Review of "The Three Stooges 01: Shemptastic Shemptacular"

 Review of

The Three Stooges 01: Shemptastic Shemptacular, American Mythology Productions

Three out of five stars

The three (four) maniacs in a modern setting

   There is no more classic slapstick comedy than what the Three Stooges put forward. Theirs was an act that was predictable, yet never ceased to be entertaining. Extreme facial expressions, unusual sound effects and overdone sight gags were their forte and nobody did the facial expressions better than the members of this comedy team.

 Although the group was led on and off camera by Moe Howard, the real star was the all-to-short lived Curly Howard. His classic running in circles while flat on the floor is one of the greatest of all routines and could be considered an early form of break dancing. My young relatives and I tried doing this when we were young, and it is not an easy thing to do.

 This comic tries to recapture the zaniness of the Stooges and falls short. Some of it is the nature of modern comedy while other issues are the weakness of the plot. Stooges situations do not translate well to the written/comic form.

 The first story has all four of the main stooges, Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp. It is set in the modern world with cell phones and Segways. Of course, the Segway is used in a gag sequence that involves spitting out a hotdog and pulling down the pants of an evil muscleman. The second has Moe, Larry and Shemp in a more classical Stooges tale, where they are inept house painters that do more damage than good. The third has the same three in a tale where they are once again bumbling fools yet manage to emerge victorious over a greedy con man at the end.

 As a fan of the Stooges in my youth, I was interested in reading this first story in what is a reboot via comic book. Given the style of Stooges comedy, it is hard to reproduce it in comic form. While this issue does have some good points, it just doesn’t do the masters justice.