General Boards > Questions and Answers

Moe & Larry's haircuts in the Besser shorts

<< < (5/5)

metaldams:

--- Quote from: Paul Pain on December 20, 2018, 06:22:21 PM ---I'm still alive folks!

Would have been interesting if the Besser shorts had better scripts.  As was seen in "A Merry Mix-Up," Besser could be funny with Moe and Larry.

--- End quote ---

Good to see you Paul, Merry Christmas.

Mark The Shark:
I have always been skeptical of the claim that the haircuts were Besser's idea, especially for the reasons mentioned above -- would Moe have really said yeah, sure, you're replacing my dead brothers, now you're suggesting we change our image and our iconic look we've had for our whole careers, sure!

But as was also pointed out, by the 1950s other popular comedy teams such as Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby looked like "normal people" for lack of a better term. While the 1930s Stooge shorts were gritty, placing the characters in the Depression era, then World War II followed, but by the 1950s they were often depicted as living in the post-war  suburbs and the shorts often played like then-contemporary sitcom episodes.

Maybe it just made sense. Besser may have suggested it, but maybe in the context of the time, it made sense to all concerned.

On the other hand, once Besser was out of the team it didn't take long for them to go back to the old haircuts, even shaving Joe De Rita's head and calling him "Curly-Joe." Most likely this was so they would more closely resemble the characters kids were watching on TV every day.

HomokHarcos:

--- Quote from: Mark The Shark on August 28, 2021, 08:08:47 AM ---I have always been skeptical of the claim that the haircuts were Besser's idea, especially for the reasons mentioned above -- would Moe have really said yeah, sure, you're replacing my dead brothers, now you're suggesting we change our image and our iconic look we've had for our whole careers, sure!

But as was also pointed out, by the 1950s other popular comedy teams such as Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby looked like "normal people" for lack of a better term. While the 1930s Stooge shorts were gritty, placing the characters in the Depression era, then World War II followed, but by the 1950s they were often depicted as living in the post-war  suburbs and the shorts often played like then-contemporary sitcom episodes.

Maybe it just made sense. Besser may have suggested it, but maybe in the context of the time, it made sense to all concerned.

On the other hand, once Besser was out of the team it didn't take long for them to go back to the old haircuts, even shaving Joe De Rita's head and calling him "Curly-Joe." Most likely this was so they would more closely resemble the characters kids were watching on TV every day.

--- End quote ---

I think things started changing in the 1930s when radio stars started becoming major comedians. Usually they were verbal comedians and not clowns. I do wish we got more clowns in the later decades. You history of the Three Stooges remind of the history of Popeye's theatrical cartoon shorts. In the 1930s they were set in gritty urban Depression-era cities. In the 1940s he entered the navy during World War II, and then postwar the cartoons were set in suburbia.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page