The Three Stooges: Clown Princes of Jewish Slapstick Comedy

Experience the lives and times of brothers Moe, Curly, and Shemp Howard and their friend Larry Fine, the group that ruled the comic world from the 1930s to the 1960s. The original threesome included Moe, Curly and Larry, with Shemp taking Curly’s place at his untimely death at age 48.  In this lecture, Richie Unterberger presents an appreciation of their immense body of work by showing and discussing selected film clips. 

All the members of the Stooges were Jewish and their humor while not inherently Jewish included choice Yiddish words and other schtick. They also audaciously delved into political commentary in their 1940 film You Nazty Spy! in which Moe appeared as Hitler, Curly took on the dual roles of Mussolini and Goring and Larry impersonated Goebbels. The film was not only released a few months before Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Moe went the extra step with his portrayal of Hitler by having him wildly exclaiming his world view in Yiddish.  

Rock historian Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley, and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His latest book, San Francisco: Portrait of a City, was published by Taschen in 2022.