That's a really fine article, Waldo, and thanks for posting the link. It's very well-researched, and just scholarly/analytical enough without being too much so. I will take issue with the statement that the Marx Brothers were "smarter" than the Stooges, though; it was just that their style of comedy relied more on verbal humor than physical (except for Harpo, of course). Otherwise, they balance out more-or-less evenly in a number of ways:
Groucho: Verbally aggressive team leader. Moe: Physically aggressive team leader.
Harpo: Great "body language" and facial expression comic. Curly: Ditto.
Zeppo: Along for the ride, never had much to do. Larry: Well, Larry, and the Porcupine was one of a kind.
Chico: Excellent supporting team member and dialect comic, and a bonus that he was a piano whiz. Shemp: Great "everyman" comic with a uniquely neurotic screen persona.
I'll add that the Stooges were a lot more prolific, with their eight or nine shorts a year vs. one feature film a year for the Marxes (with none at all in some years; no releases in 1934 or 1936, for example). Also, the Marx films lost some of their original qualities after their move from Paramount to MGM, mainly because producer Irving Thalberg insisted on adding those romantic sub-plots and (even worse) cornball musical numbers to the scripts. "A Night At the Opera," as funny as it is, is a definite step down in pure laughs from "Monkey Business" and especially "Duck Soup," where the Marxes are the Marxes, undiluted by any of that claptrap.
The Stooges may have worked for the Model A Ford of film studios rather than the Rolls-Royce, but at least Harry Cohn had enough sense to leave them alone and let them do their thing. "Never mess with success" is an excellent principle to follow.
Oh, by the way, Waldo, if you leave something out of one of your posts, you don't have to add a second one just to correct this— just click the "modify" button and you can go back and edit the original post (just in case you didn't know that). After you save the changed post, you'll see the "Last Edit" notice (below), indicating that you've changed it:
