POLL: Comedy Duos

i like them all except for smothers brothers and jay & silent bob but i voted for abbott & costello because childhood.

i loved these guys when i was little. my standards aren't that high.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoPXzsOcaxs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhliLCJKZGA

Wright and Hedberg

Chris Farley & David Spade?

Wright and Hedberg just did standup and told a series of jokes. They didn't really constitute a comedy duo whose comedy was dependent on one another and whose careers were merged into a single act.

Tim Conway and Harvey Korman

lol, i dare you to watch this entire clip. oh canada....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsqaZ0Sbpow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAoYOWkZTQE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mHddEKIyzk

tim & eric would have won this. this being ile.

Burns & Schreiber certainly fit the mold, y'know what I mean, eh?

yeah Tim & Eric I think fit the bill very well, similar dynamic in nearly every sketch, as opposed to say Key & Peele where it sometimes feels like they're drawing roles out of a hat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOVwX4zrYIc

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/n2sAAOSwqB9mR7NH/s-l400.jpg

write-in vote for Derek & Clive

as opposed to say Key & Peele where it sometimes feels like they're drawing roles out of a hat

― frogbs, Monday, 25 November 2024 04:54 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Key and Peele always feel like they have a particular dynamic between them even if they're playing different characters, there's usually a ridiculous/crazy guy and a normal guy who is becoming increasingly strained as he tries to deal with the other guy's craziness, or starts wondering if he's the crazy one. But they switch back and forth between who plays which one.

they kind of remind me of how Bob & Ray would switch between being the interviewer and the interviewee, but there would always be a consistent dynamic

This list is obviously not comprehensive. I tried to limit it to duos that come from the USA

... bound to happen really. I have no idea who Bob & Ray are.

Bob & Ray are fantastic, imagine John Bird and John Fortune but American and funnier

I know Jerry Stiller obviously but not Stiller & Meara. There's lots of US TV comedy from the 50s to the 70s which never got shown over here.

Yes, saddened by the absence of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore but I know the pain of starting a poll thread and most posts being like "what about this one you forgot", so out of the options listed I'll go for Bert and Ernie, great couple of lads.

Eric and Ernie another good couple of lads (even if they were terrible showbiz Tories). I actually really like their first feature film, The Intelligence Men:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTxLafup9YI

vic and bob

Good poll, I enjoy a lot of these! Also missing Mitchell & Webb, Fry & Laurie, Sklar Brothers... Lotta duos! People like/liked French and Saunders, right? Maybe there's a distinction to be made between comedy duos/teams best known for acting in skits (Mitchell/Webb, Key/Peele, Little Britain, Snuff Box, etc.) and duos that had actual duo stage/radio routines (like Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, also missing). Though maybe not, because Bert and Ernie are skits, I suppose, but they are definitely a comedy duo. (So are Statler & Waldorf, who are super funny, however brief their appearances.)

But out of this batch, probably Abbott & Costello, because as Scott said, childhood.

I find Burns & Allen tolerable only in small doses (their early two-reel shorts or their supporting turn in International House). The features I've seen get very tedious, and I've never tried watching the TV show.

In the wake of Laurel & Hardy, the U.S. studios tried putting together their own comedy duos (sometimes apparently at random). A guy I know collects this sort of thing on his YouTube channel, and some of the results are downright cringy.

Wheeler & Woolsey started on the stage and it shows. I like them but won't quarrel with the many who don't.

Clark & McCullough are a thing among some aficionados--I like seeing what has been exhumed but wouldn't recommend them to beginners.

based on the criteria, omitting Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington from this list is a glaring omission.

Sorry I'm going to have to ask for a new poll

Oh my god my grandparents adored most of these duos. (As do I, since I spent so much time watching TV at their house as a kid.) Not, ahem, Jay and Silent Bob though...

In the 'other' column I think Flight of the Conchords are as sharp and masterful as a classic Vaudeville act.

Nichols and maaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy

yeah, really. nichols and may. i grew up on their records.

Flight of the Conchords

Burns & Allen are a strange case for me. The premise of their shtick (Allen says something ditzy, Burns looks at the audience going "the broads, eh?") is lame but the actual stuff Allen comes up with is often hilarious in a Philomena Cunk way.

A guy I know collects this sort of thing on his YouTube channel, and some of the results are downright cringy.

You can't just drop that without a link!

