History YMMV / TheThreestooges

* {{Anvilicious}}: ''I'll Never Heil Again'', which is about ThoseWackyNazis, has the {{Anvilicious}} "The characters in this picture are all fictitious. [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Anyone resembling them]] is better off dead."

** In "Fuelin' Around," the Stooges are taken to a fictional country via plane, train, and automobile, [[Film/PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles in that order.]]

** For 21st century audiences familiar with recent high-profile scandals, this can also be HarsherInHindsight, as the line was said in regard to ''breaking into the film industry.''

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The Three Stooges are fairly popular in Spanish-speaking countries, where they are called "Los Tres Chiflados". (In some Spanish dubs, Curly is oddly given a deep, guttural voice [[VoicedDifferentlyInTheDub in contrast to his English falsetto]]!)

* PortingDisaster: Seeing how the original version of the game was designed to show off the Amiga's strong-for-the-time graphics and sound abilities, it's somewhat inevitable that the conversions to other platforms don't quite stack up. The UsefulNotes/Commodore64 version isn't a bad effort, and even the NES version could have turned out a lot worse (butt-ugly graphics aside), but the DOS port really suffers, with unappealing EGA graphics and only a few perfunctory tunes played back through the PC speaker.

* CommonKnowledge: Joe Besser was contractually ImmuneToSlapstick during his run with the Stooges. In reality, while he did ask to do ''relatively less'' slapstick due to being less experienced with the act than Curly and Shemp (mostly in terms of Moe beating them up), there's still a good amount of times Joe took part in the slapstick abuse and even some elaborate cartoonish stunts, especially in later ones. He even replicates a few gags Curly and Shemp done before. The lower ComedicSociopathy can also be pinned down to Joe preferring to contribute his own personality gags, as well as the trio as a whole being too old to replicate the same violent energy from twenty years before.

** ''Bedlam in Paradise'', where Shemp has a nightmare that he dies and comes back as a ghost, was released just a few months before Shemp died in real life. Even more upsetting is that this was a re-release of their earlier film, ''Heavenly Daze'' with some new scenes added in; ''Daze'' starts out with Shemp already in Heaven, but ''Bedlam'' includes a scene that actually shows his character's death.

** Remember the Stooges' blatant disregard of gun safety in the shorts? In reality, Curly Howard accidentally shot himself in the ankle at age 13 while toying with a rifle. The injury was never properly treated and caused him pain for the rest of his life. In some shorts where his bare legs are shown, one calf is noticeably thinner than the other.

*** Moe was apparently such a good Hitler imitator that years later, the infamous History Channel series ''Hunting Hitler'' [[https://youtu.be/maeO6Isb_So?t=2436 was fooled into thinking that a picture of an elderly Moe Howard was actually Hitler himself]].

** On the other hand, Joe Besser is universally hated, largely due to Besser's contractual stipulation that Moe never hit him; this was like a kiss of death for any shorts featuring him since annoyingly clownish characters are tolerable only so long as their annoyance is appropriately punished. Indeed, Joe Besser rather than Shemp personifies this more, as Shemp tends to be more popular than not. Even though Besser did relent somewhat on the "don't hit" thing in his later shorts, many fans find his trademark "whining sissy-boy" shtick to be more grating than funny, and one that doesn't really gel with the Stooges' act.

** Moe and Shemp both did blackface in their early vaudeville careers and the occasional blackface joke would pop up in shorts sometimes (such as when one of them would get their face covered in soot). For their time, the lack of racist humor directed towards the black actors stands out compared to other shorts of the era. Black comic and friend of Shemp, Mantan Moreland, was even considered as a replacement for Shemp by Moe.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The bizarre 1952 short "Cuckoo on a Choo-Choo".
** And "Dizzy Pilots", particularly the sequence where Moe becomes a human balloon.

