Topic: Larry's role - Curly Era vs. Shemp Era

[Larrys#1]

Apologies if there has been a discussion already about this in the past (and maybe I already brought it up somewhere here before), but I wanted to bring up a question that has been on my mind for many many years.

Did anyone ever notice that Larry's role was significantly increased in the Shemp episodes compared to the Curly ones? In the Curly episodes, Curly pretty much had all the funny parts and took most of the beating from Moe. Larry didn't have much to do and it almost felt like he wasn't really needed as a stooge. There are a few exceptions though (Three Loan Wolves, being an obvious one). Then in the Shemp episodes, Larry's role increased and most of the time, it was evenly split between him and Shemp.

Did anyone notice this? If so, does anyone know any reason why they waited until the Shemp episodes to increase Larry's role? Did they feel Shemp wasn't as funny as Curly that he was incapable of stealing all the screen time like Curly did? I would highly doubt that would be the reason (and I'd be shocked if it is) because Shemp is a very funny guy who was very successful during his solo career before he replaced Curly.

[metaldams]

Jules White is on the record saying Curly was funnier, Ed Bernds saying Shemp is funnier.  Yes, Larry gets more time in Shemp shorts, and while I've never done an a-b comparison, I'd be curious to see how this falls with White versus Bernds.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Here's a guess:  Curly got more laughs when his things were run for real audiences, so when the laugh quotient went down to whatever degree, however small, with Shemp,  they thought that maybe giving Larry a few jokes might add a few more laughs to the mix with no added cost.  Larry being a funny guy, this worked, so they gave him more to do.  It all depends on the laughs generated in the theaters.

[Umbrella Sam]

This is my guess: sort of going off of what Big Chief said, I think that when Curly was in his prime, the writers and directors didn't really know what to do with Larry, so they mainly focused on the Curly-Moe dynamic. However, when Curly's health started failing, this forced them to give Larry more of a personality and more screen time (THREE LOAN WOLVES being the obvious example). By the time Shemp joined, I think that they were so used to the adjustment that they simply decided to stick with it, especially since Shemp was the oldest and at more risk of getting severely injured.

[Shemp_Diesel]

Early before 1936, when Curly was really developing his character, Larry had plenty of material up until Playing the Ponies; is when Larry got reduced. As for more Larry during the Shemp era, Shemp certainly dominated certain shorts (Scrambled, Brideless), Larry had his and Moe dominated on occasion to even shit out...

I guess as someone else astutely conjectured, why bust up a great formula when Curly started to decline....

[Paul Pain]

Larry still had occasional moments to shine... VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLY, MUTTS TO YOU, I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN, DIZZY DETECTIVES, and HIGHER THAN A KITE, in particular.

[Moose Malloy]

An interesting subject. I don't think I can add anything except opinion. I do know that Ted Healy was initially smitten by Larry's crazy hair and his violin offered something important. The 30's was a very musical era. Music and comedy were intertwined on stage and film. (was WOMAN HATERS the first Rap video?) But I digress.

Larry was my favorite stooge initially but Curly won me over as the man was just selzer-down-the-pants funny. Moe was funny with polished comic timing. Shemp had his N.Y. wiseguy persona down pat. But nobody could follow Curly, a drop dead moron (unionized, of course) I don't think Columbia gave a damn about test audience laughs. It was just natural to fill the void left by Curly by spreading out the screen time not just by Larry, but by recurring players Christine McIntyre and Emil Sitka, to name very few.