Comedians from the early days of movies and television weren’t as prudish as people would have you believe. We’ve even touched on the fact that a few of them were able to slip some risqué jokes into their work every now and again (more about that here). But what comics back then were up to off-screen is perhaps even more telling for uncovering what their true sense of humor was like. Here are a few stories that paint a slightly different picture of the supposedly squeaky-clean humorists of the golden age of comedy.8. THE THREE STOOGES ON STAGEGary Lassin’s 2023 book, A Tour De Farce: The Complete History of the Three Stooges on the Road, chronicles the famous comedy trio’s stage performances over the course of five decades. One of the many interesting revelations in the 700+-page book is that the Stooges weren’t above incorporating off-color humor into their act in their early years. For example, they once included a joke in their stage show about Larry’s wife sending him a telegram saying, “Darling husband, not getting any better, come home at once.” Moe looks at it and tells him, “Larry, you’re not reading this right. It says, ‘Darling husband, not getting any, better come home at once.’” 7. LAUREL AND HARDY’S LOST GAY JOKEIn Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1931 short Be Big!, Ollie fools his wife into thinking he’s sick so that he and Stan can sneak off to a stag party. In the process of getting ready, Ollie gets Stan’s boot stuck on his foot, leading to a long, drawn-out sequence in which the two try to get it off of him. One particularly risqué gag from that scene was left out of the final film, as documented in Randy Skretvedt’s Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies: “As Stan determinedly tugs at the too-tight boot, he drags Ollie by the foot into the living room. Ollie’s cries of, ‘Cut it out! You’re hurting me!’ arouses the curiosity of a bellboy who’s strolling down the hall of the apartment building. He gets out a key and opens the door to find Stan and Ollie in what the script terms ‘a very funny position,’ struggling and groaning. Embarrassed, the bellboy says, ‘Excuse me!’ and makes a hasty exit.”6. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO’S OUTTAKESLou Costello of Abbott and Costello fame would often ruin scenes from their films on purpose so he could add footage to his personal blooper collection. In those outtakes, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the normally clean duo use words like “goddamn,” “son of a b—-h,” and “balls.” Genital references weren’t out of the ordinary, either, as evidenced by a few of the clips in the compilation below.5. DICK VAN DYKE’S BODILY FUNCTIONSWhile working together on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Carl Reiner used to get a kick out of encouraging Van Dyke to do all kinds of wacky pantomimic gags. “Just to see if he could do it,” Reiner said in The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, “I once challenged Dick to sneeze, cough, belch, fart, and hiccup—to do everything that the human body could possibly do—all within one second! And he did it! All at once. ‘Ugh-da-cough-wheez-hick-ah-bloo!’”4. RED SKELTON’S CAMERA STORE GAGSDespite turning down the lead role in The Sunshine Boys because he felt the script was too dirty, Red Skelton had a reputation for being pretty filthy off-screen. Skelton’s dress rehearsals were reportedly referred to as “The Dirty Hour” due to the kinds of jokes he would throw around to break everybody up. According to Garfield and Friends writer Mark Evanier, Skelton also liked to hang out at a camera store in Los Angeles and tell such jokes to anyone who would listen. One that Evanier recalled involved a man who was worried that having sex with his wife on top of a sack of potatoes would get him kicked out of his church. “Why would we throw you out of the church?” the priest asked him, to which the man replied, “Well, they threw us out of the Safeway.”3. ART CARNEY’S “WOUND”In Michael Seth Starr’s 1997 biography of Honeymooners star Art Carney, the legendary second banana is described as having been a bit of a prankster in his youth. During his school days, Carney apparently put horse manure in a gift box and gave it to a teacher he wasn’t fond of. “He was also circumcised rather late in life—when he was about twelve or so,” a childhood friend of his explained, “and he had a great time standing in a window of his house and showing off his ‘wound’ with lots of smart repartee.”2. JACKIE GLEASON’S PRANKSCarney’s Honeymooners co-star Jackie Gleason pulled off some pretty hilarious pranks in his day, too. As James Bacon points out in his 1985 book, How Sweet It Is: The Jackie Gleason Story, Gleason shared a hotel suite with boxer “Slapsie Maxie” Rosenbloom at one time. One evening, Rosenbloom fell asleep after inviting a prostitute to the room. Gleason then proceeded to paint his roommate’s penis red with Mercurochrome, effectively scaring him into thinking he’d gotten an STD from the hooker. Another time, Gleason put Tabasco sauce on one of Rosenbloom’s suppositories, resulting in the exact type of response you’d expect.1. THE “GREAT ONE” STRIKES AGAINGleason’s antics evidently didn’t end with pranking boxers. The comedian’s on-screen wife, Audrey Meadows, shared yet another funny anecdote about his unique sense of humor in her 1994 memoir Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner. On this occasion, Gleason was golfing with his producer, Jack Philbin, and two other men they were trying to win some money from. Philbin had with him a urine specimen jar he was supposed to fill up for a doctor’s appointment to check his sugar levels. When no one was looking, Gleason filled the jar with yellow Gatorade and chugged it right in front of their opponents. “I can’t find any sugar in there,” he joked. The guys they were playing with were so alarmed that they lost the game—and their money to boot.The post 8 Stories That Prove Early Comedians Had the Same Sense of Humor As Us appeared first on VICE.