The first Three Stooges movie, Soup to Nuts, premiered on September 28, 1930. The anniversary brings up the age-old question: why do men think the Stooges are hilariously funny when women think they're just plain stupid?

First let me say: that idea is bald-faced balderdash. Believe it or not, I think the Stooges were hilarious. In fact, lots of women love the Stooges. I'm not even sure I could be friends with someone who didn't love Larry, Moe, and Curly. (Shemp, too!)

But this gender bending puzzle was apparently a serious enough issue for the National Institutes of Health to fund a Stanford University professor's research into the matter, which was dubbed the "Mars/Venus" humor study. The study showed that men and women use the same network in the brain when deciding if something is funny, but "men are less discriminating." 

Stanford isn't alone in trying to figure out why the Stooges appeal to more men than women. One blogger even wrote that the trio employed the "literary power of three" and that they embodied the "Stages of Man". (Seriously - I didn't make that up.) I read his entire literary analysis - part of which compares "Nyuk-Nyuk, Woob-Woob" to the classic "Le Morte de Arthur"  (The Death of King Arthur) - before I reached the same conclusions any reasonable person would: 1) His analysis didn't solve the question and 2) the man must be barking mad. 

This blogger only has this to say: whether you're male or female, the Stooges were just plain funny: The stories were good. The humor was visual. The slapstick was perfectly executed. The characters had chemistry, which (the 2012 movie showed us) may never be seen again. 

I still love watching the old movies with my friends, my family, and even the kids. I can say with all confidence (no scientific study necessary) that the men and women alike  still laugh at the Three Stooges - 87 years after Soup to Nuts.