# The best Stooge **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260 "2017-12-12T04:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/1 "2017-12-12T04:00:51Z")
Inspired by the sight of [another thread currently active in Cafe Society](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844266), I now want to know who, in your opinion, is the best Stooge. Nitpickers will note that I left a few minor Stooges off the list, but I think I hit the highlights and I did leave a way in the poll for y’all to snark about it. Who is the best Stooge? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/2 "2017-12-12T04:12:37Z")
Without question. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/3 "2017-12-12T04:45:42Z")
Coily, soitenly! N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/4 "2017-12-12T04:49:47Z")
Shemp wasn’t the best stooge but he had the best name. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/5 "2017-12-12T04:53:17Z")
It’s Curly. Hands down. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/6 "2017-12-12T04:59:52Z")
Moe was the glue, the brains. Curly was the heart. Moe gets short shrift because everyone loves Curly (and rightly so), but Moe was the engine that drove the Stooges. Love Bowie’s version of Iggy’s, “China Girl”, though. One of my favorite Bowie tunes. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/7 "2017-12-12T05:07:45Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Moe was the glue, the brains. Curly was the heart. Moe gets short shrift because everyone loves Curly (and rightly so), but Moe was the engine that drove the Stooges. No, Moe drove The Three Stooges. Iggy Pop drove The Stooges and is, of course, the best Stooge (with Ron Asheton a close second). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/8 "2017-12-12T06:10:48Z")
Nyuk nyuk. No Fake Shemp? Besser was the worst one. I never minded Curly Joe really. I did not know Mike Watt was in the later Stooges, interesting. > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Love Bowie’s version of Iggy’s, “China Girl”, though. One of my favorite Bowie tunes. They wrote it together, Iggy just got to recording it first. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/9 "2017-12-12T06:45:08Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Nyuk nyuk. No Fake Shemp? > > Besser was the worst one. I never minded Curly Joe really. > > I did not know Mike Watt was in the later Stooges, interesting. > > They wrote it together, Iggy just got to recording it first. Besser was in the _Joey Bishop Show_, which is being rerun on Antenna TV. I avoid the show specifically because of him. In fact, I avoid anything with Besser in it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/10 "2017-12-12T07:39:57Z")
Shemp has always been my favorite Stooge. He is the most subtle and sublime stooge. Anyone who disagrees can suuuuuuuck it! ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/11 "2017-12-12T07:52:26Z")
Curly…pure instinctual comedy Besser was the worst and an asshole. He would take any knocks. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/12 "2017-12-12T07:56:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Iggy Pop drove The Stooges and is, of course, the best Stooge (with Ron Asheton a close second). Well, they were also billed as “Iggy and the Stooges”, the phrasing of which suggests that Iggy was not, himself, a Stooge. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/13 "2017-12-12T08:00:15Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It’s Curly. Hands down. That’s how he keeps getting poked in the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/14 "2017-12-12T08:43:56Z")
Curly was the best natural commedian. Larry was almost as good. He was the every man. The guy that represented us in the skits. How would we react in these surreal situations? Larry always reacted the best he could, no matter the situation. Moe was the straight man. Reacting to the other characters mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/15 "2017-12-12T13:29:35Z")
Any of the Three Stooges was replaceable, except Moe. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/16 "2017-12-12T13:50:53Z")
Overall, Moe, undoubtedly the leader (and he wrote his own biography). Although I’d like to give a lot of credit to Larry, who gets overlooked too much (he’s the non-Howard in the original bunch) His own biography (_Larry, the Stooge in the Middle_) is hard to come by. An almost-Stooge is Emil Sitka, frequent actor is the Stooge shorts, and famous for the line “Hold Hands, you Lovebirds” from the Stooge short _Brideless Groom_, was offered the part as replacement for Larry after his stroke (twice, in fact, in 1970 and in 1975). He even went into rehearsals with Moe and Curly Joe, but it ultimately never hit the stage or the film. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/17 "2017-12-12T14:20:58Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Shemp has always been my favorite Stooge. He is the most subtle and sublime stooge. Anyone who disagrees can suuuuuuuck it! Agreed. Just saw Pittsburgh the other day where he co-stars with John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Marlene Dietrich. He wasn’t just a Stooge, he was a movie star. He was also a cousin by marriage to Barney Frank. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/18 "2017-12-12T15:00:55Z")
I give Moe a lot of credit, but once Curly had to leave, the act went downhill. Shemp just wasn’t as good (however, he did have the most successful career outside the group and was the only one to appear in a [truly great film](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrqn5RRbTvg).). ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/19 "2017-12-12T15:02:23Z")
[Moe is their leader](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yZqtw8K-74). I voted for Iggy, who wrote [Repo Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfivq3Ou4_M), which is the greatest rock and roll song of all time. I am aware that he was not a Stooge when this songs was made. That’s irony. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260/20 "2017-12-12T15:06:18Z")
Ebenezer Stooge. Naah - it’s Moe for me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-stooge/804260.md?page=2)