"COITENLY...!"

Last night, a group of our church’s finest men gathered for a very edifying spiritual experience:  A “Pizza and Three Stooges” night!  I recently heard someone say, “There are only two kinds of people in this world- people who like Star Trek, and people who don’t like Star Trek”.  Similarly, there are people who like the Three Stooges and people who don’t like them.

The explanation that’s usually given is that men like them and women don’t, and admittedly it was the MEN of the church who had the Three Stooges event, but my experience is that Stooges fans DON’T break down strictly over sexual lines.  There are girls who love them and guys who can’t stand them.  I have a 3 Stooges necktie which the female manager of a local McDonald’s restaurant just HAS to see and comment about each time I walk into that eatery!  
“Oh, I’m glad to see you’ve got THE BOYS with you!” she says with a smile.  I’ve commented to her that it’s too bad McDonald’s restaurants came much to late for the comedy trio.  A “short” featuring the Three Stooges running (or more likely RUINING) a McDonald’s would have been really good!

It’s hard to explain why so many people, especially middle-aged “white collar” men can’t get enough of Curly hysterically shrieking, “Moe, Larry, THE CHEESE!”  One guy I know says, “They say and do the things you’d LOVE to be able to do in very difficult situations, but just CAN’T.”  It’s true.  I know that when a Town Building Official gave me a lot of grief about our church building ten years ago, I certainly wanted to grab his handlebar mustache, try to pull it off, and then yell something like, “Oh, A REAL ONE....nyuck, nyuck, nyuck...”

The Three Stooges actually had a strong Boston connection in that they were originally “Ted Healy and His Three Stooges” back in vaudeville.  Ted, the straight man, was an Irish Bostonian.  After several years of hitting each other over the head, and getting pies in the face, the three short Jewish guys though that maybe Ted shouldn’t be getting all the fame and fortune- that they’d do better out on their own. They were right.  Those who dismiss the Three as untalented fools, just don’t get it.  Much of the comedy is actually brilliant satire and their routines had flawless timing.  The Stooges won an Oscar for “Men in Black” a hilarious spoof of the Clark Gable film, “Men in White”.  For those of you who aren’t quite sure which episode I’m taking about, it’s the “Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard” one.

Proverbs 22:17 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine...” We had a lot of merry hearts last night!

Whoops, I almost forgot to tell you that the ushers at my wedding wore “Press” and “Pull” buttons...or that I know a guy who actually phoned Larry Fine ... or that Curly’s actual name was Jerome ...
Well, that’s just too much information ... maybe another time ... I guess I need to “SPREAD OUT!” ...