St. Louis Jews have had a long love affair with the Three Stooges. First, not counting Joe DeRita, they are all Jews, and Joe Besser is from St. Louis, and his family still lives here.

A month after its debut in 1959, KPLR TV began running Three Stooges comedy shorts as part of an after-school cartoon show. Then in the 1980s, they became a staple on Saturday nights. There is now a generation of 45-year-old and plussers who wax nostalgic for the Stooges, and I’m at the top of the list.

The Three Stooges have been making us laugh with their unique and sometimes painful brand of slapstick comedy since 1922. They made their mark in short subjects, television syndication, and full-length feature films, but like anything great, they faded due to changing times and technology.

Men in Black is the third Three Stooges short from Columbia Pictures. The trio made a total of 191 shorts between 1934 and 1959.

Release date

Plot

The Stooges have not graduated at the top of their medical school class. However. their love for medicine shines through work at the Los Arms Hospital, where even Dr. Graves class cannot stop them. The stooges go to the hospital, dispensing unorthodox medical advice and even end up flirting with the nurses. However, their surgical technique on the unwilling Dr. Graves proves bad for them, they have to do another year at medical school.

Cast

• Moe Howard – Dr. Moe Howard
• Larry Fine – Dr. Larry Fine
• Curley Howard – Dr. Curley Howard

Clip