# Three Stooges question: Press, Press, Pull! From where do they got the press buttons?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-stooges-question-press-press-pull-from-where-do-they-got-the-press-buttons/465239>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 25, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-stooges-question-press-press-pull-from-where-do-they-got-the-press-buttons/465239 "2008-09-25T22:44:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-stooges-question-press-press-pull-from-where-do-they-got-the-press-buttons/465239/21 "2008-09-26T05:31:33Z")

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To put things in perspective, when I was about 12 or 13, I first heard the joke, “Don’t chew the gum in the men’s room. It tastes like rubber.” I’m 51, and the joke was several decades old back then.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-stooges-question-press-press-pull-from-where-do-they-got-the-press-buttons/465239/22 "2008-09-26T06:06:09Z")

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Oh well, I found what the Stooges were pulling regular vending machines, and it only cost me my ignorance on Condom Machines.

Good deal for a knucklehead. 🙂  
By the time I arrived in the USA, I just had gone through puberty and AIDS just appeared in the scene, by that time condoms could be obtained in the store and I rarely noticed them in the restrooms I used.

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**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-stooges-question-press-press-pull-from-where-do-they-got-the-press-buttons/465239/23 "2008-09-26T13:34:20Z")

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> [@Rick](#):
>
> Way back when there were many vending machines that had pull knobs for dispensing of product.  
> [Cigarette machine](http://www.wardlowauc.com/Auctions/Auc267/NationalCigaretteMachine.JPG) [Candy machine](http://www.midwestclassicins.com/Candy.jpg). The first gas station I worked in had a pull handle cig machine with white knobs that said pull. It was a very very old machine in 1967, so it would not surprise me if it dated back to the 1930s.

Wow, I think the cigarette machine is actually made of wood.

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