Stoogered!

Well, the new movie based on The Three Stooges is now playing at a theatre near you. I had grave reservations about this movie. I have been hearing about this project for years, and even though I enjoy the Farrelly Brothers' films, I didn't think this was something that needed to be made. I am a HUGE fan of Moe, Larry, Curly and even Shemp (not so much Joe Besser or Curly Joe), but I wasn't sure that new actors would be able to measure up to the originals.

My fears were groundless. The film is hilarious, the actors do a fabulous job and I laughed. A lot. Seriously, I haven't enjoyed a film this much in ages. I don't understand the negative reviews this film is getting. At the screening I attended, the audience laughed their a**es off, and at the end, gave the film a round of applause. When was the last time you heard an audience applaud at a movie?

My one regret is that my parents didn't live to see this film. They would have have loved it, being HUGE fans of the boys. Actually, I think my Mum got a bit too involved with the films:  She was very fond of Curly, and would get upset when Moe would hit him. "Doesn't he  know Curly didn't mean to hit him with that axe?", she would say. God bless Mum and Dad! My hope is that they are watching  the new film sitting next to Larry, Moe, Jerry and Sam, and having a swell time.

So yes, the new film is  great, and  I urge all of you out there to go see it. In preparing this post though, I realized something: It is REALLY hard to do a good caricature of The Three Stooges!

Sure, you can just do a doodle of three faces with their haircuts, and everyone will recognize that you have drawn the fellas, but a true, accurate caricature of these nit-wits is a tough job. In the illustration at the top of this post, I took the easy way out, and based my sketch on how the guys looked in their awful sixties' cartoon. Even Perfect Wifey, who is good at almost everything, did a drawing (above) that is easily identifiable, but really isn't a caricature. (It is interesting to me though, that even as a non-artist, PW managed to draw an expression on each Stooge that expressed their personality- Note Larry's half-lidded eyes, and Curly's wide-eyed, childlike expression. True, I don't know where their ears are, but...)

So I put it to YOU, cartoonist readers of this blog: Can you do a caricature of The Three Stooges that really looks like them?! If so, send them to me via email, and if I get a really good one, I'll post it  and send the winner a prize of some sort.*

Even if you do a crappy drawing, send it in, and we'll all have some laughs at your expense!

N'yuck, N'yuck, Nyuck!

*No prize will be awarded.

UPDATE: 4/20/2012: The Results Are In!

Of all the millions of readers of this blog, only Peter F. dared to take the "Caricature the Stooges" challenge. His entry is above. Peter claims to have knocked this out in ten minutes. Pretty good, I think! As the only entrant, Peter wins the Grand Prize, which will be mailed to him soon.* Congrats, Peter!

*No prize will be mailed.

Happy Grilled Cheese Day!

Forget the more pedestrian holidays, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day and the like. Today (apparently) is a truly important day to celebrate: It's NATIONAL GRILLED CHEESE DAY!

To me, no member of the basic food group is more delicious than the grilled cheese. However, making a great grilled cheese requires more than simply slappin' a buttered cheese sandwich on the grill. A perfect grilled cheese sandwich is hot, crispy and crunchy on the outside, and full of chewy cheesy goodness on the inside.

Over the years, I have finally mastered creating the "Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich". Creating this masterpiece involved years of trial and error. I ate many a limp, soggy and/or burnt sandwich until I came up with the perfect formula for this classic dish.

In honor of this day, I would like to present my recipe for you, here. The great thing about this recipe is that it is highly adaptable to individual tastes. You can add or subtract any of the ingredients you wish. The most important thing to follow is the buttering and cooking instructions. These cannot be fiddled with. By following my instructions to the letter, you will soon be enjoying the perfect grilled cheese.

INGREDIENTS:

• Bread. (Your choice. I like a sourdough, or thicker bread, but plain ol' Sunbeam is good too.)
• Sliced Cheese (Again, your choice, although I prefer a combination of American AND Sharp Cheddar.)
• Softened Butter (The butter has to be REALLY soft and spreadable. I like to use Land O' Lakes©' Spreadable butter.)
• Softened Cream Cheese
• Meat (This is optional. I like to put ham or bacon on mine. If you do use a meat, chop it up fine, so you're not sliding a huge slice of meat out of the sandwich each time you take a bite!)
• Grated cheese (This makes a BIG difference!)

TO COOK:

Put a sturdy pan over medium/high heat, and allow it to preheat for at least five minutes. Meanwhile spread the cream cheese on two slices of bread, the sprinkle with the grated cheese. Assemble the sandwich adding the cheese, and meat, if you're swingin' that way. Then, LIGHTLY butter both sides of the outside of the sandwich. Seriously, you want the THINNEST layer of butter on the outside of the sandwich to facilitate cooking. Too much, and you'll have a soggy mess. Too little and you'll have a hockey puck.

Place the sandwich in the pan and heat for 1.5 minutes on each side. After each side is done to your liking, transfer the sandwich to a serving plate. Wait a minute or two before cutting the sandwich to let the cheese firm up a bit. 

Serve with a bowl of tomato soup.  If you screwed the recipe up, serve with a lot of liquor, so your guests won't know the difference, and if they do, they won't remember what a crappy grilled cheese you make.

I hope you and yours have a happy, healthy (well happy, anyway) Grilled Cheese Day.

I am off now, to put up the decorations for the White family Grilled Cheese Day Celebration.

It's Official!

I have always known I had a good sense of humor. I did not however, think I was "The Most Funniest Man Ever". Certainly, regular readers of this site are familiar with my puckish wit, but, "The Most Funniest Man Ever"?

I admit I am a "funny guy", thanks mostly to my parents, who could always come up with a "zinger" at just the right moment (Honestly, it's a pity that none of you reading this ever had the opportunity to go to a bad movie with my Dad. His witty observations would put the crew of MST3K to shame!). Really though, could I ever really dare to consider myself, "The Most Funniest Man Ever"?!

A note I received after a recent local theatrical piece I performed in, though, has informed me that I am, in fact, The Most Funniest Man Ever. A young girl named Brianna sent me the note you see here, after the performance. We must assume Brianna is a girl of discriminating tastes, so we'll accept her word as Gospel.

So, move over Abbott & Costello, Laurel and Hardy, The 3 Stooges, and all you other hacks! I AM The Most Funniest Man EVER! Even funnier than Adam Sandler! I am Brianna's IDOL for cryin' out loud! Oh, with her perceptive, refined taste, this girl is gonna go far.

I promise to use this power only for good.

Gauntleted!

It's been quite a while since I've posted a Superhero-themed doodle here on the blog. Since I really have nothing of note to post at the moment (although I do have a few doozies up my sleeve), here's another one.

The drawing you see here is of a Marvel comics character called Thanos. I know almost nothing about him, other than he seems to be obsessed with death, and to his credit, he helped Captain Marvel on his journey beyond the veil in one of the first mainstream graphic novels ever, "The Death of Captain Marvel".

He's also obsessed with getting his hands on some accoutrement called the "Infinity Gauntlet". This magic glove supposedly has all kinds of benefits to the owner, but really, I couldn't care less about this character or his "bidness". The only reason I did this sketch is that I think that this guy looks cool. So cool in fact, that I bought an action figure of him. Said action figure sits on my desk, staring at me day after day, so I figured I'd draw him up and post him here. The image reflects only one of the possible uses I imagine the "Infinity Gauntlet" is good for.

For the curious, read more about Thanos here , and the Infinity Gauntlet here .

Next time: Enough of this Superhero stuff, and back to more mainstream, reader-friendly jocularity!