Editing Curly Howard (section)

====Prime years====
[[File:Three Stooges 1937.jpg|thumb|Left to right: [[Larry Fine]], Howard, and [[Moe Howard]] in 1937]]
Howard's childlike mannerisms and natural comedic charm made him a hit with audiences, particularly children. He was known in the act for having an "indestructible" head, which always won out by breaking anything that assaulted it, including saws and hammers (resulting in his characteristic quip, "Oh, look!" when the item is shown damaged while his head is intact).  Although Howard had no formal acting training, his comedic skills were exceptional. Often, directors let the camera roll freely and let Howard improvise. [[Jules White]], in particular, left gaps in the Stooge scripts where he could improvise for several minutes.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> In later years, White commented: "If we wrote a scene and needed a little something extra, I'd say to Curly, 'Look, we've got a gap to fill this in with a "woo-woo" or some other bit of business', and he never disappointed us."<ref name="Okuda 1986 63">{{cite book| last = Okuda| first = Ted | author-link = Ted Okuda|author2=Watz, Edward| title = The Columbia Comedy Shorts| publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers| year = 1986| pages =63| isbn = 0-89950-181-8}}</ref>

By the time the Stooges hit their peak in the late 1930s, their films had almost become vehicles for Howard's unbridled comic performances. Classics such as ''[[A Plumbing We Will Go]]'' (1940), ''[[We Want Our Mummy]]'' (1938), ''[[An Ache in Every Stake]]'' (1941), ''[[Cactus Makes Perfect (film)|Cactus Makes Perfect]]'' (1942), and their most violent short, ''[[They Stooge to Conga]]'' (1943), display his ability to take inanimate objects (food, tools, pipes, etc.) and turn them into ingenious comic props.<ref name="Scrapbook"/> Moe Howard later confirmed that when Curly forgot his lines, that merely allowed him to improvise on the spot so that the "take" (or scene) could continue uninterrupted:

{{blockquote|If we were going through a scene and Curly forgot his words for a moment, and then, you know, rather than stand, get pale and stop, you never knew what he was going to do. On one occasion, however, he would drop down to the floor and spin around ten times like a top until he finally remembered what he had to say.<ref name="A&E">[[A&E Network]]'s [[Biography (TV series)|Biography]]</ref>}}

Howard also developed a set of [[New York accent|Brooklyn-accented]] reactions and expressions that the other Stooges would imitate long after he had left the act:<ref>{{cite book| last = Seely | first = Peter |author2=Gail W. Pieper | title =Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges | publisher = McFarland | year = 2007| location = Jefferson, N.C.| pages =9 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=kPVWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 | isbn = 978-0786429202}}</ref>

* "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" – his trademark laugh, accompanied by manic finger-snapping (snapping your fingers before cupping your hand and slapping the other hand down), often used to amuse himself
* "Woob, woob, woob!" – cheering used when he was either happy, scared, dazed, or flirting with a "dame"
* "Hmmm!" – an under-the-breath, high-pitched sound meant to express frustration
* "Nyahh-ahhh-ahhh!" – a scared reaction, which was most often used by the other Stooges after Curly's departure
* "La-Dee" or simply "La, la, laaa" – his singing used when he was acting innocently right before taking out an enemy
* "Ruff Ruff" – a dog bark, used to express anger, showing defiance, barking at an attractive dame, and/or giving an enemy a final push before departing the scene
* "Ha-cha-cha!" – a take on Jimmy Durante's catchphrase
* "I'm a victim of soikemstance [circumstance]!" – used to deflect blame from himself
* "Soitenly!" ("certainly")
* "I'll moider (murder) you!"
* "Huff huff huff!" – sharp, huffing exhales either due to excitement or meant to provoke a foe
* "Ah-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" – a sort of nonsense, high-pitched yelling that signified being scared or overly excited, which was used during his later years
* "Indubitably" – an expression used to feign an intelligent response
* Nervous teeth chattering, which made the sound of a small hammer striking a chisel
* "Oh! A WISE guy, eh?" – an annoyed response
* "Oh, look!" – a surprised remark, usually pointing out a saw or hammer which was damaged when it came into contact with his hard head. 
* "Say a few syllables!" – to another (injured) Stooge, usually Moe
* Occasionally, the Stooges faced a problem that required deep thought, whereupon Curly would bang his head on a wall several times, then shout, "I got it! I got it!" Moe would ask, "What have you got?" Curly's answer: "A terrific headache."
* Despite his mispronunciations, he had an uncanny ability to instantly spell big words, such as "chrysanthemum", if asked. The gag was that Curly never did it, when something important was at stake. In one scene, the Stooges were in a situation where this talent might have landed them a job, but Curly had missed his opportunity. Moe's reaction would be to growl, "Where were you a minute ago?" and then smack him.

On several occasions, Moe Howard was convinced that rising star [[Lou Costello]] (a close friend of Shemp's) was stealing material from his brother.<ref name=moe/> Costello was known to acquire prints of the Stooges' films from Columbia Pictures on occasion, presumably to study him. Inevitably, Curly Howard's routines would appear in ''[[Abbott and Costello]]'' feature films, much to Moe's chagrin.<ref name=moe/> (It did not help that Columbia Pictures president [[Harry Cohn]] would not allow the Stooges to make feature-length films like contemporaries [[Laurel and Hardy]], the [[Marx Brothers]], and Abbott and Costello.)<ref>Bob Bernet [http://web2.airmail.net/willdogs/ My Pal Moe] ''web2.airmail.net/willdogs'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522070102/http://web2.airmail.net/willdogs/ |date=May 22, 2013 }}</ref>

Curly was the only "third Stooge" who never made a series of his short films, without Moe or Larry, either before joining the Stooges or after leaving. Shemp and subsequent Stooges [[Joe Besser]] and [[Joe DeRita]] (referred to during his stint with the Stooges as "Curly Joe DeRita") each starred in their solo series of theatrical short subjects.