The Three Stooges took on generative AI…in 1962

There is a lot of talk right now about generative AI (Artificial Intelligence). Unions representing both screenwriters and actors have recently been on strike with AI being one of their concerns.

For the actors, that includes the use of “generative AI” to create images of either specific human actors (living or dead) or computer generated ones (think of a scene in a restaurant where the main characters are talking and there are people eating in the background…the technology exists now to create those background actors from scratch, meaning human actors would not need to be hired).

Could any scientific visionary have anticipated the idea of actors recreated by computers? Isaac Asimov? Arthur C. Clarke? William Gibson?

How about The 3 Stooges…more than half a century ago?

The Stooges were seeing a renaissance (a word you immediately associate with The Stooges, right?) in the early 1960s, thanks to their old comedy shorts having been shown on TV. At this point, the “third stooge” was “Curly Joe” DeRita, with original stooges Moe and Larry still delivering the slapstick (although in 1962, Moe was about 65 years old).

They also made feature films, including The Three Stooges in Orbit (scripted by Norman Maurer and Edwood Ullman).

Emil Sitka, who had first worked with The Stooges in 1947 (15 years earlier), and who would have more than 50 credits with them, plays Lone Inventor Professor Danforth. Most of the focus is on a super vehicle he wants to sell to the military: it’s a tank, it flies, it goes underwater, and even into space. However, he’s also been working on “electronic cartoons” (“The most startling new process since the magic lantern!”). He shows us a cartoon of an owl on what appears to be an animation cel and proudly states that no artists were involved. He’s trying to animate it…generative AI!

That’s fortunate for The Stooges. They have a TV show (within the movie) where they introduce cartoons of themselves. This is based on a real life unsold 1960 pilot, Three Stooges Scrapbook, which includes a cartoon called The Spain Mutiny. We see a clip from it in the movie.

The producer tells them they need to come up with some novel concept for the cartoons or they’re out…Professor Danforth’s electronic cartoons would fit the bill.

This isn’t really a spoiler: we eventually see the “electronic cartoon”, which looks like it is The Three Stooges rotoscoped, but is supposed to be them generated electronically, most likely through some kind of text prompt (“Show The Three Stooges dancing”).

If they don’t mess it up, this would save their contract with the producer. Generative AI is not shown as a bad thing here.

There you have it! Fictional generative AI shown in 1962…in a Three Stooges movie!

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