Morsch Steals from Himself

Well, Morsch hasn't posted anything since August 5th - time for another trip down the cracked and crumbling facade that is Morsch's memory lane. Delving into the August 2009 Outta Leftfield archives, I stumbled upon this... suspiciously familiar article...

Friday, August 7, 2009
Nyuking it up at Ambler Theater

The title of Morsch's 2010 article: "Big nyuks on the big screen." It's almost frightening to see how little his art has advanced in a year.

Decades and generations later, funny is still funny.

Decades and generations later, this will still NOT be funny.

Take The Three Stooges, for example, which a full house of fans of all ages did recently at the Ambler Theater.

For the fifth year, The Three Stooges Fan Club and its president, Gary Lassin of Gwynedd Valley, hosted a Stooges film festival at the theater.

From the 2010 article: Thanks to the Ambler Theater and Gary Lassin, president of The Three Stooges Fan Club... that’s been an annual opportunity for local fans over the past several years. And as I noted at the time, Morsch has been to this event numerous times, and apparently written this exact same article numerous times as well.

Gary had told me in an interview to preview the event that when the Stooges filmed these “shorts” — named so because they ran from 16 to 18 minutes long as opposed to full-length feature films from the 1930s and 1940s — they were intended to be seen on the big screen rather than on television, because, well, there was no television at the time.

I do notice one difference between these articles: the 2010 version is much shorter. It's like Morsch has lost enthusiasm for even his trademark "informative lectures with information stolen from Wikipedia."

Television would later introduce the Stooges to another generation of fans in the 1960s and 1970s, when the short films were deemed perfect small-screen vehicles. The end result is that few baby-boomers and those younger have experienced the Stooges as they were intended to be seen — on the big screen.

From the 2010 article: There’s really nothing quite like seeing The Three Stooges as they were originally meant to be seen: on the big screen. Good God. Do you think Morsch is even consciously recycling his material here? Or is he just such a poor writer that he doesn't realize he's producing the same crap year in and year out?

So hats off to the Ambler Theater for providing local Stooges fans the opportunity to do just that.

Ooh, shades of his atrocious "evening out in Ambler" article! Will he rave about other local venues in this one as well? No, no, not when the Stooges are involved, surely.

Gary had suggested that it was a different experience to watch the Stooges with a theater full of people than it was to sit at home and nyuk it up by oneself while watching the Stooges on TV.

From the 2010 article: I’ve been to this event in the past, and the most enjoyable part for me is viewing the Stooges with an audience... it’s even more entertaining to have the real-life laugh track courtesy of a theater full of people to heighten the Stooges experience. How dare he. What awards has this column won again? A dog eats its own vomit and barfs it up again - Morsch is doing the literary equivalent here.

And he was right. The antics of the Stooges cracked up the crowd — and me, of course — especially that tried and true Stooges routine — the pie fight. People in the theater were not just giggling, but hooting, har-dee-har-har belly laughing.

That's too many dashes for one sentence. A colon would work just as well for the last one. I also find it hard to believe that people would be laughing out loud at a pie fight.

Despite having seen them many times over the years,

No kidding.

I enjoyed the five films that were shown — interspersed with comments from Gary about the history of each film and some things to watch for, like bloopers — but there was an exchange before the show started that I enjoyed even more.

We have two options here. 1.) A special guest star, like a Stooge impersonator. 2.) Something that is supposed to be funny but really isn't.

While I was sitting in the first row chatting with Gary beforehand, Gary’s parents walked down to the stage to greet him.

Looks like we're going with Option 2.

When I asked Mrs. Lassin if she was a fan before her son got heavily involved with the Stooges — Gary also is owner and curator of the Stoogeum, a museum of his personal collection of Stooges memorabilia in Springhouse — she replied, “Oh my, no.”

2010 article: Gary Lassin... curator of the fabulous Stoogeum museum in Spring House....

“She was one of the moms that didn’t mind the eye pokes on TV but insisted I didn’t run with scissors,” said Gary.

“I didn’t care what they did to each other,” replied Mrs. Lassin without missing a beat. “I cared about what happened to you.”

This doesn't even make sense. Of all the reasons for being upset when your son becomes obsessed with the Stooges, why pick "He might get hurt"? How about "He might become a social reject" or "He might one day be featured in a story by Michael Morsch"?

Soitenly spoken like a true mom.

Aaaaand BOOM. The payoff.

Labels: Ambler Theater, Mike Morsch, Montgomery Newspapers, Outta Leftfield, Stoogeum, Three Stooges

Not "The" Three Stooges - just Three Stooges.