Bob and Ray are amazing, I’ve probably shared this before but it’s really something for 1949.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5l_vuzn6e4-

i have a ton of those mail-order bob & ray CD sets and they are a treasure trove of weirdness. so great.

i mean i knew them from when i was a kid but mostly from commercials and i think i had one LP of Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife (which was a parody of a completely forgotten radio show Mary Noble, Backstage Wife) but it wasn't until much later that i realized the depth of their goodness.

In the wake of Laurel & Hardy, the U.S. studios tried putting together their own comedy duos (sometimes apparently at random).

MGM's 3 Buster Keaton/Jimmy Durante films.

A guy I know collects this sort of thing on his YouTube channel, and some of the results are downright cringy.

Geno's House of Rare Films: http://www.youtube.com/@GenosHouseofRareFilms
Joseph Blough: http://www.youtube.com/@josephblough4403

The two channels are not identical, but significantly overlap.

other (heidecker + turkington)

Balki & cousin Larry

Statler and Waldorf

Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts: https://www.amazon.com/Thelma-Todd-Zasu-Pitts-Collection/dp/B07DPFG4S6

Thelma Todd & Patsy Kelly: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Thelma-Comedy-Collection-ClassicFlix/dp/B07D2SWHJD

Glazer and Jacobson

Car Talk

A serious deep cut: Shaw & Lee

Laverne and Shirley

^^ my vote fwiw

Glazer and Jacobson

yesss

other (heidecker + turkington)

― z_tbd, Monday, November 25, 2024 3:46 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

was wondering if this should count as they dont really play 'other' characters but their OC characters are so "real" that they play different versions of themselves in the series and the Oscar Specials definitely have a comedy duo aspect to them so I vote for this one

Lee & Herring also deserve a mention imo.

Biffle & Shooster (RIP Will Ryan)

Aukerman and Tompkins

I almost think of Gleason and Carney as a comedy duo, but I guess the context of a sitcom is different.

Eric and Ernie another good couple of lads (even if they were terrible showbiz Tories).

Lenny Henry was on alexei Sayle’s podcast the other week, reminiscent about doing some end of the pier thing in the 70s with moorcambe and wise. He didn’t have anything good to say about Ernie wise but did say that Eric Moorcambe came to him after a show a told him ‘You don’t have to do any of that shit’, meaning that chalky white style racism. Eric at least seemed pretty decent.

Anyway my childhood seems to have been filled post Eric and Ernie and two Ronnie double acts. Can only remember Little and Large and Cannon and ball as names, both terrible IIRC.

It did seem to provide a would for alternative comedy sucesss, French and Saunders, fry and Laurie, smith and jones, I guess also punt and Dennis and Newman and baddiel

Act that the thread most brought to mind though is the dangerous brothers, who I can’t say I ever knew as them but as Rik and Vivian in the young one and as Bottom. Was definitely the right age a for Bottom.

(Funnily enough there’s a boy my son’s age called Vivian after the young one, his mum designs bondage footwear)

The British music hall tradition lasted a lot longer than US vaudeville did and comedy duo acts were a staple of both kinds of variety entertainments. I knew there'd be a ton of British acts I had zero idea existed, but (shrug) you can only make the poll you know how to make.

classic vaudeville tradition of Jay & Silent Bob

Aimless, no shade, thread just got me thinking.

I will bail you up for ignoring 300 Japanese Manzai acts you’ve never heard of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9sdmaES6Zs

At least it has engaged ilxors to talk about funny people they like.

Famous up here for four decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_and_Shuster

Anyway my childhood seems to have been filled post Eric and Ernie and two Ronnie double acts. Can only remember Little and Large and Cannon and ball as names, both terrible IIRC.

It did seem to provide a would for alternative comedy sucesss, French and Saunders, fry and Laurie, smith and jones, I guess also punt and Dennis and Newman and baddiel

Give me Cannon & Ball a million times over Punt & Dennis and Newman & Baddiel.

"Famous up here for four decades:"

i provided an excruciating video clip above!

do french & saunders get the cred they deserve these days? feel like AbFab alone - for better or worse - changed the game if you think of the zillion "people behaving badly" sitcoms that came after it. theirs was kinda the best.

i need to find the comic strip presents...streaming.

why doesn't jennifer saunders have her own regular show? or dawn french for that matter.

