In Praise Of Stupid Laughs. The Three Stooges, Reviewed. [Grierson & Leitch]

1. An old joke: “Why do women not like The Three Stooges? Because they’re not funny.” The appeal of The Three Stooges has always been inherently male, predominantly young male, specifically adolescent, glue-sniffing boy. Now, that’s not to say that 10-year-olds the world over are obsessed with The Three Stooges; they’re too busy hacking their mom’s iPhones, pretending to like soccer, and downloading porn to have any idea who Moe, Larry, and Curly are. But The Three Stooges’ primary appeal—their lone appeal, I’d argue—is to that eternal 10-year-old boy within all of us who absolutely cannot stop giggling when someone gets hit in the groin with a football. You know that famous Simpsons clip in which Sideshow Bob keeps stepping on all the rakes? That’s smart-person humor; that’s the ludicrousness of repetition, funny in an almost postmodern way. There is nothing postmodern about The Three Stooges. Stepping on the rake once is enough. More »