Monday, April 16, 2012

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.

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13 Comments:

Anonymous Janine LaValley said...

I think people just "like", not liking things. The Three Stooges movie is a good example. I too heard distasteful things about it. I watched the trailer and it seemed to have done a good job. Don't worry, I'm gonna see it Chowder Head. There is nothing better than seeing a good eye poke on the big screen.

April 16, 2012 at 6:48 PM  
Blogger eeTeeD said...

bill white said "... Even if you do a crappy drawing, send it in, and we'll all have some laughs at your expense ..."

sorry, but i couldn't even manage a crappy drawing of a crappy drawing.

btw, when i heard you had made a new posting, i was sure you'd be commenting on THIS ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/nyregion/the-battle-for-a-comic-empire-that-archie-built.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

April 16, 2012 at 7:10 PM  
Blogger Mykal Banta said...

Bill: I (ahem) never thought much of the stooges. Should I leave now? A little too broad and physical for my tastes.

April 16, 2012 at 9:19 PM  
Blogger Mykal Banta said...

Ooops - I forgot to mention - I love your drawing of them.

April 16, 2012 at 9:20 PM  
Blogger John F said...

On the list, BW - with your recpmmendation . . . and I agree with Mykal - fabulous drawing of the boys1

April 16, 2012 at 10:32 PM  
Blogger Bill White said...

eeTeeD- I still welcome all contributions! For alll readers of this blog, the article eT links to is a must read- If only for the fantastic cartoons that illustrate the article. I wonder who did them?

Janine-True!

John and Mykal- Thanks for the kind words.

Mykal, I completely understand the guys not being everyone's cup of tea, so you're welcome here anytime! As a comic book art fan though, you should check out Norman Maurer's (Moe's Son-in-Law) work on the Stooges 3-D comics. Beautiful stuff, even if you don't care for the subject matter.

April 17, 2012 at 11:34 AM  
Blogger Sharon G. said...

I am not a Stooges fan, but I did enjoy the movie so I really hope it does well. Now, bring on the action figures.... :-)

April 17, 2012 at 2:36 PM  
Blogger eeTeeD said...

in answer to bill white's question...

http://www.markmatcho.net/

April 17, 2012 at 4:05 PM  
Blogger eeTeeD said...

congratulations, Peter F.

great job!

April 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM  
Anonymous Newt said...

I've been on bit of a Stooge kick myself and want to see the new movie, but don't know if I'll get around to seeing it in theatres. I wasn't excited about the idea, but when I saw them on WWE Raw, they actually seemed pretty into the characters.

I just re-watched the 3 Stooges docu-drama from 2000 again, after a lot of work to find it online. And I found a few bits of Stooges material I hadn't seen before as well.

April 23, 2012 at 2:27 PM  
Blogger P.L. Frederick said...

All three drawings are hilarious -- yours, Perfect Wifey's, and Peter F's. Glad to hear the movie was hilarious too. My husband and I talked ourselves out of seeing it this past weekend because of the reviews. Another Farrelly brothers film from years ago, "Oh Brother," got bad reviews too but was a great movie. I will definitely see the Stooges one in the theater then.

April 23, 2012 at 3:35 PM  
Blogger Bill White said...

You kids that haven't seen the movie yet, get out there and see it! Sure, you can wait till it comes out on DVD, but nothing beats seeing it in a theatre full of happy, laughing people!

Newt- That bio film is awful, and inaccurate. They really upped the schmaltz factor in that to make the boys story seem more tragic. They got all kindza facts wrong: For one thing none of them were ever assaulted in public by fans wanting to hit them, and Moe was quite wealthy from his real estate investments. He never had to work as a go-fer at the studios.

April 23, 2012 at 4:45 PM  
Anonymous Newt said...

Yeah so I've heard, but I still quite enjoy it. Especially Michael Chiklis' Curly and John Kassir's Shemp.

April 23, 2012 at 5:24 PM  

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