Topic: Your Favorite Stooge Visual/Sight Gag

[archiezappa]

My favorite one (hands down) is the teeth from "The Tooth Will Out." 

The Teeth:  Hey!  Hey!  One of you guys is flat!

[RICO987]

Curly and his gold detector flying through the air in "Cactus Makes Perfect."

I cannot stop there.  Once Curly has his head stuck in the mind, we have Curly Howard in one of his finest moments as he is tortured by the crowbar.

"Don't mind me, don’t mind me."

I can still remember the first time I saw this short almost 50 yeras ago.  This bit had me rolling on the floor laughing. 
     

[RICO987]

I should have reviewed the short before my last post – actually Curly says “Keep it up keep it up keep it up.” at the spot I am thinking of   Does anyone know in what short Curley says “Don’t mind me” when he is being hit?

[afcomser]

That is Cactus Makes Perfect, and they also do it to Moe in Higher Than A Kite when Moes Head is Stuck in a Pipe. They also do it to Curly when he is Stuck in a Sweater in How High Is Up. I seem to remember them doing that gag again in a egyptian short with Shemp called Mummies Dummies.

[StoogeGirl]

From False Alarms and Swing Parade... I always get a good laugh whenever Moe tries to shove Larry upside down into a drain in order to fetch something that was lost. And then in the next scene you see Moe talking to the drain, you hear Larry's voice thinking it's coming from the drain when he's really only under the sink. It cracks me up every time.

"Thoird dimension." 

[Hammond Eggar]

The sink/drain comment reminds me of Moe and Larry and a crowbar.  Moe will take a crowbar to Larry's nose.  He'll then get called away by something or someone, telling Larry to "hold this."  When he returns, he finds Larry still shoving the crowbar up his own nose.  The bit sometimes involves a pair of scissors to the nose, as well.  Both are priceless images.

[Blystone]

The sink/drain comment reminds me of Moe and Larry and a crowbar.  Moe will take a crowbar to Larry's nose.  He'll then get called away by something or someone, telling Larry to "hold this."  When he returns, he finds Larry still shoving the crowbar up his own nose.  The bit sometimes involves a pair of scissors to the nose, as well.  Both are priceless images.

It's done with the scissors in "Slippery Silks," where the scissor grip on the nose is called "the V8." I'm sure there are other examples— but when I try to think, nothing happens!

[strubachinkoscow]

My Faves:
1. Moe inflated in that "Self-Sealing Rubber" floating up to the rafters in Dizzy Pilots.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my. Oh wo wo wo wo." Head hits rafters.
(Looped in) - "Featherbrains... I'll murder ya!"
(Looped in) - "Oh, Oh I'm floating..."

2. Moe in the rocking chair as the light plug is wrapped around the leg in "Spook Louder"

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Shemp vs. the ironing board in SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS.

The sequence of Shemp being flung up into the closet, the door slamming shut on him, the door flying open again, and the ironing board slamming down and spilling him backwards on to the floor, all taking place in about one second in fast motion and accompanied by Shemp's howl of terror, is among the Stooge bits that have made me laugh myself to tears.

I'll add three moments notable for their surrealism, two of them involving eye-pokes without physical contact:

---Moe's face appearing, for no discernible reason, in an intercom speaker in CALLING ALL CURS.

---Moe giving Curly an eye-poke through the window of the steam room in MONKEY BUSINESSMEN.

---Moe giving Curly an eye-poke over the telephone in FALSE ALARMS.

[FineBari3]

I'll add three moments notable for their surrealism, two of them involving eye-pokes without physical contact:

---Moe's face appearing, for no discernible reason, in an intercom speaker in CALLING ALL CURS.

---Moe giving Curly an eye-poke through the window of the steam room in MONKEY BUSINESSMEN.

---Moe giving Curly an eye-poke over the telephone in FALSE ALARMS.

How about Moe giving his tamale an eye-poke in THREE SAPPY PEOPLE!

[pipboytaylor]

I was thinking about this post in a new topic but it looks like it would fit in under this thread without adding clutter.

