Heartwarming / The Three Stooges

• In Real Life Moe made Larry and Curly give him part of their paychecks each time. He then put it in a savings account for them, doing so because he knew of Larry's gambling addiction and Curly spending his money on ladies and booze. Because of this all of them were able to retire, and Curly was able to get the medical care he needed after his stroke.
• Shemp, having had enough of Ted Healy, decided to leave the Stooges and pursue a solo career. Though he was hesitant about it, Moe encouraged him to go for it. Not only did Shemp have a successful solo career, but his departure allowed Curly to join the Three Stooges.
  • After Curly's stroke that forced him to retire, Shemp willingly gave up his solo career and returned to the Stooges, because he knew Moe and Larry would be unemployed if he didn't.
  • The culmination of this was the short "Hold That Lion!," in which the retired Curly made a cameo appearance. That was the only time all three of the Howard/Horwitz brothers appeared in a Stooges short.^note Curly also made a cameo appearance in "Malice in the Palace," but the scene was cut from the final print.
• In Real Life, when not performing, Curly was often melancholy and withdrawn... Except when he was around his older brother Shemp. Widely acknowledged as the most gregarious and friendly of the boys off screen, Shemp had an ability to raise Curly's morale by joking around with him and later on by not treating him as an invalid after his stroke. Moe stated that when he was ill, his eyes only lit up when Shemp would visit.
• Generally, whenever the Stooges encounter someone with a problem, they will immediately focus on fixing the problem for them, even though they have no personal stake in doing so.
  • And they'll go to pretty extreme lengths to fix things, too.
  • One example is in the video game, where they immediately offer to help raise money to save an orphanage from being repossessed.
• The Stooges when at their most heroic. In "Nutty but Nice", they try to reunite an ill girl with her kidnapped father; it's one of the few shorts to have an unambiguously happy ending.
• "Disorder in the Court," while having the typical Stooge antics, centers around them doing their best to help prove a fellow entertainer innocent of murder.
• In "Loco Boy Makes Good", the Stooges beat up a crooked landlord and steal a watch off of him to aid an old lady with her hotel, and and the boys provide live entertainment, too!
• In "Cash and Carry", the boys try to find gold treasure to help a lady fund her brother's leg surgery.
• "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise" has the guys, grateful for a lovely meal from a kind lady, trying to fix a water pump in return. They then discover oil on the land while doing so, and learn the lady was swindled out of her land before they arrived. Needless to say, they're outraged and immediately go off to retrieve the deed. Moe's genuine anger when he says "Why, you've been SWINDLED!" seals it. It too, is another short to have an unambiguously happy ending.
• In "Have Rocket, Will Travel," the boys' friendship and genuine respect for Dr. Naarveg, along with their fear of her losing her job is what drives the three janitors to (successfully) mix up a batch of rocket fuel.
• In real-life, Curly was fond of dogs. So much so, that whenever the Stooges found strays on tours, he always attempted to take them in and give them a proper home. Thanks to him, 3000 lost puppies were adopted into loving, caring homes.
• Despite knocking them around in every short, Moe will notice now and then that he has hit Larry or Curly because he wasn't paying attention, will stop what what he was doing and apologize immediately.
• Whenever The Stooges get to have a rest, they always do so in the same bed. Even if there are enough beds available for everyone, they'll squeeze themselves into a single, seemingly for no other reason than they prefer it that way. While certainly Played for Laughs, it's just as certainly adorable.

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