I found myself thinking it would be funny if Joe played into it and claimed that he was responsible for getting Curly and then Shemp fired because "they weren't funny enough, and I knew you wouldn't like them as much as you're going to love me." Even funnier, he could claim that their subsequent deaths were related to their firings and that he didn't care because it was no real loss to the world of comedy, like if he died.

I think if they made Joe the spoiled brat that never grew up and pulled practical jokes on Larry and Moe for which they couldn't retaliate because he is the goose that lays the golden egg, I think you got magic in a bottle right there.

I have strained my brain since I grew up in the 60s to come up with who could have successfully stepped into that position with the Stooges, because i genuinely despised the two that were put in there... to this day I believe there IS NO BODY and WAS NO BODY that could do that.

top quality good to see youtube isn't censoring comments anymore.

@@KairuHakubi Trust me, they still do.

@@Youll_Love_It_At_Levitz okay let me put it a different way: it's a good thing youtube isn't censoring comments anymore, so I can see this one.

That was my favorite Joe moment! I really ROFL when Joe gave the gold digger her connupence!😂

I wish i knew that episode name of Joe using the nail gun

Joe Besser really has grown on me a lot in recent years. While the final 16 shorts featuring him vary in quality, there certainly are entrees that I do really enjoy, such as A Merry Mix-Up, Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters, Sweet And Hot, Flying Saucer Daffy, and Oils Well That Ends Well. I get the criticisms that say he didn't fit with the team, but I really enjoyed his characterization. He's definitely not on the same level as Curly, Larry, Moe, or Shemp, but he's leagues ahead of Joe DeRita, who rarely was funny. I also found a lot to enjoy from Joe Besser's solo shorts at Columbia, even though those were mixed in quality as well.

I feel both him and curly Joe derita got the short of the stick because they overshadowed by curly Howard and shemp Howard

I dunno, I despised joe derito just as much as a kid, because to this day (IMO) there isn't a person who could have successfully stepped in following Curly and Shemp....

Joe Besser really wasn't cut out to be a Stooge, but he was funny as hell as Stinky on the Abbott and Costello show.

He just didn't have the same magic that Curly and Shemp had. He was too whiney and whimpy in my opinion. To refuse to take pies in the face, that was ridiculous. If he agreed to play a Stooge, then he should've put 100% into being one and not a prima donna.

​@@1956tojoDerita in turn hated the way he treated him.

@@glenturney4750did you even watch this video before commenting? Or at all? He clearly says that rumor about Besser not wanting to take pies in the face is not true. Looks like you’re one of these people he mentioned out here blindly believing stuff without actually researching it first.

I mean, I think Joe simply explained, to moe and Larry that his wife had suffered a heart attack be with her when I think Moe and Larry understood

@@Nick-ty9usMoe lost his brother to a heart attack

@@brad_hensil that’s true. Larry’s wife died of a heart attack.

@@brad_hensil so when Joe Besser told the boys, he wanted to leave the act because his wife had a minor heart attack and he wanted to stay close to her I think Moe understood because he had lost a brother to a massive heart attack

Joe Besser was the WORST stooge ever

@calnealexander-mccord2805 It's refreshing to see a woman that likes the 3 stooges, I remember in middle school I once met a girl that hadn't even heard of them which I still can't believe😕

@@justindenney-hall5875 As i was growing up, I was, and still am, utterly baffled by the general reaction by females. It was just one more thing I couldn't fathom about women, despite being in the ranks. By the time I was 9 I had all Curly's mannerisms and sound effects, and my Pop and I would mystify whatever lady he was dating at the time with our constant eye pokes and hand-waving silliness. Happily, the fellahs made me feel at home and now I'm a 60 year old with the box set, which I highly recommend, and proof that the Stooges led me to All in the Family, MASH, Monty Python, Mel Brooks and every other distinguished comedy since. Had I chlldren, particularly a daughter, I would have proudly carried on the tradition.

@@justindenney-hall5875 Astonishing, isn't it? I can't imagine a life without the Stooges. That's just unacceptable.

