Bruce Willis names the greatest comedy actor of all time: “He always teed it up”
Even though he could drop a quip, one-liner, or deadpan aside with the best of them, Bruce Willis and comedy were never the easiest bedfellows, mostly because he never felt like a naturally funny guy.
Obviously, during his heyday as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, it was undeniable that Willis had charm and charisma to spare, but there’s a huge difference between a withering put-down in an action flick and building an entire performance on the belief that you’ve got what it takes to tickle funny bones.
A look at the actor’s comedic or comedically inclined vehicles doesn’t make for pretty reading: Hudson Hawk was a vanity project that spiralled into self-indulgence, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel were a pair of interminable capers, Cop Out put him at odds with Kevin Smith for years, and The Kid was saccharine Disney nonsense.
Action comedies? That’s a whole different ballgame, because Willis was often very good in those. However, when the objective of the film or his role in it was to be funny on purpose, it often fell flat. Fortunately, Willis never felt the need to try slapstick, which he almost certainly would have been terrible at, but one of the most famous bands of prat-fallers in history always delighted him to no end.
“I love the Stooges,” he explained. “I love ’em all, but Larry is my favourite. He had his own physical things that he was very good at, but he always teed it up.” Their particular brand of comedy may not stand much chance of winning them new fans in the modern era, but for anyone of Willis’ generation and before, the Three Stooges are the peak of physical comedy.
Mel Gibson, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, and Jim Carrey are just some of the industry veterans aged 60 or over who can’t get enough of Larry, Moe, and Curly’s antics, but for Willis, the former was the sharpest tip of the spear, and he outlined why Larry Fine was the greatest part of his favourite comedy act of all time.
“Any guy who wants to have a well-rounded man life is not complete until he accepts the mechanics and zaniness of the Stooges,” the Die Hard frontman doubled down. “Any version of, ‘Say, what are you gonna do with that?’ because it’s about to happen. The math of that line is about to happen to Larry. It’s kind of funny and kind of violent.”
To be fair, that last line applies to many of Willis’ best movies. His debut as John McClane, The Last Boy Scout, Armageddon, Pulp Fiction, Looper, The Fifth Element, and others are, in fact, kind of funny and kind of violent, so maybe the genre icon was secretly channelling Larry the whole time, since his fondness for the Stooges, and that Stooge in particular, dates back as far as he can remember.
Just because someone isn’t a comedian by trade, it doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy the art form. Willis, who always struggled when handling comedy that didn’t give him any fistfights, shootouts, set pieces, or explosions to fall back on, always loved the Three Stooges, but its clear that he loved Larry most of all.
