You Nazty Spy! 1940

Three munitions manufacturers, frustrated by reduced profits under King Herman’s pacifist policies, hatch a plan to topple him by installing a figurehead who is completely unaware of the plot: the unwitting trio of wallpaper-hangers known as the Stooges. Moe Hailstone, Moe Howard, steps forward as the nominal leader, a satirical caricature of Adolf Hitler; Curly Gallstone, Curly Howard, blends traits of Benito Mussolini and Hermann Göring, while Larry Pebble, Larry Fine, lampoons Joseph Goebbels. Together they seize control and attempt to run Moronika, but their governance is marked by slapstick missteps, bungled policies, and open incompetence that steadily undermines their authority.

Upon seizing power, Moe Hailstone, Curly Gallstone, and Larry Pebble strive to govern Moronika, only to reveal a cascade of ridiculous decrees, chaotic budgets, and magical-thinking diplomacy that leaves the country teetering on the edge of order. The regime’s internal farce is sharpened by a parallel thread: Mattie Herring arrives amid suspicion of espionage and is sentenced to execution, a development that tightens the noose around the misfiring government. Mattie Herring, Lorna Gray, eventually makes an escape that further destabilizes the already fragile regime.

As domestic chaos deepens, the Stooges venture into international diplomacy, holding a roundtable meeting where their demands from neighboring nations grow increasingly absurd and impractical. The farce escalates into a confrontation with a mob led by the deposed king and, intertwined with Mattie Herring’s peril, the regime’s stance buckles under pressure. With power slipping away, the Stooges attempt a frantic retreat and stumble into a literal lion’s den, where they are devoured offscreen by three lions, leaving the audience with a bizarre and darkly comic conclusion to their misadventure.