It's hard to believe that the stooges worked for as long as they did. Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp all worked as stooges until their health failed. What troopers!
It's funny though how getting a third stooge was a big issue. Moe and Larry worked with the stooges until the very end, but there was always an issue with a third stooge.
That’s why I give Curly-Joe a lot of credit, even though many people may think he doesn’t deserve it. He stayed with the stooges until the very end. His style of comedy was rather disappointing, I must say. But in his defense, the stooges significantly cut down on their slapstick and mayhem. And also Moe and Larry were getting older, so the group, in general, wasn’t as energetic as they were in their younger age. Plus the plots of the movies weren’t all that great to begin with. I think Curly-Joe would’ve been a better stooge if he would’ve worked during their shorts period where there was more slapstick. I’m not saying he would be better than Curly or Shemp. I doubt he would be, to be honest. But, I’m just saying that he would’ve been funnier if he had more to work with.
Regarding Larry, I think he started to shine during the Shemp era. He really didn’t do much during the Curly era because they pretty much made Curly the center of attention and Larry only had a few lines here and there. When Shemp took over, I noticed they started giving Larry more parts and that gave him an opportunity to show us how funny he really is.