A stooge is a confederate, acting with someone else and sometimes pretending to be stupid. If you call someone a stooge you're accusing them of being in league with another person. Saps, chumps and fools are actually stupid and/or gullible and to call someone one of these names is to accuse them of being worked "on" by someone else.

That's not the only way the word stooge is used. It can be used synonymously with those other words. As you know obviously, but it's more fun to play dumb and be critical for the sake of it I agree.

NiceGuySi is right, a stooge is a accomplice (often covert), not a victim. When there are multiple red herrings that *do* fit the connection, it makes it too hard when to complete the group, you need to double-guess a misunderstanding - even a common one - from the compiler.

It was very easy to see which group stooge would be in because it couldn't have fit into any other group. So even if you have a rigid, almost autistic aversion to slang, it doesn't make a difference when it comes to solving the grid.

I DISAGREE I THINK STOOGES ARE UNAWARE UNLESS THEY ARE IGGY'S