History Film / TheThreeStooges

* {{Balloonacy}}

* BerserkButton

* TheBully: Moe

** Shemp has a wacky cameo as "Wacky" in ''Film/AnotherThinMan''. Shemp in fact had cameos in several films throughout the 30's and 40's, though movie audiences had yet to come to know him as a Stooge.

* CatchPhrase: Most of Curly's dialog, but particularly remembered are his Catch Whinnies.

* JugglingLoadedGuns

* PunnyName

** The map in "You Nazty Spy!" has several, such as the Look Sea and Doublecrossia
** A map in "Malice in the Palace" has the Giva Dam

* StockFootage

* StockShoutOut: Dozens of times.

* SuddenDownerEnding: ''Rhythm and Weep''. The short starts with the down-on-their-luck Stooges on the verge of suicide meeting three female dancers in similar straits. Before they can jump, they meet an eccentric millionaire who has them join him in a musical performance and decides to hire them. He rents a theater for them, and after a rehearsal he likes them so much he announces he's doubling their salaries. "The way I throw my money around, you probably think I'm crazy." he says, before suddenly bursting into deranged laughter and getting taken away by the men in the white coats. Realizing their benefactor wasn't a millionaire after all, the short ends with the Stooges laughing/bawling and hitting themselves on the head with sandbags. [[SarcasmMode Hilarious.]]

-->'''Curly:''' Hey wait a minute, that's a ''real'' one! I'm no fool.

--->'''Moe (disguised as Hitler)''': [[YouHaveFailedMe You fail to catch three spies.]] [[BoomHeadshot Blow out]] [[DrivenToSuicide your brains!]]\\

* ThreeDimensionalEpisode: Two of ''The Three Stooges'' shorts, ''Pardon my Backfire'' and ''Spooks'', were shot in 3-D in the 1950's, during the first big 3-D craze.
** The fact the 2012 film, released during the 2010's 3-D fad, was produced and issued only in 2-D, probably counts as an inversion.

*** An animated short "Dentist The Menace", also featured Curly Joe with a toothache, and HilarityEnsues as Moe and Larry attempt to pull the tooth out themselves, eventually getting them caught up in the middle of a car chase between the police and a bank robber. [[spoiler: In the end, the Stooges go sailing into the air, and, as luck would have it, they land right at the dentist's door...[[ShaggyDogStory but Curly loses the offending tooth in the landing, eliminating any need to visit the dentist]]. (And Moe loses a tooth as well.)]]
* TooYoungToDieLamentation:

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Burnt toast and a rotten egg: "I've got a tapeworm and it's good enough for him." Hotcakes and pizza (in the movie) are also implied to be some of the Stooges' favorites. Overall, they're [[ExtremeOmnivore Extreme Omnivores]] so don't be surprised if they go crazy for things as bizarre as nutshells and banana peels.

* VerbalTic

-->'''Larry:''' "Ech Bin A China Boychic Frim Slobatkya-Gebernya Hak Mir Nisht Ken Tshaynik And I Dont Mean Efsher". (Translation: "I'm a China boy from [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Slobatkya Gebernya]] stop annoying me and I don't mean maybe.")

--> '''Moe:''' AUGH! I'm poisoned! ''(Dishes out the pain to the Stooge who kissed him!)''

-->'''Larry:''' Say, how about some Dutch Lunch?
-->'''Curly:''' Certainly! I'll get some apple pie and whipped cream!
-->'''Larry:''' I'll take some burnt toast and a rotten egg.
-->'''Moe:''' Burnt toast and a rotten egg?!
-->'''Larry:''' Yeah! I got a tapeworm and it's '''''GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM!'''''

-->'''Larry:''' You shot that guy!\\
-->'''Moe:''' And killed him, too!

