How Did the Three Stooges Help Adam West Become Batman?

Dave Sundstrom September 19, 2025

THE OUTLAWS IS COMING!, The Three Stooges (Curly Joe DeRita, Moe Howard, Larry Fine), Adam West, lobby card, poster art, 1965. — Everett Collection

I know what you’re thinking: that the Three Stooges never really helped Adam West and that this is one of those clickbait headlines that ultimately end up disappointing the reader. However, if you give me just a few minutes, I’ll share with you the very real way that Larry, Moe and Curly Joe helped Adam West become the best Batman ever — because the famous comedy trio and West crossed paths just one year before Batman first hit TV screens, and the experience left West with a lesson that he carried with him for his entire time as the Caped Crusader.

In the May 2022 issue of Retro Fan Magazine, there’s a great story by journalist Mark Voger about Moe Howard‘s final years. The article delivers a top-notch account of the Three Stooges’ cinematic and television efforts during their later years as a comedic team.

Being born in the ’60s myself, the Stooges had already had their heyday long before I became aware of them. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of their shorts or movies in the theater. Instead, I became aware of these goofballs through other not-so-obvious ways, like the Gold Key comic book that they starred in, or their appearance in the ’70s as animated guest stars on The New Scooby Doo Movies.

But let’s get to the reason that you’re reading this article in the first place: the Three Stooges/Batman connection. The final Three Stooges motion picture ever made, The Outlaws Is Coming, was released in 1965; in addition to the Three Stooges, the movie starred a young actor named Adam West. It is a fun film, with Adam playing the straight man to all of the Three Stooges’ hijinks. If you’ve never seen this movie, which also stars the beautiful Nancy Kovack, it’s available to watch on the Three Stooges channel on YouTube.

In the Mark Voger article, Adam West said this about his time working with the Stooges, “To come in as a straight man was a real challenge with their antics because you have to resist any kind of smirk, any kind of ‘Hey, aren’t we funny?’ communication to the audience.”

It was after making that movie that Adam was cast as the Caped Crusader, and it was on that revolutionary program where he was required to employ the very same skills he developed while working on The Outlaws Is Coming. Playing Batman on that campy TV show was no small feat, as it required him to say the silliest lines with the most sincere and earnest deadpan delivery. And no one did that better than Adam.

That’s what made Batman so much fun. The kids enjoyed the adventure of everything going on, and the grownups, well, they giggled at how the most silly things were taken so seriously. Much of that was courtesy of Adam West and the lessons that he learned while working with three legends who went by the names of Larry, Moe and Curly Joe.