Joe Besser

So it says that Sammy Petrillo is on the bill, and I can't make it.

So I go before the show, and I see that the Joe Besser stinky lookalikes are already lining up outside.

So I know I'm missing something big.

I go to the box office.

What an unrealistic thought in showbiz when you've only been famous for a handful of years.

You can count on one hand and you think this could all disappear overnight.

How many Joe Besser impersonators were there in 1950 as opposed to 1992?

I'm always fascinated by unmade projects, unfinished things, or lost things.

Freeze as well.

And then there's a real small moment of Joe Besser from the Three Stooges.

Oh, my gosh.

How did I miss

And he was, I'm going to geek out on this too, because I'm a big Three Stooges fan as well.

Another box set that I very gladly have.

But Joe Besser, he was already an established player at Columbia at his own series of shorts.

And when Shemp passed away, they needed someone to bring in.

There's yeah.

Three stooges, but there's also Joe Besser and then there's Joe Dorita or curly Joe.

Yeah.

So that song, I mean, the fact that it's a musical in the first place, the introduction, I love the scenes cutting from live action to animation and how seamlessly beautiful those scenes are.

Open up, it's

Joe Besser! Yeah!

Hello, everybody.

And if I got it, honey, you got it, I don't care what it is.

Him and Curly were both amazing.

And then you get fucking Joe Besser, which Joe Besser's fine on Abbott and Costello, but you don't need such a pinch guy with the stooges.

Mm-hmm.

I always felt like Curly Joe was just, we need a fat, bald fuck.

[laughs] Uh, he also provided comic relief in many horror films, like The Strange Case of Dr. Rx, where he teamed with Shemp Howard.

And according to legend, Morlin was almost a replacement Stooge when Shemp died, but Moe Howard was vetoed by Columbia, who wanted their contract player, Joe Besser.

Oh, right.

And I think Ma- Matlin Morlin would've been a better Stooge, 'cause I...

Joe Besser, you know, I never did like him in the Three Stooges.

[laughs]

I know.

Open up.

It's Joe Besser.

Ah! Woo-hoo.

Hello,

Of course.

And there was a line of Stinkys outside the door, of people dressed up as Joe Besser, as Stinky.

Not so hard.

So I can't make it that night, and I, I have that record that you have over there.