Man, not to digress, but I just saw that Keegan-Michael Key is in that new Jack Black movie, and boy, Keegan-Michael Key ... what a bunch of shit that guy has been in. Love him with Peele, but solo? Almost all woof, top to bottom.

i provided an excruciating video clip above!

Sorry, missed that...Their Wikipedia page says that they (Wayne & Shuster) did Sullivan more than anyone ever, though the number is in dispute (57 or 65 episodes), and that Sullivan gave them more time and more leeway than virtually anyone for some mysterious reason.

Man, not to digress, but I just saw that Keegan-Michael Key is in that new Jack Black movie, and boy, Keegan-Michael Key ... what a bunch of shit that guy has been in. Love him with Peele, but solo? Almost all woof, top to bottom.

Mulaney & Kroll

Lee & Herring also deserve a mention imo.

― a hoy hoy, Tuesday, 26 November 2024 14:12 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, they were my first thought and who I would vote for.

French & Saunders have one of those podcasts that you have to suscribe to audible or spotify or summat to listen to.

French also a judge on UK Drag Race for a while.

Haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this was already asked, but: has there ever been a strictly female comedy duo? Tina Fey & Amy Poehler seem close.

there's a Laverne & Shirley mention upthread (they're a little different, actors in a sitcom) but is this an exclusively male format?

sorry clemenza! didn't see yours

French/Saunders

https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9837713/bc_410_milk2_preview.jpg

Also:

https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PEN15_206-0807R.jpeg

garfunkel & oates. i guess they are comedy/music.

He seems to have Eddie Murphy/Adam Sandler disease aka pablumitis. He was embarrassing in Wonka, and this from someone who actually liked the movie overall
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, November 26, 2024 11:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

the difference is Keegan-Michael Key never stars in anything, he's always a weird sideman with 10-15 minutes of screentime, even when he does commercials he's often not even the main guy, in fact I spotted him in one where he didn't even have any lines at all, he just looked back and made a weird face, I couldn't believe it was actually him. its weird since he's talented and very funny, but maybe he just can't cut it in a starring role, perhaps because he can't pull off acting like a normal guy for very long?

he's just weird high school principal now. he should do a season of Fargo. and be the bad guy.

I've been really enjoying the podcast POOG from Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak.

alternate: Berlant & John Early

super huge for little me was seeing I Love Lucy and The Carol Burnett Show - probably around the same time actually. early 70s. - because i would see two funny women together who did totally physical comedy and who were active and created action around them. they made other people react. i was so used to seeing women reacting to things. coming up with wisecracks. i liked them a lot too but it was kinda thrilling to see the physicality of those people on those shows. That's why I liked Bewitched. Two women wreaking havoc in the neighborhood. So cool.

(i think of vicki lawrence with carol burnett but carol burnett was a great duo partner with almost anyone.)

Also worth mentioning are Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (aka Mario Girotti and Carlo Pedersoli), an Italian duo who were once popular worldwide (even somewhat in the USA), in funny spaghetti westerns and funny cop films from the 1960s to 1980s.

The Terence Hill/Bud Spencer museum is still open in Berlin!

Also a game came out for the switch semi recently.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the difference is Keegan-Michael Key never stars in anything, he's always a weird sideman with 10-15 minutes of screentime, even when he does commercials he's often not even the main guy

He is probably making bank as a dad guy in commercials. And if he keeps to that we won't have to watch him try to "spread his wings" artistically.

I know that solo-era Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were two middling performers that together created something greater than the sum of the two parts. Do the other major comedy duos also draw on that sort of synergy?

I know that solo-era Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were two middling performers that together created something greater than the sum of the two parts. Do the other major comedy duos also draw on that sort of synergy?

Cheech has been good in a lot of stuff. Chong has never done anything good by himself as far as I know.

I honestly thought someone already said Scharpling and Wurster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvABt2uXRzY

I forgot to mention Nichols and May. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichols_and_May

I love Firesign Theatre but never listened to Proctor & Bergman as a duo until this thread inspired me -- not so good.

Apparently there's a new book about Martin & Lewis. Here's a review/essay.

Voted Bob and Ray even though I don't think they really fit the category definition, as I mostly think of them doing skits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWv8DXjrdec

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

shouldn't it be 'Other & Other'?

i think the smothers brothers are/were incapable of making me laugh. so not funny. thanks for having hippies on your t.v. show? that's my nice thing to say about them.