catchphrase "I'm a victim of soikemstance! [circumstance]" – used to express uncertainty "Soitenly!" ("certainly") "I'll moider you!" ("I'll 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!" – used during his later years, a sort of nonsense, high-pitched yelling that signified being scared or overly excited "Indubitably" – an expression used to feign an intelligent response His teeth, while chattering nervously, made the sound of a small hammer striking a chisel "Oh! A WISE guy, eh?" – annoyed response "Oh, look!" – surprised remark, usually about an everyday object "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. 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. (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.) 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. Illness Slow decline By 1944, Howard's energy began to wane. Films such as Idle Roomers (1944) and Booby Dupes (1945) present a Curly whose voice was deeper and his