.” In the same way, the Marx Brothers do deserve their place at the top and the Stooges don’t. No matter how much Hobbes you read into them.
Now of course I’m going to defend the Marxes: my username is a Marxian reference after all. (And c’mon, didn’t Holy Humping Harpos give a clue that my tongue might be in my cheek?) It’s not just me, though: nobody’s ever made a case that favors the Stooges. I can’t believe anybody ever will. Nobody here’s come within light years.
On preview. kingpengvin, yes, the word was darkies because it’s a direct allusion to the Kate Smith song that RealityChuck quoted.
The Marx brothers vs. The Three Stooges
Well, if it is a battle to the death, I think they’re pretty much all dead so you’d be out of luck. But, I’ll take the Stooges in the third round. They are the more physical of the two afterall. …<sound of crickets> Eh, what?
Oh, uh, yeah, I used to like the Marx Brothers better when I was younger although I’m sure I missed most of the jokes at the time. The Stooges seemed almost cruel and I remember not being too partial to that.
My favourite was Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and even Dean and Jerry.
Interesting analogy - since I prefer The Stooges over the Marx Bros.
but I love Monty Python and hate Benny Hill.
Okay, I’m a Marx fan through and through; never cared much for the Stooges. I’m certainly willing to believe the previous poster’s statement that most of the Stooges stuff is utter crap, but I’m willing to give them a try.
So which are the best Stooges shorts, and how can I see them?
No love for Abbot & Costello? They had both the physical humor and the intellectual humor and wordplay. Is there any routine that is funnier than “Who’s on First”?
Jim
Damn, I knew I forgot something. Yep, one of my favourites, too.
I’ll recognize, without a doubt, that the three main Marx Bros. had a lot more talent than any of the Three Stooges, but one of the base assumptions of this thread–which I deny–is that the Marx Bros. are mind-blowingly funny and great and so are at least some of their movies. I don’t think they are. The early movies have their moments, some of them quite brilliant, while the later ones are crap.
On the other hand, at their best the Stooges created some brilliant shorts. At the end of the day, talent be damned, the actual output is what counts. I can get full enjoyment out of a select group of Stooges shorts; I cannot get full enjoyment out of Marx Bros. features.
The Stones versus Archies analogy is interesting, too, because I really hate the Stones but I recognize that some of their tunes are great, and I recognize that they were a much more talented band than the Archies, which wasn’t even a real band. I don’t care much for the Archies, either, so I’ll give the trophy to the Stones. But that doesn’t mean that I agree the Stones are good (in an objective sense, yes, but not something I enjoy).
Being as objective as possible, I think the Marx Bros. are sometimes brilliant but often their humor falls flat, their skits or songs go on to long, and they don’t, as I said, interact with realistic people in a realistic world. They are not something I feel a personal antipathy to; rather, I think their humor has serious limitations.
Their humor might have been the best in vaudville, but that doesn’t mean that vaudville-style humor holds up well today. I found Fields’ silent work to be boring, and a lot of his sound work isn’t good either. But the Bank Dick is still to me one of the funniest movies ever made, and Never Give a Sucker is pretty good (but flawed) too.
Hmm, then why don’t their feature films work as feature films? We’re talking the early 1930s, when the average quality of Hollywood films was better than that of any other period IMO.
Their best shorts are brilliant. They may have been accidentally brilliant, but they were.
By saying that they are “thinking person’s comedy,” I don’t mean that they were trying to be cerebral. I mean that, in their best work, the comedy is, in its own way, pretty sophisticated and thus pleasing to a thinking person–despite the veneer of slapstick and stupidity.
There can only be reverse snobbishness if a base assumption is in place that the Marx Bros. are “great.” I’m denying that assumption, claiming that they are OK and that in a comparison of the best work of both the Stooges come out ahead. I am not, in turn, claiming that the Stooges are the greatest comedy force in history or some kind of cultural height for the Western World.
My favorite comedians are actually Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd (and I like the sound work of both, too).
“You want Stooges shorts? No problem, champ! The customer is always right! YOU! PORCUPINE! SHOW THE MAN SOME SHORTS! And not the ones you got on this time!” <SMACK>
“I’ll show em when I’m good & ready! NYAHH!” 
“Are ya ready?” :mad:
“I’m ready.”
<SMACK>
Your Stooges Shorts Are Right Here. LINK.
Just remember–you’re a victim of coicumstance! NYUK-NYUK-NYUK!
The Three Stooges never appealed to me because I am not a big fan of pure slapstick.
However, The Marx Brothers, in addition to their physicality, did some brilliant satires of things that are still relevant, such as fascism.
Marx Brothers win by a long shot.
Sefronia
mama’s worry was a burder
they had seen her everywhere
and since her little one was now a dead man
they patted his back
and she thought
why did she let them?
Sefronia777.com
2/8/06
Let’s evolve together
Just had a double feature here at the house last night - The Marxes “Duck Soup” and Field’s “It’s A Gift” so I guess it is clear which side I will land on.
The Stooges amused me as a kid and I will still watch them for a few minutes when I run across them. And I guess that’s it for me, I find them amusing. The Marx Brothers on the other hand had us all howling.
And kingpengvin, trust Exapano Mapcase about it, Groucho definitly says darkies. We noticed that last night and went back over that part with the captions on just to be sure.
Like I pointed out before, so did the Stooges.