Slowly I turned

Step by step

Niagara Falls!

Or some variant:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_I_Turned#Routine

Ah, yes! This one carried forward from vaudeville into old B movies, then the B movies were shown as daytime filler on broadcast television when I was a kid, where I first saw it. It's strangely mesmerizing. My schoolmates and I would mimic it on the playground.

classic!

pretty sure i first saw this on an old episode of i love lucy, but the great "niagara falls" version is from the abbott and costello show.

I know this from The Three Stooges version.

Until very recently, I just knew it as Scatterbrain lyrics.

Lucy version has the trigger word "Martha" according to the write-up, can't recall it myself.

I also knew it from the Three Stooges, due to a clip Dr.Morbius posted once regarding his feelings when he hears the word "electable". Made me think those guys were significantly funnier than the shorts on the Indicator Noir box sets turned them out to be. Anyway, thankful the doctor uncovered that for me.

So is Abbott & Costello's Susquehanna Hat Company routine an example of this or is that something different?

I've never heard of this or seen it tbh. The Three Stooges never really made it across the Atlantic afaict.

The wikipedia article has links to youtube, in the footnotes.

Morbius once said that the Three Stooges are best appreciated when you're six years old or over 45 years old.

Link please.

i most appreciated them before 8 and after 40.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, November 7, 2018 7:29 AM (two years ago)

I was slightly off on the years.

Thanks. Constantly resisting the temptation to misquote him myself.

susquehanna hat company is a variant of this routine, with a whole parade of folks flipping out when they hear the code word rather than just the one troubled dude

i watched a bunch of three stooges shorts late at night a few months back and i haven’t been able to get the theme song out of my head since