Fake news. Women I read somewhere that women make up 60% of the Three Stooges fanbase community.

My 9-year-old daughter loves the 3 stooges!

I love Shemp's fighting technique.

Same here. Curly was always too much for me. As much as I liked the Stooges, Curly, as the kids say nowadays, 'triggered my anxiety'. Shemp was my favorite. I also liked Joe for some reason. I think they were better actors, but Curly was the best clown.

Shemp was a deadpan comic but he could also do the physical comedy. The guy was originally part of the act before Curly.

Shemp was an original of the 3 original Stooges from 1922 to 1932 ... He ended up quitting because of ted healey, and that's when Curly ended up joining and their most successful run lasted 14 years till Curly could go no more in 1946 and Shemp came back until his death in 1955... 3 years after Curly died.... So Shemp was actually a Stooge for 19 years to Curly's 14.... Curly's years being the most successful....For me, anything post Shemp is not The 3 Stooges any more.... and when they went color it was even worse... I grew up in the 60s when colored televisions started making their ways into homes and all that post Shemp crap was shoveled at us.... It was just short of traumatic I guess.... I despised it as a kid...

@@1956tojo I'm a millennial, my parents got me into the Stooges and Marx Brothers. Don't get me wrong I love Shemp Howard, on youtube there's a few shorts with Shemp as a solo actor and they're great and they should be played alongside Stooges. Thankfully I only grew up with Columbia Shorts, when the occasional Joe Besser short came on it just felt like you were watching a band that was out of tune. But yeah as this video goes to show it wasn't Besser's fault Columbia slashed the budgets and cost cutting measures would have resulted in a lousier product even if Shemp and Curly had still been there. Anyway out of morbid curiosity I did watch some of 1964's "The Outlaws Is Coming", I'm not going to say it's a great comedy (definitely made for kids) but with its simpler western setting and honestly really creative opening credits it even made me warm up a bit to Curly Joe DeRita. If they hadn't named the character "Curly" it wouldn't have left such a bad taste in mouth of fans IMO. Nevertheless the Howard Brothers & Larry Fine are legends of comedy. Their antics will be enjoyed for generations to come. The older I get and the more I watch "Hats Off Entertainment" the more I'm just in love with the classic comedians.

For me, anything after Shemp's second run in the Stooges is/was sacrilegious as far as The 3 STOOGES goes.... I cannot help but be a die hard originalist here.... Nothing against the two stand ins after Shemp, but a person does not exist that could have successfully stepped into that position after the originals... Shemp was a Stooge for 10 years (1922-32) before he quit and Curly joined.. Curly 14 yrs-Shemp 19 yrs)

@1956tojo I don't disagree, per se, although I think sacrilege is a bit much. But there were to HUGE pairs of shoes to fill that couldn't be filled by just anyone- and Besser and DeRita were definitely not the right fit. I know he was considered to replace Larry for a bit but, honestly, I feel like Emil Sitka would have fit in the Howard brother spot better than the Fine position. He's actually the only actor of the era I can think of that would have been a proper. Plus, he had the bonus of already having good on-screen chemistry with the boys.

that is such an accelerated pace. that'd be like disney doing live action remakes of their recent live action remakes.

By this time Short subjects were in decline. Everyone was starting to watch their shiny new tv.

At least he had a unique personality and wasn't just an imitation of Curly. You'd have a harder time defending Curly Joe.

Curley Joe was a disaster.

I remember there was a classic stooge block on some channel or other, and they would advertise like "every slap, every eye poke, every bonk on the head, every pie in the face. Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp... but no Joe. Sorry, Joe."

@@KairuHakubi I think the Besser Wikipedia page said one channel's host would apologize before putting Joe shorts on.

@@KairuHakubiThat's interesting. And funny too!

