Of course the money needs a reason to circulate. If Larry had done work for Moe and thus forward, then these debts could be valid and payment could be made. The error would be to believe that it would circulate without a reason.
Just go to Congress on any day and film what they do. It’s exactly the same and they are usually a lot more stupid than the three stooges. I always figured the 3 stooges had to be brilliant in order to carry off all those gags. I would not say the same about the morons in Congress.
RE: “Is that the $20 you owe me?”
Do you remember how they ended this circular question? Who started hitting who first? :)
There’s a similar situation in the Marx Brothers’ A Day At The Races. The sheriff is asking Chico for money. Chico hands him five bucks. Harpo, behind the sheriff, steals the money from him and passes it back to Chico to give to the sheriff again.
As the money changes hands, it shrinks.
The government takes out sales taxes and income taxes with every exchange.
Here’s how the economy really works......
A visiting tourist drives through a really small town, stops at a small motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.
As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the $100 bill and runs next door and gives the $100 to the butcher to pay his debt.
Now that the butcher has been paid he takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay the $100 to the rancher who supplies his meat.
The rancher takes the $100 and heads off to pay his head cowhand who he owes $100 to.
The cowhand owes his sister money and so takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to his sister who is staying at the motel.
His sister takes the money and rushes to the motel and pays the motel owner who she owned $100 to.
The motel owner then places the $100 back on the counter so the tourist will not suspect anything.
At that moment the tourist comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
The motel owner got $100 from the sister, the butcher got $100 from the motel owner, the rancher got $100 from the butcher, the cowhand got $100 from the rancher, and the sister of the cowhand got $100 from the cowhand. $500 was collected and paid out and everyone was paid and is happy.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
They did a routine similar to the one you described in a short called “A Merry Mix-Up”, with Joe Besser as the third stooge. They may have done the same bit in an earlier film - the Stooges often recycled routines, and sometimes entire scripts (along with old footage), especially in their later years at Columbia when their film budget was next to nothing.
“Niagra Falls!
“Slowly I turned...”
My grandfather Cy Schindell was an actor in many of the stooge films.
Among the comedians, they were the ‘Three Stooges’.
Oh to have JUST three stooges in political office!
You might find a description of it here: http://sharetv.com/shows/the_three_stooges/episodes
If only Moe, Larry and Curly were here today, to run our country!
Over here, another fun Stooges thread:
10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Three Stooges
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3358172/posts