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They came to Earth to make you scream…with laughter! This UEN SciFi Friday April Fool's Special features the infamous Three Stooges cavorting, slapping and mugging their way through "Disorder in the Court" (1936), "The Brideless Groom" (1947), "Malice in the Palace" (1949) and "Sing a Song of Six Pants" (1947). No, it's not even remotely sci-fi (that's the April Fool's at work), but we've got Science To Go With The Show all the same.
Fans cite the anarchic energy of this manic act as a key ingredient to its appeal. In film after film, they turn the Establishment topsy-turvy: "Disorder in the Court" sets them loose in a trial for a nightclub dancer accused of murder. In "The Brideless Groom", Shemp inherits a fortune—if he gets married immediately. "Malice in the Palace" pits the Stooges (here servants in an Arabian casbah) against mastermind jewel thieves. In "Sing a Song of Six Pants" the troupe runs a laundry where folks can get "Cleaning, Pressing, Altercations". In each, the Stooges are a tornado of chaos, pulling bystanders into their madness until the last prat has fallen, when justice has been served, Shemp's money secured, the jewel stolen (by Santa Claus, no less), and the boys have saved their business by taking an escaped convict to the cleaners.
The original trio of jokesters were Moe Howard (Moses Harry Horwitz), his brother Shemp Howard (Samuel Horwitz), and Larry Fine (Lawrence Feinberg), who got their start in 1925 as part of an act headlined by vaudevillian Ted Healy. When Shemp became fed up with Healy's antagonism, he quit the act, and was replaced by his brother, Curly (Jerome Lester Horwitz). Eventually, the Three Stooges established themselves as a successful act independent of Healy, and when Curly's health problems prevented his continued involvement, Shemp stepped back into the Stooges triptych until his death in 1955. The act went on, with various comedians playing the role of the third Stooge, but true fans nearly always swear their allegiance to Moe/Curly/Larry, Moe/Shemp/Larry, or both.
