The Three Stooges were a comedy act that lasted from 1925 until 1970 (!), and yeah, while the majority of their act was showcased in theatrical shorts, their lasting cultural relevancy comes from a television revival, so we’re counting them as “TV”.

Your opinion of The Three Stooges may vary, but your Dad loves them. They’ve come in and out of social consciousness in so many ways it’s hard to describe. They’ve been in movies, they’ve been in cartoons, they’ve been re-imagined for modern audiences by the people behind There’s Something About Mary and been an influence to countless comedians, even the ones who won’t admit it. They were never the most highbrow thing in the world, but they did something right. They also featured a lot of sports in their features, and because I already dated the hell out of myself with the 20 Greatest Sports Moments Of The Brady Bunch, I might as well trick the blogging audience into thinking I’m 100 years old.

If you like this week’s Sports On TV column, be sure to drop us a comment (especially if we forgot something important), click the “like” button to share it with strangers on the Internet, and maybe send it over to your Dad. He’ll think it’s funny.

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Last week, we brought you the terrible news that the Catholic League was upset with directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly and their new Three Stooges film, because of the way they depict nuns. Most notably, the League was angry over Larry David’s portrayal of a nun, as he has a long history of badmouthing Catholicism, but they were also pretty irate with With Leather’s 2011 Celebrity Sports Fan of the Year Kate Upton for her role in the film as a super hot nun.

Originally, we passed it off as a “Blah blah, someone is complaining about something stupid that offends them” but I am sad to report today that the Catholic League has won. According to my old pal Lynn Hoppes at ESPN Playbook, people who shelled out $12 a pop this weekend to see the Stooges were treated to an Upton-less show because her pool scene was cut.

Needless to say, the Farrellys weren’t funny pleased.

“Yeah, can you believe that? I guess it’s OK for kids killing kids, but you can’t show a woman in a bathing suit?” Peter Farrelly to ESPN Playbook Trending. “It looked pretty harmless to me. She was just jiggling around.”

“Those people in that group are just uptight,” director Bobby Farrelly said. “They have nothing better to do than that?”

Upton hasn’t publicly commented about the controversy, but I went ahead and wrote her a response that she can feel free to issue to the entire media if she wants:

“While I am very disappointed that my acting efforts in a comedic film were taken as an insult against a religious institution that so many people believe in, I respect the decision of the Motion Picture Association of America to yield to the demand of the Catholic League, as I would not want to further draw their ire. Ultimately, I have a great deal of respect for the Catholic faith, and I even plan on marrying my one and only love and rockin’ man stallion, Burnsy, in a Catholic church.”

Well said, Kate.

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You know Jane Lynch enjoys Kate Upton as much as we do.

I’m running double duty between here and FilmDrunk today, so I apologize if I splash a little movie news over here, but this story involves Kate Upton, the 2011 With Leather Celebrity Sports Fan of the Year, so it’s entirely relevant. In this case, Upton is the target of the ire of the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, who says that he doesn’t appreciate the way that Upton and other actors portray nuns in the Farrelly brothers’ Three Stooges, which also stars Dwight Howard and makes this doubly relevant.

“In the 1950s, Hollywood generally avoided crude fare and was respectful of religion. Today it specializes in crudity and trashes Christianity, especially Catholicism. Enter the The Three Stooges. This movie is not just another remake: it is a cultural marker of sociological significance, and what it says about the way we’ve changed is not encouraging,” wrote Donohue. “…the TV show never mocked nuns or showed infants urinating in the face of the Stooges. The film does.” (Via EW)

Donohue’s real beef seems to be with comedian Larry David, who also plays a nun in the movie, but I can’t get past the idea that he believes that Upton dressed as a nun is disrespectful to religion. If anything, Upton’s Sister Bernice makes me want to actually convert to Catholicism.

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Pre-show notes:

- I’m back, having missed last week’s show due to WrestleMania and a night doing the sad music Peanuts walk in an airport.

- Don’t be afraid to leave a comment on this report. We’ve build a great community of intelligent, funny wrestling fans and you should be a part of it, because seriously, you aren’t gonna find it anywhere else.

