From an early age, Joe was fascinated with show business, especially the magic act of Howard Thurston that visited St. Louis annually.

Besser was so excited by this that he sneaked into Thurston's train after the St. Louis run of the show and was discovered the next day in Detroit sleeping on top of the lion's cage.

[2] Besser remained in show business and developed a comic character: an impish but whiny and bratty man who was easily excitable and upset, throwing temper tantrums with little provocation.

On May 9, 1946, Besser appeared on the pioneering NBC television program Hour Glass, performing his "Army Drill" routine with stage partner Jimmy Little.

When the duo filmed The Abbott and Costello Show for television, they hired Joe Besser to play Oswald "Stinky" Davis, a bratty, loudmouthed child dressed in an oversized Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, shorts, and a flat-top hat with an overhanging brim.

Besser was cast for the role of Yonkel, a chariot man, in the low-budget biblical film Sins of Jezebel (1953), which starred Paulette Goddard as the titular wicked queen.

As a result of his whiny persona and lack of true slapstick punishment against him (a cornerstone of Stooge humor), Joe has been less popular with contemporary Stooge aficionados,[citation needed] so much so that "Stooge-a-Polooza" TV host Rich Koz has even apologized on the air before showing Besser shorts; during the show's tenure, he received more than a few letters from viewers expressing their outrage over his airing them.

Columbia historians Edward Watz and Ted Okuda have written appreciatively of Besser for bringing new energy to what was by then a flagging theatrical series.

After Besser joined the team, for the first time in their career, the Stooges did not make any personal appearances during their layoff season, which began in 1956.

[8] It was later found that the ad was erroneously used for the act's personal appearances in December 1959, with Joe DeRita, rather than Besser, as part of the lineup.

[9] After their contract with Columbia ended, Moe Howard and Larry Fine discussed plans for a personal appearance tour, but Besser declined.

In later life, Besser praised Moe and Larry in a 1985 radio interview, from which a quote was aired on A&E Network's Biography.

Now that's the kind of guys that they were ...Besser returned to films and television, most notably as the superintendent Jillson for four seasons (1961–1965) of The Joey Bishop Show.

[10] The title reflected Besser's dismay that people only recognized him for his brief tenure with the Stooges, and not for his long career as a solo comedian.

[10] In the spring of 2000, ABC aired a made-for-television movie The Three Stooges, with actor Laurence Coy appearing briefly as Besser.

[citation needed] In 1932, Besser married dancer Erna Kay (born Ernestine Dora Kretschmer), known as "Ernie".

Besser appeared in the Abbott and Costello movie Africa Screams (1949), which also featured Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.

Besser's Stooge partner Larry Fine is interred in a crypt at the Freedom Mausoleum, which is a short distance away from the tomb.