Koz blog.

I've been posting entirely too much about the likes of The Sun Also Rises and Citizen Kane lately, so it's time to turn my attention to another long-lasting cultural icon, the Three Stooges. I've mentioned them before (Dec 1, 2003), but it's time to re-visit, especially since Lilly and I have made it a habit recently to watch a show on Saturday nights called Stooge-a-palooza, which, as it turns out, is a local show produced locally, for a local audience.

Moreover, it airs on an independent UHF station: WCIU, Channel 26. I discovered that business fact recently, and it was like finding a genuine, locally owned diner, or a non-chain motel run as a family business. Mostly, WCIU airs schlock sitcom reruns from the '80s or other low-budget comedy -- Judge Judy et al. -- like that old diner might serve mostly greasy hamburgers and fries. But it also shows Stooge-a-palooza, which offers a different set of Columbia Stooge shorts each week, plus commentary from the show's host and producer, Rich Koz.

Koz has been a Chicago-market TV producer and host since the '70s, and also hosts (wearing a lot more makeup) a bad horror and/or SF movie show right after Stooge-a-palooza. When I say bad, I mean really bad, not campy bad, or some other interpretation. I suppose Koz and WCIU get what they can, cheap.

Anyway, Koz reads mail to the Stooge show on the air every week, and this time I was inspired to write my own letter:

Dear Mr. Koz,
I watch Stooge-a-palooza with my six-year-old daughter Lilly, who loves the show. You're doing your part to make Stooge fans of the next generation.

Last week you mentioned songs with the Stooges in their lyrics, but I didn't hear you mention Timbuk3's "Hairstyles and Attitudes," which goes like this:

"I've done lots of research.
It may be just hype, but the latest findings cause me to tremble.
They categorize us into three basic types,
According to which of the Three Stooges you most closely resemble."

Also, though it isn't a song lyric, humorist P.J. O'Rourke wrote: "All of existence can be analyzed in terms of the Three Stooges -- everything in life being either stupid and nasty (Moe), stupid (Larry), or very, very stupid indeed (Curly)."