Topic: Three Stooges vs Marx Brothers

[falsealarms]

Listening to Stoliar's latest Stu's Show appearance, they discuss how much young people know about these comedy teams. It was spurred by an e-mail from a guy in his 20s, my age. Stoliar mentions that it's "upsetting" that the Stooges have remained consistently more popular than the Marx Brothers. Stoliar said he loved the Stooges -- "when I was seven."

He says there were a lot of "high brow" references in the better Marx films, things that go right over people's head nowadays. "But it doesn't take much to understand drawing a saw across someone's head," he said.

Stu Shostak added: "I guess it has to do with the dumbing down of this country."

I just thought that was a fascinating couple of minutes.

[archiezappa]

I've always been a fan of both The Three Stooges and The Marx Brothers.  It's too bad that the Marx Brothers only had 13 feature films.  I always wish they had made more movies, but they were old (in their 40's) when they made their first movie "The Cocoanuts."  I have all 13 feature films on DVD.  Great stuff!

[stooge1029]

The more I watch the Marx brothers the less I like them. They were obviously very talented not only at comedy but also music...but the movies just seem very self indulgant...and it almost seems like the Marxs THINK theyre funnier than they really are. Give me Laurel and Hardy or the Stooges anyday over the Marxs.

[middlenamewayne]

Can someone direct us to copies of the Marxes' Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel shorts? I know they're audio only, but they'd still make for a more natural way to compare the Marx Bros. to the Stooges' shorts than a feature film would, don'tcha think?

From what I understand, even the original F, S & F audio tracks that remain lost have been recreated by some fairly good imitators, so there's plenty of material to choose from.

In any case, this page has a complete recording of the final 30 minute episode (1932): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel,_Shyster_and_Flywheel
  - mnw

[QuinceHead]

I think that part of the problem is that the Marx Brothers' films are consistently all one-speed (rapid) and unrelentingly so -- in some ways they can get very tiring to watch, if you get what I'm trying to convey...

Say what you like about the Stooges and formula, but they at least constantly tried to mix things up...

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

[OldFred]

Can someone direct us to copies of the Marxes' Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel shorts? I know they're audio only, but they'd still make for a more natural way to compare the Marx Bros. to the Stooges' shorts than a feature film would, don'tcha think?

From what I understand, even the original F, S & F audio tracks that remain lost have been recreated by some fairly good imitators, so there's plenty of material to choose from.

In any case, this page has a complete recording of the final 30 minute episode (1932): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel,_Shyster_and_Flywheel
  - mnw

Here you go, this link has some of the BBC recreations of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel and the surviving episodes with Groucho and Chico Marx:

http://archive.org/details/otr_flywheelshysterflywheel

[Liz]

I don't particularly care for the Marx Brothers.  Groucho's one-liners are great, and Harpo's actions are funny, but other than that...not really.

[metaldams]

Groucho's one-liners are great, and Harpo's actions are funny, but other than that...not really.

Hmm, in other words, you don't like.....

[Larry Larry]

Listening to Stoliar's latest Stu's Show appearance, they discuss how much young people know about these comedy teams. It was spurred by an e-mail from a guy in his 20s, my age. Stoliar mentions that it's "upsetting" that the Stooges have remained consistently more popular than the Marx Brothers.

I love them both. 

But I think one of the reasons the Stooges have "remained consistently more popular" is simply that their films are much more accessible.  There are nearly 200 shorts all under 20:00 minutes.  Programming them for TV was easy.   It's like a sitcom that was rerun for decades.  The 13 Marx films are much harder to program outside of movie channels.    Even now, in the age of digital distribution, the Stooges shorts are easily programmed - as witnessed by Sony's packaging them on their new Crackle channel.

If you were 20 today, and had never seen either team, but stumbled across them both, then a 16:00 minute commitment is easier than an 80:00 minute one.  It's easy for the 20 year old to try it on, so to speak.

While I love the Marx Brothers & their films, I always felt one other thing that hurts their movies for modern audiences are the musical numbers - not just from the co-stars, but from Harpo's harp playing & Chico's piano playing.   All of it just brings the comedy to a screeching halt for today's audience. 

Watching someone play the harp for 5:00 minutes is not funny nor is it particularly interesting.

[Larrington]

...If you were 20 today, and had never seen either team, but stumbled across them both, then a 16:00 minute commitment is easier than an 80:00 minute one.  It's easy for the 20 year old to try it on, so to speak. ...

Very true, especially given the short attention span of the today's audiences.

[booklover]

They say the Stooges are an aquired taste, and people are divided into those who love the Stooges and those who wonder why, but I think it's even more so with the Marx Brothers. Even as a kid, I loved watching the classic comedians on TV, and whatever I was watching - The Stooges, L&H, A&C, Bowery Boys - my dad would always sit down with me and laugh. Hard. But if it was the Marx Brothers, he would sit there the entire time stone-faced. Same with my brother. Same with some other classic comedy fans I know.  I dig the Brothers, as I believe a lot of people still do, but if I had the choice of watching them or the Stooges, I'd pick the Stooges. To each his own.

[Whoa Moe]

When I was a kid I didn't get most of Groucho's jokes....later when I got them they were not all that funny. Zeppo was useless....the bi-play of Chico  and Harpo was OK. The musical numbers were a yawn.

About the funniest scene I ever saw was the was in "A Night in Casablanca" where the top bad guy called Harpo a "Dunderhead" and slapped him silly. (and a wacky swordfight ensued) The opening scene in that movie had a cop saying to Harpo "What do you think you're doing? Holding up that wall?" at which point Harpo steps away and the building collapses.

Unfortunately these are a couple of the few sight gags I remember from the MB. I gotta give it to the STOOGES for the quick 20 min shorts that were bam! bam! Delivering the low brow gags and puns quick.

And no Bro' could match the close up 'takes' of Moe and Curly.....my fave being Moe's in the "Wild Hyiacinth" rasslin' short were Moe assures the boss that Curly/Bustoff is just getting started, then looks to the ring where Curly is flying thru the air by his heels.....Moe looks like he was just zapped with 10,000 volts. I'm laughing right now as I type, remembering.

[sandmountainslim]

The more I watch the Marx brothers the less I like them. They were obviously very talented not only at comedy but also music...but the movies just seem very self indulgant...and it almost seems like the Marxs THINK theyre funnier than they really are. Give me Laurel and Hardy or the Stooges anyday over the Marxs.

Ditto!  I have tried and tried to find humor in the Marx Brothers but their "high brow" comedy is pretty much boring as hell.    Gimme Moe and Larry!

[Larrington]

Comparing the Marxes, Stooges, and L&H to name any one better than the others is rather silly.  They all came from different roots, and all had vastly different styles of comedy. The Stooges were indeed the least sophisticated compared to the others...but that was a big part of their appeal!

Having a favorite based on individual personal taste is one thing, but in the end,  "better" is pretty meaningless since that perception is strictly in the mind of the beholder.
 
All of these comics were utterly brilliant in their own way (as were Abbot & Costello, Wheeler & Woolsey, and a good number of others). 

It's a shame that they are all ignored (for the most part) by today's audiences.