I was wondering what would be the funniest action sequence that would create the biggest laugh out loud moment in a stooge short. Many of which have been mentioned in this thread. One scene or action sequence that was on my mind today, totally out of the blue, was the bit in "Busy Buddies" where Curly is behind the fence trying to milk the bull that keeps giving him the pinch and throwing him over the fence and Moe and Larry are out there trying to catch him in that blanket. The moment where they wraparound the telephone pole and knock each other out gets me every time. Hilarious!!

I think we need another competition, something else to vote on! That Shorts Tournament "metal" put on was a lot of fun and generated a lot of interest.

What scene/sequence creates the largest laugh???</font>

[Dog Hambone]

One of my all-time favorites is in DUNKED IN THE DEEP & again in COMMOTION ON THE OCEAN. It's the one involving Shemp & the hammock & the burning trash can. It still makes me laugh out loud. I wonder what kind of a mind could dream up something like that. 

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

It's not my favorite bit, but it's a pretty funny one: In Three Hams on Rye, Shemp sees a door marked "DANGEROUS, KEEP AWAY." He pushes the door open and an arm with a boxing glove flies out and punches him in the face (5:30 in the clip below). There is a somewhat similar gag in Thee Smart Saps, when first Moe and then Curly knock on the door to the prison and get punched in the face.

[youtube=425,350]1TMHUEEdR6M[/youtube]

[Dunrobin]

It's not my favorite bit, but it's a pretty funny one: In Three Hams on Rye, Shemp sees a door marked "DANGEROUS, KEEP AWAY." He pushes the door open and an arm with a boxing glove flies out and punches him in the face...

I always have to laugh at that bit largely because of the way Shemp pronounces the words as he reads the sign, "Dang-ger-roos kip-ah-wah," oblivious to what the words mean.   

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I always have to laugh at that bit largely because of the way Shemp pronounces the words as he reads the sign, "Dang-ger-roos kip-ah-wah," oblivious to what the words mean.   

Don't forget "I wonder what that means"!

You have to wonder what sort of theater has a door marked that way with somebody standing behind it waiting to give a punch in the face to anyone who opens it.

[Shemp_Diesel]

Does the 'bird inside a turkey' count as a sight gag? That's another one I've always loved.

[Boid Brain]

One gag that had me baffled for 40 years was when Larry got the ink pen impaling in the forehead when ghost Shemp turned up the mixer....does anyone else know how that was pulled off?

[metaldams]

One gag that had me baffled for 40 years was when Larry got the ink pen impaling in the forehead when ghost Shemp turned up the mixer....does anyone else know how that was pulled off?

The story goes it was pulled off buy really having something jammed into Larry's head, only to have him swear off-camera in front of a bunch of school children, which Larry felt bad about.  The school children were on the set on a field trip.  So yeah, Larry's really in pain, or at least that's the story I heard.

[Curly4444]

The story goes it was pulled off buy really having something jammed into Larry's head, only to have him swear off-camera in front of a bunch of school children, which Larry felt bad about.  The school children were on the set on a field trip.  So yeah, Larry's really in pain, or at least that's the story I heard.

Speaking of stooge injurys, Remember when Moe got the oil(Black stuff in his eyes)? He was sticking a screwdriver in a well faucet trying to get water to come out. But instead of water, oil came out.I heard he injured his eyes in that bit.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Speaking of stooge injurys, Remember when Moe got the oil(Black stuff in his eyes)? He was sticking a screwdriver in a well faucet trying to get water to come out. But instead of water, oil came out.I heard he injured his eyes in that bit.

That would be in Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise. I'm always saddened, but never surprised, to learn of the physical harms that the Stooges incurred in making stuff for us to laugh at.

[Boid Brain]

The story goes it was pulled off buy really having something jammed into Larry's head, only to have him swear off-camera in front of a bunch of school children, which Larry felt bad about.  The school children were on the set on a field trip.  So yeah, Larry's really in pain, or at least that's the story I heard.