** The short ''[[Recap/TheThreeStoogesCuckooOnAChooChoo Cuckoo in a Choo-Choo]]'', hands down. This is the short in which Larry is playing a Creator/MarlonBrando-esque character who [[RuleOfCool stole a passenger car off a moving train]], just so his girlfriend's sister can get her [[UpperClassTwit rich drunken boyfriend]] Shemp to propose, because then ''they'' can get married. Unfortunately, Shemp is in love with [[InterspeciesRomance Carey the giant canary]] who exists only in his booze-sodden dreams, and who is played by some poor soul in an [[NightmareFuel utterly hideous]] suit. And Moe is a railroad detective in love with Larry's girlfriend's sister (the one they want to get hitched to Shemp) who finds them and tries to get rid of Shemp so he can marry the sister. There is no middle ground on this one, every Stooges fan either [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome thinks it's terrific]] or sees it as the worst thing they ever did.

* MemeticMutation: The Homing Pineapple. [[note]]The opera scene in "Pardon My Scotch" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYx0Uhu81mI ended]] with Moe throwing a pineapple at the opera singer as he leaves. Due to how it less looks like the pineapple is being thrown and more that it's hovering towards the singer, it gained meme status and the title of the Homing Pineapple.[[/note]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The Three Stooges are fairly popular in Spanish-speaking countries, where they are called "Los Tres Chiflados". (In some Spanish dubs, Curly is oddly given a deep, guttural voice in contrast to his English falsetto!)

** Invoked when Shemp called himself "The Ugliest Man in Hollywood" as part of a publicity stunt. Still contested, since he did actually marry in real life and later on lots of people have called upon his unconventional attractiveness (when wearing a mustache, some have pointed out he carries a certain resemblance to old-school hottie Clark Gable).
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: The remake shorts are a common example. They rehash old shorts either because the writers have no other ideas, so they could have an excuse to use StockFootage from an earlier short as {{Filler}}, or some other reason. The overuse of StockFootage in later Curly shorts is due to his ailing health and was used to lighten their shooting schedule; this was a lot easier to get away with when they were originally shown in theaters, before the advent of television airings and home video.

* NeverLiveItDown: Joe Besser got a bad rep with fans of the series for his contractual demand that he never be comically hit in his Three Stooges shorts, leading him to be perceived as an ImmuneToSlapstick third wheel in the films. In reality, Besser did take part in a fair bit of slapstick abuse (especially in his later shorts), it was merely the comedic slaps and bonks from Moe he tended to shirk from, and even then there were exceptions or clever variations to get around this, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc1tgVM_N08 as evidenced here]].

* OlderThanTheyThink: In the 1935 short "Hoi Polloi", two wealthy businessmen argue over whether heredity or environment makes a gentleman, and they prove it by taking a bum off the street and making them sophisticated. [[Film/TradingPlaces Why does that sound so familiar?]]

** Interestingly enough, despite the ([[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII somewhat justified]]) anti-Japanese sentiment in their shorts, the Stooges seem to have not bothered using yellowface or faux-Asian gibberish. In one short, "No-Dough Boys", they were mistaken for Japanese soldiers because they were simply wearing the uniforms. A publicity still suggests they might be wearing eye makeup, but it's a ''lot'' less grotesque than most yellowface of the era (or, sadly, [[Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys later]]).
*** One short does feature the Stooges auditioning for a vaudeville act by caricaturing the three Axis nations. Moe, of course, does Hitler, Curly does his rather good Benito Mussolini... Larry... Well, Larry pulls his eyes back with his hands and says, "Oh, so sorry please, bomb Tokyo, Oh my!" In a faux Engrish accent.

* PortingDisaster: Seeing how the original version of the game was designed to show off the Amiga's strong-for-the-time graphics and sound abilities, it's somewhat inevitable that the conversions to other platforms don't quite stack up. The Commodore 64 version isn't a bad effort, and even the NES version could have turned out a lot worse (butt-ugly graphics aside), but the DOS port really suffers, with unappealing EGA graphics and only a few perfunctory tunes played back through the PC speaker.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The short "Three Little Pigskins" features a young Creator/LucilleBall in one of her earliest Hollywood gigs.

* StockParodyJokes: Basically what Seinfield says on the main page. "Three funny looking guys who like punching each other." Nothing but wacky slapstick.
** Another joke in parodies is the slapstick being so extreme it goes right into Tarantino gorefests.

