The Three Stooges in popular culture

The Three Stooges' comedy routines have inspired generations of tributes in other media. The following information is a partial list of such tributes. Depending on the form of media used, there are direct and indirect references to the Three Stooges. Beginning with the Stooges themselves as the trio did make small guest appearances in movies or in small bumper clips for their cartoon series. Clips from the Stooges shorts are sometimes featured in the actual footage of a movie, TV show, or advertisement, or the line from the 1934 short Men in Black, "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard" is used. Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard (Or Curly Joe DeRita) appeared as cartoon versions of themselves.

The indirect references are harder to spot. These are the ones that fans of the shorts would instantly recognize, but another viewer not familiar with the series may not recognize. A careful viewing of all the original shorts reveals that each of the Stooges had his own signature haircut, catchphrase, and action. The easiest reference would be simply talking about the Stooges, or accusing another character of acting or reminding them of the Stooges.

Each Stooge had his own signature insult or catchphrase. While very rarely did any of the other Stooges insult Moe or injure him, Moe did come up with the most insults of the entire group. He frequently called Larry a porcupine. He used other insults such as mongoose, dope, hyena, applehead, soft-boiled egghead, grapehead, frizzletop, and birdbrain. While the catchphrases for each Stooges such as Moe's use of "Remind me to kill you later", Curly's with "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" or "woob, woob, woob", Shemp Howard's noise babbling, and Joe Besser's "Not so hard!", are nearly always paired with the signature haircut of the same Stooge.

For their haircuts, Moe had a bowl cut, Larry was bald on the top of his head with his remaining hair frizzled out, Shemp had a more loose hairstyle (It frequently fell into his face), while Curly, Joe, and Curly-Joe were all bald. Characters could appear in groups of three, sporting the signature haircuts.

Each Stooge developed his own signature action and reaction. Moe would frequently eye-poke the others, to which they developed a signature hand block. He always slapped one of the others. Curly had a shuffle where he would spin on the floor. Larry played the violin. Joe would always give a soft punch to the arm while using his catchphrase. So characters may also act like the Stooges using their signature phrases and actions.

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