Since there have already been so many reviews of the new Stooges film—at this site, elsewhere online, and in various printed periodicals—yet another one would have been superfluous. I’ll briefly say that the film was okay and sufficiently enjoyable—and was NOT the Farrelly debacle that many of us thought it might be.
Instead, as I watched the film yesterday, I kept track of which suggestive or lewd material might not (or definitely would not) have appeared in Stooge shorts of the 30s, 40s, and 50s (or, for that matter, other comedies of the era). This was to verify how true the Farrellys were to their claims—about keeping the film authentic, something that the Stooges themselves would enjoy, and in no way another There’s Something About Mary or Dumb and Dumber. Here’s what I found:
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(as the young Stooges): the suggestion, to cheer themselves up a bit, that they start a small brushfire and ‘whiz’ it out (suggesting urination)
Larry (after the monsignor commented that they’d need a lot of money to save the orphanage, making the money gesture by rubbing his thumb against his fingers): “How many boogers are we talkin’ about?”
When Sofia Vergara is first seen, and the camera focuses on her ample bosom and curvaceous buttocks, Larry makes a comment on (seemingly) her legs, along the lines of: “Look at those getaway sticks.” (Comments on a woman’s legs seems fine per old Stooge flicks; but here, it’s more so how long and how directly the camera focuses on Vergara’s overall voluptuousness.)
Curly, while changing a baby’s diaper in the hospital, commented that the baby must be French since the diaper contained a lot of ‘oui-oui’ (wee-wee).
Curly is then tormented by triplets spraying him in the face with urine—somewhat analogous to the old clam-in-the-chowder or oyster-in-the-stew routines. Curly then addresses the problem by covering his face with a tray—but the urine is then deflected onto Moe.
The above, by the way, holds no candle to the ensuing mock gunfight, in which all three are urinated on by diaper-less babies and use babies as mock guns. (This was alleged to be a mock pie fight, but only once do we see diapers used as projectiles—and a whole bunch at once, with a large slingshot). And, overall, so much urine!
In the zoo, a peanut hits (and enrages) a lion in what is clearly and vividly shown as the lion’s scrotum.
Moe yanks out some nose hairs from one of the Jersey Shore women. (He had previously done so to Larry, but Larry’s a guy—plus he’s Larry!)
In the office building for the law form of Kickem, Harter & Indagroin: a firm/partnership of proctologists named Proba, Keester & Wintz.
(as was shown in some trailers) Moe puts a lobster down the front of Larry’s pants, causing Larry to sing ‘soprano.’
A rat gets loose in a small carful of seven people and lodges itself in Sofia Vergara’s cleavage. (Might this have been shown in the old days? Then again {per comments above], might they have allowed her cleavage to be displayed so prominently way back when?)
(as was shown in some trailers) In the submerged car, bubbles come up through the water into the limited air space—because of Curly’s flatulence. This wasn’t, however, fully gratuitous since it served as a way for the Stooges and others to escape from the underwater vehicle.
The comment that Teddy’s fiancée was barren (thus the reason that they were adopting kids from the orphanage/spa).