* AcceptablePoliticalTargets: ThoseWackyNazis are always portrayed as so stupid that they make the Stooges look competent by comparison. Best exemplified when Moe disguises himself as UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and orders two Nazi guards to blow their brains out. The response is priceless:
--> "But ve are Nazis, sir! Ve ''have'' no brains!"

* {{Anvilicious}}: ''I'll Never Heil Again'', which is about ThoseWackyNazis, has the {{Anvilicious}} "The characters in this picture are all fictitious. [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Anyone resembling them]] is better off dead." [[SarcasmMode Subtle.]]

--> “But ve are Nazis, sir! Ve ''have'' no brains!”

* BrokenBase: The short ''[[Recap/TheThreeStoogesCuckooOnAChooChoo Cuckoo in a Choo-Choo]]'', hands down. This is the short in which Larry is playing a Creator/MarlonBrando-esque character who [[RuleOfCool stole a passenger car off a moving train]], just so his girlfriend's sister can get her [[UpperClassTwit rich drunken boyfriend]] Shemp to propose, because then ''they'' can get married. Unfortunately, Shemp is in love with [[InterspeciesRomance Carey the giant canary]] who exists only in his booze-sodden dreams, and who is played by some poor soul in an [[NightmareFuel utterly hideous]] suit. And Moe is a railroad detective in love with Larry's girlfriend's sister (the one they want to get hitched to Shemp) who finds them and tries to get rid of Shemp so he can marry the sister. There is no middle ground on this one, every Stooges fan either [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome thinks it's terrific]] or sees it as the worst thing they ever did.
** Stooges fans are split over the merits, or lack thereof, of Joe Besser's tenure as a Stooge. Although a respected actor in his own right, Besser is felt by some fans to have been a poor fit for the group, especially given his character's reluctance to be the trio's ButtMonkey like Curly and Shemp. As such he is often seen as the CousinOliver of the Stooges. Others, however, see him as a refreshing change from the usual Stooge type.
* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Curly suffers from some odd habits, when you take into account his many [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]], the odd ways to calm him down and his unique mannerisms.

* HoYay: In ''The Brideless Groom'', where Moe and Larry are trying to find Shemp a wife so he can get an inheritance, Moe gets so happy after it seems like they've succeeded that he kisses Larry. A random person walking down the hall as it happens gives them a very disturbed look, and Moe promptly slaps Larry.

-->'''Larry''': "I finished the drawer!"
-->'''Moe''': "Whattaya want me to do, kiss you?"
-->'''Larry''': "[[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder Well...]]"
-->[''Moe slaps Larry'']

* HollywoodHomely: The women who go after Curly and Shemp tend to be this. Curly's dance partner in "Hoi Polloi", to name one, wears a tightly-pinned hairstyle, coke-bottle glasses, and a pursed, "I just sucked a lemon dry" face. Her actress briefly drops that look to check her makeup and reveals herself to actually be quite attractive.

* MemeticMutation: The Homing Pineapple. [[note]]The opera scene in "Pardon My Scotch" ended with Moe throwing a pineapple at the opera singer as he leaves. Due to how it less looks like the pineapple is being thrown and more that it's hovering towards the singer, it gained meme status and the title of the Homing Pineapple.[[/note]]

* SeasonalRot: The Curly-era shorts for example. After their 85th short ''Film/IdiotsDeluxe'', Curly had gotten [[OutOfFocus less focus]] in most shorts and had fewer slapstick moments, especially in [[spoiler:not partaking in the pie fight in their last short ''[[Film/HalfWitsHoliday Half-Wits Holiday]].]]

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Most of the time, such as when a stooge falling from a large height is obviously a stunt dummy. Also an InvokedTrope: The corny effects were intentionally PlayedForLaughs and serve to add to the hilarity.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** Pretty much unavoidable with the classic 1930s and 1940s shorts. References to pop culture, trends and events of old are a given. That being said, the humor and the charm of The Three Stooges is timeless enough that the shorts continue to find new fans to this day.

** For 21st century audiences familiar with recent high-profile scandals, this can also be a FunnyAneurysmMoment, as the line was said in regard to ''breaking into the film industry.''