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50 free The Three Stooges trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Three Stooges ran from a 1922 vaudeville act called Ted Healy and His Stooges to 190 two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures, and their films have not left American television since 1958. Six men played a Stooge, but only three at a time, and Moe Howard and Larry Fine were the constants. This quiz covers the Healy years and Soup to Nuts, how Curly got his name, Harry Cohn's yearly scare tactics, You Nazty Spy!, Curly's stroke and Shemp's return, the fake Shemp, Joe Besser's no-hitting clause and the Curly Joe comeback features. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who grew up on the shorts, a third are medium and the rest are for Stooge completists. Every answer is checked against the act's reference history.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01For which studio did the Three Stooges make their famous 190 comedy shorts?
Columbia Pictures
They stayed 24 years and, thanks to Harry Cohn's scare tactics, never once asked for a raise.
Q 02Which two Stooges were the constants across the act's entire 1922–1970 run?
Moe Howard and Larry Fine
Six men were Stooges over the years, but only three at any one time.
Q 03Under which vaudeville comedian did the act begin in 1922?
Ted Healy
Healy sang or told jokes while his noisy stooges interrupted, and he retaliated with abuse.
Q 04What does the show-business term "stooge" originally mean?
An on-stage assistant
Healy's act was also billed as His Southern Gentlemen and His Racketeers.
Q 05What was the first Hollywood feature film Ted Healy and His Stooges appeared in, in 1930?
Soup to Nuts
Fox singled out the Stooges and offered them a contract without Healy, who furiously got it withdrawn.
Q 06What instrument did Larry Fine play as a vaudeville comedian before joining the act?
Violin
He joined Healy sometime between 1925 and 1928.
Q 07What was Curly Howard's real first name?
Jerome
He was the youngest Howard brother and joined in 1932 when Shemp left.
Q 08What did a freshly shaved Jerry Howard say that Healy misheard as Curly?
"Boy, do I look girly"
Healy had said the long-haired, mustached Jerry did not look funny.
Q 09How did Jerry Howard look before he shaved his head to become Curly?
Long chestnut-red hair
He kept the handlebar mustache for a while after the haircut.
Q 10With which studio did Healy and his stooges sign in 1933, making shorts like Nertsery Rhymes?
MGM
Nertsery Rhymes used an early two-color Technicolor process and recycled MGM musical footage.
Q 11Which 1933 MGM musical featured the Stooges alongside Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Fred Astaire?
Dancing Lady
Their last film with Healy was Hollywood Party in 1934, after which the partnership ended.
Q 12What was the Stooges' first short for Columbia in 1934?
Woman Haters
One account says they got $1,000 between them for it before signing a $7,500-per-film term contract.
Q 13Which Columbia president kept the Stooges unaware of their popularity for 23 years?
Harry Cohn
His yearly mantra was that the market for comedy shorts was dying out.
Q 21Which 1943 short is considered the team's most violent?
They Stooge to Conga
Spook Louder, by contrast, is often called one of their weakest for its rehashed jokes.
Q 22Who was the Stooges' primary on-screen foil, playing the Nazi ringleader in No Dough Boys?
Vernon Dent
He appeared opposite the trio in dozens of shorts.
Q 23Why did Moe reject Columbia's 1935 offer to star the Stooges in a full-length feature?
He thought slapstick worked better in shorts
He said it was hard enough stealing gags for two-reelers without making a seven-reeler.
Q 14How many shorts per year did the Stooges' Columbia schedule call for?
Eight
They were filmed within 40 weeks, leaving 12 weeks free for family or touring the live act.
Q 15Which director made more than three dozen Stooge films at Columbia?
Del Lord
Jules White directed dozens more, and his brother Jack White used the pseudonym Preston Black.
Q 16Hoi Polloi (1935), with a professor betting he can refine the trio, borrows from which play?
Pygmalion
The plot was reused twice, as Half-Wits Holiday in 1947 and Pies and Guys in 1958.
Q 17Which 1938 short features the musical interlude "Swingin' the Alphabet"?
Violent Is the Word for Curly
It was directed by silent-comedy star Charley Chase.
Q 18In A Plumbing We Will Go (1940), what do the Stooges nearly destroy?
A socialite's mansion
Water pours from every appliance, including an early television set; it was remade twice.
Q 19Which 1940 short lampooned Hitler while America was still neutral?
You Nazty Spy!
Moe, Larry and director Jules White considered it their best film.
Q 20What was the name of Moe's Hitler-like dictator in You Nazty Spy!?
Moe Hailstone
Curly played a Göring type covered in medals and Larry a Goebbels-style propaganda minister.
Q 24On the set of which film did Curly suffer the stroke that ended his career on May 6, 1946?
Half-Wits Holiday
It ended a 14-year career; he made only one more brief on-screen appearance.
Q 25Which 1947 short is the only film with all four original Stooges on screen at once?
Hold That Lion!
Curly visited the set and Jules White had him do a cameo for fun; it was recycled in Booty and the Beast.
Q 26How many shorts did Shemp make with the Stooges after returning in 1946?
76
He also split a low-budget Western feature, Gold Raiders, with cowboy star George O'Brien.
Q 27Which director joined in 1945 and let Shemp develop his own Stooge persona?
Edward Bernds
He directed Brideless Groom, Who Done It? and his own favourite, Punchy Cowpunchers.
Q 28What was the title of the 1949 ABC pilot for a Stooges TV series that Columbia blocked?
Jerks of All Trades
Columbia allowed guest appearances on shows like Texaco Star Theater but not their own series.
Q 29Where had Shemp been on the night he died in a taxi, November 22, 1955?
A boxing match
His daughter-in-law confirmed it was a massive cerebral hemorrhage, not the heart attack often reported.
Q 30Which actor doubled for Shemp, shot from behind, in four shorts after his death?
Joe Palma
Disguising one actor as another outside stunt shots is now called a fake Shemp.