From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Punch Drunks
Punch Drunks title card
Directed by	Lou Breslow
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Jack Cluett
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Chuck Callahan William Irving Jack "Tiny" Lipson Dorothy Granger Al Hill Billy Bletcher Arthur Houseman Larry McCrath George Gray A.R. Heysel Dorothy Vernon
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Editing by	Robert Carlisle
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 13, 1934
Running time	17 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Preceded by	Woman Haters (1934)
Followed by	Men in Black (1934)
IMDb profile

Punch Drunks is a 1934 Three Stooges short film, the second in Columbia Pictures' Stooges series.

It was written by The Three Stooges themselves (their only on-screen writing credits for the Columbia shorts) and directed by Lou Breslow.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Notes 3 Quotes 4 Further reading 5 External links

In this short, Moe finds that Curly can be a boxing star when Larry plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" on the violin. When he hears the tune, Curly blacks out and goes crazy, which is why Moe feels he would be such a good fighter. So the three join together and create a team. But things go awry when Larry's violin breaks.

The short is notable as being one of the very few in which the Stooges are not an established trio at the beginning of the film, but rather meet up through happenstance.

The "Pop Goes the Weasel" gag was later reused by the Stooges (with Curly-Joe DeRita) in their 1960's feature film The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze.

The short ends with the playing of the song "Pop Goes The Weasel", which would later become one of the Stooges opening theme songs.

The world championship is between Killer Kilduff and K.O. Stradavarius. The fight lasts four rounds.

This is the first of several Stooge shorts in which a normally passive Curly sees, hears, or smells something that triggers a violent reaction in him.

• Radio announcer: "And now, little kiddies, Uncle Dan will tell you about the time that Fuzzy Bear met Petey Porcupine at the old tree stump in the woods right next to Peter Rabbit's gingerbread house."

• • Moe (giving his lunch order): "Four slices of burnt toast and a rotten egg."
  • Curly: "Burnt toast and a rotten egg?"
  • Moe: "Yeah."
  • Curly: "What do you want that for?"
  • Moe: "I got a tapeworm and it's good enough for him."
  • Curly (patting Moe): "I know how you feel."

• Moe: "Wise guy, eh?" - recurring line

• Curly: "I'm a victim of circumstance!" ('soycumstance') - recurring line

• Moe (looking at Larry and Curly): "From now on, we're a corporation!"

• • Woman (sitting in a car that's stuck in the ditch): "I'm in a terrible dilemma."
  • Moe (thinking that's the car's model): "Yeah, I don't care much for these foreign cars, either."
  • Woman: "No, you don't understand. I'm stuck."
  • Moe: "On me? What a coincidence!"
  • Woman: No, I'm stuck in the mud!
  • Moe: Oh. OK.

• • Moe: "Give me a hand."
  • Curly (extending hands): "Which one?"

• • Moe (seeing Curly's shaking leg): "What's the matter? You nervous, toots?"
  • Curly (scared, pointing to his leg): "No, only in that leg."

• Moe: "Get back in there or I'll tear your tonsils out!" - recurring line

• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [1], (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006)

• Punch Drunks at the Internet Movie Database
• ThreeStooges.com