- If you’re in the Austin, Texas area, be sure to mark April 23 on your calendar because I will be making my PROFESSIONAL COMEDY DEBUT at a the Monday Night Raw Watch Party, a thing where he play Raw on the big screen, mute it and talk about it/dub it over ourselves. It’s basically the Best and Worst of WWE Raw live. If you miss that, you’re dead to me. DEAD TO ME.

- Big thanks again to Casey/THESTINGER for helping me out with gifs and pictures. Be sure to visit his gifs Tumblr for the stuff I didn’t use. I gave him a page at the end, so be sure to read that when you’re done.

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

Please to enjoy the Best and Worst Of WWE Raw for April 9, 2012. Spoiler alert: it is not as good as last week’s.

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Here is a quick list of things that happened on Raw that I would’ve loved to have seen, had I not been trapped in an airport trying to get home from WrestleMania 28:

- Brock Lesnar making his return to WWE to trounce Giant Starbucks Logo John Cena
- The debut of Lord Tensai, who incapacitated Alex Riley with his Mighty Spit-hand
- The return of Abraham Washington, a low-level guy from FCW/WWECW of whom I may be the Internet’s biggest and most vocal fan.
- Mark Henry being awesome again.
- YES~ chants overtaking WWE.

What’s in store for this week’s show:

- The Three Stooges host.

Heaven help me.

- Remember, the top 10 comments from tonight’s discussion will be featured in tomorrow’s Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column, and no, Watchmen references are not automatically included (just kidding, they totally are).

- To nominate a comment you’ve found particularly funny for inclusion as one of the top 10 comments of the week, please reply to it with a +1. Using +1 instead of +something else (like the ever-popular +Rhodes) makes it easier to find them later, but if you gotta +Rhodes something, who am I to stop you?

So, what’s going down on Raw tonight?

[photo credit WWE.com]

Click to make it bigger. Personally I’m voting for Reggie Bush, because maybe if you have a bad enough life, the curse works in reverse?

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather
- Follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and Burnsy @MayorBurnsy
- Like us on Facebook.

Links

What If Presidential Politicians Were More Like Kenny Powers? - I don’t know, Bill Clinton was already pretty much Kenny Powers and he was awesome. [Warming Glow]

Three Stooges trade Kate Upton’s heaving breasts for Sofia Vergara’s - Sorry, I’m gonna have to veto this trade. I may be interested in trading Kate for Monica Bellucci, though. [Film Drunk]

Leo Messi Hat-Trick Breaks Barcelona All-Time Goal Record - Puns about messy record-keeping, and at least two well-meaning jokes about how nobody watches soccer. [Smoking Section]|

The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 3/19/12: Little Mac Versus Bald Bull - If you haven’t already, go read my thing about pretend underwear fighting. People watch it, but it isn’t any good. Woo! [With Leather]

If Don Draper Handled Modern Marketing - “He’d would’ve slept with Jenna Marbles at least two years ago.” [UPROXX]

Meme Watch: Pissed Old Guy Is Very Pissed, Very Old - Back in my day, we hung pictures of old people on the walls of our schools, we didn’t photoshop sentences over them. [UPROXX]

Funny, Sexy, And Awesome Cosplay Of The Week - +1000000 for Ruby Rhod cosplay. Also, I’d like to be friends with the lady doing demade Harley Quinn. [Gamma Squad]

8 Funny Faces Of The “Mad Men” Cast At The New York Stock Exchange - Needs more “Pete doing the Charleston”. The new season also needs that. [Buzzfeed]

The Funniest #RomneyToys - The only problem I have with funny Republican candidate jokes is that you can’t do the same thing with Obama, because being super racist is usually the only joke Republicans have for him. [HuffPost Comedy]

Two Firemen Dressed in Drag Put Out Burning Car - Yep. [The FW]

A Photographic History of Jennifer Lawrence’s Brief Career - This is barely an article and is just a bunch of pictures of Jennifer Lawrence, but I’m not gonna complain. [Pajiba]

Hell is Other People – How Gamers are Ruining Gaming - I feel their pain about online gaming. I went online once with Red Dead, wandered around scared out of my mind that somebody was gonna call me the n-word, then logged off. It wasn’t great. [Unreality]

Military Dad Dresses Up as Captain America to Surprise His Son by Coming Home on His Birthday - The guy Military Dad’s wife is sleeping with while he’s gone should show up as USAgent. [Brobible]