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Definition: A test that asks: Is this movie able to hold the attention of a reasonable person more than three minutes? History: Improvisational invention of Johnny Cason on the “Tonight Show” in 1968. The gag was that no reasonable person watching the Three Stooges for the first time could last more than three minutes. Carson envisioned a first-timer watching the scene in which Mo and Larry are socializing with bankers and their wives at a black-tie reception. A conversational faux pas by Larry prompts Mo to whack Larry upside the head. Anyone unfamiliar with the Stooges would react as the bankers and their wives did, i.e., WTF!? Add a few seconds for the first-timer to marvel at such things as Larry’s pattern balding, and three minutes is about right. What made the Stooges Test memorable were reports (false) that Carson said “Salt and Pepper” (1968), a movie starring Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford, failed the Stooges Test. (That crack actually came from guest Al Capp.) So stung were the two Rat Packers that they enlisted Jerry Lewis to direct the sequel “One More Time” (1970). Sadly the best review “One More Time” received called it “as memorable as amnesia.” Related Terms: H-2-4 nickpic make-out movie vinnyprice wart Return To Hollywood Lexicon Index |
Stooges Test