I had always had fond memories of the Three Stooges from my childhood because 1) I'm a guy and 2) my brothers and I used to watch the Stooges on a little black and white TV after school in the upstairs of my parents' Five and Dime Store. (The store was housed in an old movie theater and our hangout was what had been the balcony. Every once in a while we'd get too rowdy up there and then we'd send a lookout to peer fearfully over the balcony wall to make sure Dad was not stomping his way back towards the stairs on his way to give us what-for. The Stooges kept us relatively quiet.)
So I was all excited to share this bit of my childhood - and pure comic genius - with my first born son ... even though he was hardly communicating at the time. I carried Caleb to the living room, popped the video into the VCR, turned on the TV and sat back on the floor behind him to observe his reaction. Larry, Moe and Curly were in the midst of one of their fights: Moe slapping Curly and then pulling Larry's hair, all three poking each other in the eyes, twisting each other's noses, etc. Hilarious stuff (no matter what the women say!).
Caleb stared at the screen for a minute, turned to look at me over his shoulder, then glanced back at the TV before turning completely around and waddling toward me.
I thought, "Well, I shoulda known his attention span would be too short for him to GET the Stooges."
I opened my arms wide as he approached me...
He grinned...
Pulled his right hand back...
And sucker-punched me in the face.
I couldn't have been prouder! That's my boy!
Now the video needs to go into the garage sale tub. Maybe some lucky kid will pick it up for fifty cents, take it home and discover for himself - maybe for the first time - the pure joy of random violence among imbeciles...
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