Topic: More popular with men than with women?

[stoogerascalfan62]

I recall in the late '80s when my late mom, who never liked the Stooges, said that the films were more popular with males than with females. I told her it wasn't important, but she said otherwise. How did this legend get started? To me, it has never mattered if one form of entertainment is preferred by one sex over the other.

[Signor Spumoni]

As far as my own experience goes, this is fact, not legend.  In fact, several women had strong reactions to the Stooges when we were talking about them, and not in a good way. 

[Squirrelbait]

My Mom is actually the one who introduced me to the Stooges - I was 12 years old, and after watching my first short (Spook Louder) I became a fan for life!

[Svengarlic]

I've had scads of female friends over the years that were appalled when they caught me watching the Boys. But there was one gal that watched with me with gusto!

Ran into her last month on Facebook after 20 years or so. She told me that she HATED the Stooges and her opinion of me had dropped like a stone from that point on. I asked her why the pretense, and she said she just felt sorry for me. 

[metaldams]

I don't know about you guys, but I live very close to a college campus.  You'd be amazed at how many of these young and willing women have differing opinions over whether Jules White or Edward Bernds was the best Shemp era director.  One of the sorority groups, however, is very anti-Stooge and are starting an alternative Wheeler and Woolsey discussion group every Thursday night.

All kidding aside, I once showed A PLUMBING WE WILL GO to a female friend years back and she thought I lost my marbles.

[Svengarlic]

All kidding aside, I once showed A PLUMBING WE WILL GO to a female friend years back and she thought I lost my marbles.

Brother, any woman that doesn't bust a gut when Niagara Falls busts out of the TV has no soul. You dodged a bullet. Of course, this is no validation of marbles. 

[metaldams]

Brother, any woman that doesn't bust a gut when Niagara Falls busts out of the TV has no soul. You dodged a bullet. Of course, this is no validation of marbles. 

She's a pretty girl, a sweetheart in a lot of ways, not so much in others, but I gotta say, in the eight years she was in my life, we never understood each other's humor.  I still can't tell you what she finds funny, which is a lesson learned.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

In my experience, female Stooge fans are pretty thin on the ground, but you can have a laugh with them in a special way. When I lived in Chicago, there were two such women in my circle of acquaintance. One of them was pretty easy to make laugh with any apt use of a Stooge line, especially when I would do it in my "Curly" voice. The other was married to a comic actor whom, I heard her say in front of him, she "married for the yuks." This one also once, in the course of a conversation about Shemp and Curly, said very solemnly, "Shemp makes me hot!" I still laugh when I think of her saying that.

[Seamus]

This one also once, in the course of a conversation about Shemp and Curly, said very solemnly, "Shemp makes me hot!" I still laugh when I think of her saying that.

Further evidence that Shemp undoubtedly has the most sex appeal of all the men who have borne the name "Stooge."

My wife is more than tolerant of my more unconventional TV viewing habits (e.g., vintage comedies, old horror movies, etc.), and she usually manages to find something that amuses her in any given Stooge short.  I can only recall two scenes that made her laugh hysterically, though.  The first was one of the early shorts where the boys are playing detectives (I think), and they're waiting around in someone's office.  Larry is playing tiddly winks or some such, misses a shot, and says dejectedly, "Aw, I missed."  Moe slaps him across the face and says, "I didn't."  She still describes this scene to her female friends when she's trying to convince them that the Stooges are funnier than they think.

The other scene that killed her was the one in which Curly had (allegedly) won a fortune in a poetry contest, and set themselves up in a swanky hotel (can't remember the name of this one either).  Someone is outside their door laying siege to their room, peeking through the keyhole, and Curly squirts ink from a fountain pen through the keyhole, dousing his eye.  My wife busted a gut when Curly reports back to Moe that he "dotted his eye." 

When it comes to classic comedy teams though, she's more into Laurel and Hardy than the Stooges.  She thinks Stan is adorable, and their comedy generates more laugh-out-loud moments for her.