I never heard that story, and it may be true. But it seems to me a very dangerous thing to do,. aiming a sharp object at Larry's face when it could be safely accomplished by yanking the pen OUT of his head with a thread and then doing reverse camera, like the way Odd Job threw the hat between the bars past 007...of course, you can tell easily it was backwards.

I would like to see the pen scene in slow motion, because if it IS in fact backwards, it's a perfect shot. It sure looks like regular speed and direction...

[tapeworm]

Greetings, first post here. It took AMC's Stooges shorts appearing weekend mornings on my DVR lately to re-realize their greatness. Even then, courtesy of this board I see "So Long Mr. Chumps" Curly episode which has never popped up on AMC. I hope there are other gems to look forward to that I haven't seen.

- Curly's head peeking out of a manhole, smacked by Vernon Dent's coupe at high speed, in "Even As IOU," surely one of the greatest Curly episodes. Just before this, Curly is lying in the street as a car goes by, Curly mysteriously disappears once the car passes. This also happened in "Cactus Makes Perfect" - the taxi drives by the boys with its door open and they disappear, presumably swallowed up by the passing car. I don't know how this trick was done. I slow it down frame by frame on my DVR, amazing slight of hand for those days without digital tricks.
- Speaking of Curly's hard head, the ever-present sight gag of the immovable object-meets-irresistible force. Curly: "Ohhh; look" (as he points). Then we see a still shot of the saw with ruined blades courtesy of Curly's head, while we hear ambient street noise behind. It never gets old to me.
- "Loco Boy Makes Good," with Curly's magician coat with rabbits, skunks etc. Actors get smacked trying to kill "mice" (I guess they pulled the fake mice off with a wire before they were smacked).
- "They Stooge to Conga" first when Moe puts Curly's nose to the grindstone (sparks). Then when Curly gets electrocuted after working on phone lines, Moe puts a light bulb in Curly's ear to shunt off electricity, finally Larry (?) puts a screwdriver in Curly's ear to "short out" the charge with a big explosion. I wonder how Curly shook so fast simulating electrocution - amazing, he did this in several shorts.
- Not a sight gag per se, but Curly doing his "backward walk" invariably missing the door and smacking his head into the door jamb. Ouch. ("Cuckoo Cavaliers" and "Ducking We Will Go" among others.) On second thought, In "Cuckoos" Curly is overcome by the Latina babe and walks headlong into the door frame. Then he says "after you" and follows her in, checking out her ---, well you know. I could watch this bit of film 100 times, I would laugh every time.
- Also not a sight gag per se, but Curly doing the drum roll on his noggin with his derby hat while pointing at the perpetrator. An underrated Curly gesture.
- Too many. Every short has a few. I forget the rest tonight.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

- Curly's head peeking out of a manhole, smacked by Vernon Dent's coupe at high speed, in "Even As IOU," surely one of the greatest Curly episodes.

Thanks for the reminder. Just thinking about that bit (e.g., the car going "CLANG!" when it hits Curly's head) makes me laugh out loud.

- Also not a sight gag per se, but Curly doing the drum roll on his noggin with his derby hat while pointing at the offender. An underrated Curly gesture.

Drum roll? That's machine-gun fire!

Welcome to the site!

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I was just looking at All the World's a Stooge to remind myself of some lines, and I also got reminded of the quite extraordinary visual effect that ends the short. The Stooges, absurdly dressed as "war refugee" children, are being chased by Ajax, their supposed foster father, who is threatening them with a battle axe. They take refuge (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk) behind a thick tree trunk on the grounds of the estate. Ajax flings the axe, and when it strikes the tree trunk, it splits it open from top to bottom, the two halves falling to the sides. Bizarre! It's at 6:20 in the clip below.

[youtube=425,350]Sviai-HqP5E[/youtube]

[Faeriegirl]

I think one of the silliest I've seen was Shemp's 'Floor Show' and 'Dead man's Cha Cha' That was so silly, and made everyone in my house while watching it laugh, even my mom, who's not a Stooges fan laughed!

The Episode was For Crimin' Out Loud, it's always my most favorite Short with Shemp.

another was no phones gag, it happend to me twice in one day because the pwoer was out and so was the phones.