Three Stooges,Two Farrellys? Soitainly

The Farrellys early hits may have demonstrated the financial viability of toilet humouran epiphany that haunts us to this daybut the brothers have always resisted the gross-out tag. Their movies thrive on a distinctive mix of profanity and pathos. Their underdog heroes include some of the more sympathetic incarnations of the comic man-child: Ben Stillers smitten suitor in Theres Something About Mary (1998); the sexually frustrated married men (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) of last years Hall Pass. Their put-upon schmoes are often coping with conditions more serious than arrested development. Woody Harrelsons bowler in Kingpin (1996) has a prosthetic hand. Jim Carreys state trooper in Me,Myself and Irene (2000) has multiple-personality disorder.

The Farrellys outrageous gags and their obsession with bodily functions (or rather malfunctions) are well documented. Less remarked upon is the sly double-edged effect of their films,where color-blind casting or the use of actors with disabilities can function equally as sight gag and social comment. As the brothers see it,the capacity to experience pain,misery and humiliation is an endless and unifying source of both humor and poignancy.

Which is where Moe,Larry and Curly come in.

The Farrellys discovered the Stooges on TV. In my lifetime no one has brought me more laughs than the Three Stooges, Peter Farrelly said. The kinship is not hard to explain: the Stooges were the ultimate underdogs. They never got the first-class treatment they deserved, Peter Farrelly said,Every kid in my neighborhood knew and loved the Stooges.

The Stooges have always had their cultists,who found them in reruns and on home video. (The nearly 200 shorts they cranked out for Columbia from 1934 to 1959 are available in DVD boxed sets.). Various biographical accounts have recounted the story of the Stooges. Its a sad tale of ill health,disruptive personnel changes and constant exploitation.

The Farrellys film avoids this biopic fodder,opting instead to channel the knockabout energy of the best-known Stooges shorts. In the film,Moe,Larry and Curly,resolve to save the orphanage where they grew up and the film thrusts its hapless heroes into a murder plot and somehow lands Moe on the TV show,Jersey Shore.

The reality-TV twist may seem incongruous,but topical satire was part of the Stooges arsenal; they often spoofed the westerns and war movies of the day. They had to look the same,sound the same,talk the same,dress the same. The Farrellys also painstakingly preserved the famous sound effects: the boinks and thumps of all those head smacks and eye pokes and sledgehammers to the skull.

While Farrelly said that he and his brother have never had anything resembling a career plan,he conceded,Sometimes people see where youre coming from,and you have to go in a different direction. In the past the brothers have resisted the temptation to revisit their biggest hits. Studio bosses floated a Theres Something Else About Mary,Farrelly said,but it wasnt natural it seemed like a money grab. The brothers also turned down the 2003 prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd.

But their next film will be Dumb and Dumber 2,reuniting Carrey and Daniels. Now that theyre nearly two decades into their career,Farrelly said,it seemed like a good time to be getting back to what we used to do.

He added,I hope we return to the old box-office grosses too.