I was also harsh on Joe, and wasn't even the biggest Shemp fan as a kid. Of course, when you grow up and learn more about Joe's career and the circumstances behind the final shorts, you see things quite differently. I love this channel and appreciate Besser getting his due. I feel like Hats Off gets screwed by the algorithm. Sometimes I won't see the video show up on my feed.

I’m guilty of that too. I didn’t care for Besser because he was so childish and wimpy to me. I always favored Shemp and Larry. I had nothing against him personally of course.

YES! Three Stooges Infinity War!

Ted H: “There was an idea….”

Enter the Stoogieverse where all the versions of the Stooges meet.

Yeah, but they're all dead now. They'd need to use some sort of Robonic Stooges or something.

If only...Add in Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers for good measure!

Do a little research and you can find all kinds of things about Ted Healy.

@@pappabunny Well yeah, but it would be nice to have all that info condensed into a neat little package called a KZfaq video. *☺️*

The scripts had been declining for a long time, even while Curly was still performing. Meanwhile television was making two-reelers obsolete. Besser was a bad fit for the Stooges, and Moe wanted Joe DeRita (who would have been marginally better), but Columbia forced Besser into the act to fulfill its remaining contractual obligations both to Besser and the Stooges. There's nobody to blame for this. It was what it was.

I just looked it up. Joe was Matt's first cousin twice removed

​@@Phantomphan613Yes, Matt's grandfather was Joe's cousin.

I always disliked that character. acted like a flamboyant homosexual.

Yeah, but back then it was considered as being eccentric. He wasn't telling anyone to be gay.@@Mattology1

Having been so used to seeing the shorts from the Depression and WWII, it's definitely weird (in a good way) to hear them refer to Elvis and Rock & Roll.

Yeah

@@Mibbitmaker I think that short came out in 1957 so that was topical at the time

@@Mibbitmaker I mean the three stooges have been making those shorts for nearly 30 years by that point so they reference stuff that was current at the time

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Larry had a stroke, not died, then Emil Sitka was sought to replace Larry. During this, Moe would have a stroke as well, not died. Moe and Larry lived on for several years after the Stooges act was formally retired.

@@KoopaMedia64 Yes. I remember when Larry died, then Moe shortly after. It choked me up. I was a teenager and wished that I had been alive during their formative years.

I'm confused as to who the 3 surviving stooges were after you take away Moe, Curly, and Shemp Howard and Larry Fine. I'm only counting 2.

@@raphaelargus2984 *Curly Joe (DeRita)* was the 6th stooge. He joined Larry and Moe after Joe Besser left the act to care for his sick wife.

@@grantorino2325 Right, I was counting DeRita and Besser as the two, the only Stooges I knew of other than the three Howard brothers plus Larry.

Nah. Shemp is definitely worthy of inclusion with Larry, Moe, and Curly.

All

No Men in Black or In The Sweet Pie and Pie?

I always dislike that character

I don’t think he’s as hated as DeRita. Definitely not popular. To me it’s always been that he’s so out of place.

DeRita is the most disliked and for good reason. Just a blatant Curly rip off. At least Joe was his own character, albeit it very mediocre, but unique

@@nick56677 Yeah. Besser at least seems like a sweet man who’s happy to be there and is trying. It’s hard to “hate” Joe. DeRita seems more… opportunistic? Cynical? I don’t know. I just never liked DeRita.

​​@@MoonMonkeyMCMI think it's cause whereas Besser actually liked working with the Stooges and only backed out because he had to care for his sick wife, DeRita saw it more as work and although he liked working with Moe and Larry, he never found the actual routines funny. He himself commented on the humor.

They had some tv pilots, but none of them took off. Their last attempt at tv was a series named Kooks Tour, but was cut short after Larry had his stroke.

I can only name maybe TWO Besser shorts that were watchable.

@@Tornado1994 I see. Fascinating, I’m sure…

I think his co-authors worked on Moe's autobiography.

With this Besser mini-doc, I assume DeRita is next, and then Moe will be the grand finale.

​@calvinkatt662 I hope there will be another video on actors of Three Stooges cartoons such as Joe Palma or Emil Sitka.