The Three Stooges are perhaps best known as a revolving group of nihilists, hellbent on inflicting as much cruel, undeserved physical abuse as possible upon not only themselves, but also an untold number of innocent socialites and hapless academic types, with the occasional Nazi thrown in to balance the scales.
Their reign as the nation’s first pop-culturally relevant and beloved domestic terrorists lasted for well over two decades, with a residual wellspring of admiration that survives even to this day. They are single-handedly responsible for every child that ever hit their sibling with a hammer, or every girl who slapped both her parents across the faces in rapid succession.
A little-known fact about The Three Stooges has recently been unearthed, and it is perhaps their least-known and yet greatest contribution to the fabric of our society.
In 1940, the trio of triage released a short film, a documentary of sorts, entitled You Natzy Spy.
If this footage is to be believed (and not the work of some time-travelling prankster), then we have proof that the Three Stooges invented the Magic 8-Ball. Yes, the Magic 8-Ball.
Yet another import from Nazi Germany that helped America gain its global advantage, this Three Stooges short would eventually inspire Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman to claim to have independently invented this fortune-telling toy in 1950, a full decade after Larry, Moe, and Curly first debuted the prototype in a rare example of comedic shenanigans, a brief respite from their otherwise relentless campaign of maiming, burning, physically assaulting anyone who had the misfortune of standing in their general vicinity.
The Magic 8-Ball is currently manufactured by Mattel.
And that, if my pocketwatch is to be believed, brings us to The Three Stooges in Brides Is Brides, an arcade cabinet released in 1984. This arcade blockbuster features the three titular stooges pie-chucking and hammer-tossing their way through an 8-bit murder spree.
Or something, it’s not entirely clear what your objectives are, even after reading the nausea-inducing text pictured above… Aside from being an all-around menace and no-goodnik roustabout, of course. And considering the source material, perhaps that is as apt as it ever needed to be.