-->'''Judge:''' You face charges of attempt to commit mayhem.\\

* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] Scripts would often contain the generic instruction ''Moe punishes Curly,'' leaving it up to them to come up with an appropriate sequence of bits of physical schtick. (Which eventually were so ingrained and codified that they were referred to in shorthand by reference numbers; e.g., an eye poke might be a "number 16," a tweak of the nose a "23," etc. This is referenced in the feature film ''The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze'' when, having turned the tables on their would-be Chinese communist brainwashers, Moe calls out numbers to them, and they perform the called-for actions, now looking and acting like the Stooges.)

* InOneEarOutTheOther

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Some of the Three Stooges title cards, such as the one in this page image, spell Curly's name as "Curley."

* JustForPun: Often overlooked by their physical slapstick humor is their witty way with words and puns. Examples can be found in any short- and the movie.

** In "Brideless Groom" (1947): After several poor looking takes where she was supposed to look like she was assaulting him for impersonating her cousin Basil, Shemp told Christine McIntyre to just go ahead and hit him and that he could handle it. She ended up hitting him so hard that she broke his nose, much to her horror. However, true to his reputation for being easy going, Shemp comforted her as he was being tended to by softly saying, "Aw, it's alright, honey."

*** "Pick two!" (Two fingers on Moe's extended right hand, picked by Larry or Curly [always the pointer and middle fingers, which would then poke the finger-picker's eyes)

** Larry's "Leave him alone!"

* CookingTheLiveMeal: Evoked in the two-reeler "Violent Is the Word for Curly--after the title character hides in an ice cream truck and is frozen solid, Moe and Larry try to thaw him out by attaching him to an improvised rotating spit above an open fire.

%%* GrievousBottleyHarm

-- '''Moe:''' AUGH! I'm poisoned! ''(Dishes out the pain to the Stooge who kissed him!)''

* AccidentalAthlete: One of their early shorts had them mistaken for amatuer football players.

** Though there are times like in ''Baby Sitter Jitters'' where the kid mauls them instead.

** In an odd variation of this trope, Moe ''becomes'' a balloon in one episode. In ''[[http://threestoogespictures.info/dizzy-pilots/ Dizzy Pilots]]'', Moe falls into a tub of tar, and to get the tar off of him, Larry and Curly cut a hole in his clothes and begin filling it up with gas. HilarityEnsues as Moe begins to float away when Larry and Curly aren't looking, and they spend the next sizable chunk of the episode trying to get Moe down. He eventually floats through an opening in the ceiling and into the sky. Hearing Moe cry during the ordeal makes this a candidate for SugarWiki/FunnyMoments.

%%* AccidentalAthlete: One of their early shorts.

%%* AdultsDressedAsChildren: From ''All the World's a Stooge'' -- they do this twice in the film.

%%* AntiSneezeFinger: Used a few times.

%%* AscendedExtra: The Stooges themselves.
%%* AsideGlance: Shemp's trademark.

* {{Slapstick}}: One of the acts that made it famous, they pretty much perfected the art in the '30s.

The Stooges continued to make popular feature films and TV appearances until Janaury 9, 1970 when Larry Fine suffered a stroke during production of a TV pilot called ''Kook's Tour''. Like Curly Howard, Larry suffered more strokes before his death on January 24, 1975. In the early 1970s, longtime Stooges supporting actor Emil Sitka (best known to most Stooges fans for the line [[Recap/TheThreeStoogesBridelessGroom "Hold hands, you lovebirds!"]]) was promoted as "Middle Stooge", but Moe died on May 4, 1975 before any more movies were made, ending the era of the original Three Stooges. Curly-Joe continued to do live performances for a short time with two other individuals filling in for Moe and Larry, but then retired.

In 1934, Columbia offered them their first picture deal and Moe promptly seized the opportunity to make the big time without their notoriously drunk and abusive employer. Their first film, ''Women Haters'', was moderately successful; their second, ''Punch Drunks'', was more so; and the third ''Men in Black'', was nominated for an Oscar and the group found its niche appearing in a half dozen or so short films (16-20 minutes) a year.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

!!The Three Stooges provides examples of the following tropes:

%%* BANGFlagGun: Used on occasion.