Rating: - A WELL-WRITTEN ANALYSIS OF THE STOOGES
There have been a lot of books written about the Three Stooges but they've been primarily biographical works or episode guides, etc...Stoogeology isn't a fannish book, although Stooges fans will love it, but rather this is a serious look at their work...a critical analysis. That said, don't fear that this is a long-winded and dry affair. There's a lot of humor and wit as editors Peter Seely and Gail W. Pieper present some 19 essays on all facets of the Stooges career and their films, giving new insights into the team and its various members over their forty-year span.

One of the best essays is Discovered Treasures. Here, Seely examines a number of Stooge shorts and presents scenes that were scripted, sometimes even filmed, but never made it into the final cut. For instance, there was an excised scene from one of their earliest shorts, "Pardon my Scotch" in which the boys are running a drug store while the owner is out. Before the customer comes in who discovers their famous alcoholic drink, they wait on another customer who orders a raspberry flip! Curly proceeds to give him the raspberry. Another customer stops in to request a ham sandwich to go. There are numerous scenes like this that are examined and are almost like getting a whole new Stooges short.

Another Essay deals with various errors, flubs, editing, and continuity errors in Stooges shorts and touches on the many remakes the stooges did over the years, often recycling footage from many years earlier with hilarious results when you can easily tell how much younger...and thinner the Stooges were.

Don Morlan's essay, "A Pie in the Face" examines how many of the Stooges depression era shorts were not too subtle shots at the upper class of society. Those pie fights didn't happen in a pool hall, after all. It was the wealthy who were often the recipients of pies in the face, or mud, or whatever the Stooges happened to have at their finger tips. One of their earliest attacks on high society occurred in "Hoi Polloi" when a wealthy man tries to turn the stooges into gentleman. And of course, there is "Three Little Beers" where the stooges wreak havoc on the upper crust at a golf course, virtually destroying the course. Still later, the Stooges as plumbers manage to wreck a mansion and ruin a party in "A Plumbing We Will Go." And you thought the Stooges were just mindless entertainment!

There is an entire section devoted to a look at the Stooges war shorts. Few actors were as brazen as the Stooges were when it came to mocking Hitler in films such as "I'll Never Heil Again" and "You Nazty Spy!" The Stooges were at the forefront in fighting WWII, even before the U.S. joined the war. There are also essays on how various races and ethnic groups were portrayed in Stooges shorts as well as women.

Stoogeology is well-researched and very well-written. This is a book that has the utmost respect for the Stooges and their work, without coming off as pompous. A must have for fans of the Three Stooges.

Reviewed by Tim Janson