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A double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic device in which humor is derived from the uneven relation between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin, and profession, but drastically different personalities. Often one of them, the straight man is portrayed as reasonable and serious, and the other one is portrayed as funny, unintelligent, or simply unorthodox. When a woman is in the "straight man" role, she is more often referred to as a comic foil. Despite the names given to the roles, it is not always the comic who provides the act's humor. Sometimes, it is the straight man who gets the laughs through his or her sarcastic reactions to the comic's antics. Most often, however, the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off each other rather than the individuals themselves; in many successful acts the roles are interchangeable.
The first notable double act was probably Laurel and Hardy. Stan Laurel could loosely be described as the comic, though the pair did not fit the mold in the way that modern double acts do, with both taking a fairly equal share of the laughs. Also, unlike most other double acts, their work was filmed in Hollywood and one of the members, Oliver Hardy, was American. Therefore, though most of the scripts were written by Laurel, the American influence could clearly be seen, as their work was produced in the form of short films rather than stand-up routines and sketches.
United Kingdom
In its British form, the two actors would usually be comprised of a "straight man" or "feed" and a "comic", the purpose of the feed being to set up jokes for the comic. This would rely heavily on comic timing. Morecambe and Wise are widely regarded as the greatest British double act. They followed the traditional formula with Eric Morecambe as the comic and Ernie Wise as the feed. However, other British acts such as The Two Ronnies; Lee and Herring; Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson; Reeves and Mortimer; French and Saunders; Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, Fry and Laurie and The Mighty Boosh the role of "comic" and "straight man" are less obvious, largely interchangeable or dispensed with altogether. More obvious British examples of the comic-feed dynamic are Cannon and Ball or Little and Large where the straight man acted largely as a humourless set up for the comic.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore perhaps also deserve a mention as being the first double act to go against the grain, and turn their double act into a complex analysis of the two's relationship. Also there was not so much a comic-feed relationship as there was a master-slave relationship (though this may be exaggerating the point somewhat). In many of the sketches (especially the Pete and Dud exchanges) Cook played the domineering know-it-all (who knows nothing) and Moore the put-upon know-nothing (who also knows nothing).
This dominance was accentuated by the difference in height between the two, and the speed of Cook's mind which meant that he could ad-lib, and force Dudley to corpse in a Pete and Dud dialogue, leaving Moore helpless to respond. As the partnership progressed into the improvised Derek and Clive dialogues, these light-hearted attempts to make Dudley laugh became, as a result of Peter's growing insecurity and alcoholism, vindictive attacks on the defenceless Dudley. However, carrying on the tradition of going against the grain of traditional double acts, when the partnership dissolved in the late '70s, it was Peter whose career stalled due to boredom, alcoholism and lack of ambition, whilst Dudley went on to become one of Hollywood's most unlikely leading men.
Sitcoms
The double act has also become a popular theme in British sitcoms. One of the earliest examples of this was the relationship between Tony Hancock and Sid James in the Galton and Simpson series Hancock's Half Hour. James played a down to earth character while Hancock was pompous and had delusions of grandeur and the comedy was derived from the two playing off of each others characteristics.
However, a more common trend in sitcoms is to place the double act in a situation where they are forced together. In another Galton and Simpson production, Steptoe and Son, a son was forced to live with his elderly Father. The comedy derives from the way the characters interact in their tempestous relationship. The series also has more heart-wrenching moments as the son despairs at his inability to escape his needy, selfish, grasping father.
Porridge, saw "an habitual criminal", Fletcher (played by Ronnie Barker, already famous for his comedy partnership with Ronnie Corbett) and a young, naive first time prisoner, Lennie Godber. The two would bicker but endured a relationship of mutual respect.
Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson combined their success in sitcoms (The Young Ones) and as a double act (The Dangerous Brothers) in 1991 when they created Bottom. Their characters are a pair of sad, pathetic losers forced together by their mutual hopelessness. However, unlike earlier examples such, the characters in Bottom absolutely hate each other, exacerbating their depair. This often leads to slapstick violence. Mayall and Edmonson have said Bottom was aimed to be more than just a series of toilet gags but a cruder cousin to plays like Waiting for Godot about the pointlessness of life.
In recent years, double acts is sitcoms appear to have gone full circle, as illustrated by the cult success of The Mighty Boosh. For the relationship betweem the two main characters this series uses a formula very similar to that between Sid and Tony in Hancock's Half Hour - that of a pompus character who's best friend can see right through him and brings him back down to earth. The Little Britain duo of Matt Lucas and David Walliams are perhaps the best known comedy duo of 21st Century British comedy. Lucas normally plays the funny man to Walliam's straight in a series of sketches humourously portraying British life. Little Britain made its debut on BBC Radio 4 in 2001 before transferring to the BBC in 2003.
USA
In the United States and Canada, the tradition was more popular in the earlier part of the 20th century with vaudeville-derived acts such as Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, and Wheeler & Woolsey, and continuing into the television age with Martin and Lewis, Bob and Ray, Wayne and Shuster, Allen and Rossi, Burns and Schreiber, Rowan and Martin, Nichols and May, and Cheech and Chong.
More recently, the idea has been largely supplanted by that of the "buddy movie" genre, which has introduced several notable comedy partnerships not formally billed as a single "act" in the traditional manner. The earliest example of such a team may have been Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; later examples include Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and David Spade and Chris Farley.
Japan
In Japan the manzai tradition parallels that of the double although it is more formulaic. Here there is a distinguished straight man (tsukkomi) and funny man (boke) and the humor consists of quick jokes full of slapstick humor and social misunderstandings.
Comedic pairs compared
The chart below shows popular double acts in the traditional straight man/funny man dynamic, and the roles each individual played.
"Double act"