Those Two Bad Guys



"''"But Mister Croup, we hurt people. We don't get hurt." Mr. Croup turned out the lights. "Oh, Mister Vandemar," he said, enjoying the sound of the words, as he enjoyed the sound of all words, "if you cut us, do we not bleed?" Mr. Vandemar pondered this for a moment, in the dark. Then he said, with perfect accuracy, "No."''"

- Neverwhere

"Mister Rope, I believe someone's reading our entry."

"Why, so it appears, Mister Liche, so it appears."

"Do you think we should explicate ourselves, Mister Rope?"

"I do, indeed, Mister Liche. Salutations, reader. I am Mister Thaddeus Rope, a man of the hatchet, as you might say, and this is my companion, Mister Clive Liche, a personal exsanguinator."

"May I continue with the expositionizing, Mister Rope?"

"You certainly may, Mister Liche."

"Alright then, reader, you may notice something familiar about us. We may talk funnywise, yes, and one of us may have a bit more smarts than the other. We're independent constricters, y'see?"

"I believe you mean contractors, Mister Liche."

"That I did, Mister Rope, thank you. Now, because of our potential, many writers use us in various forms. Don't they, Mister Rope?"

"They do indeed, Mister Liche, they do indeed. In fact, that's why we're here, because so many writers like to use us and our penchant for exposition and execution."

"And because of our killing people, right, Mister Rope?"

"That's right, Mister Liche. I believe that's all, reader. Anything you want to add, Mister Liche?"

"No, Mister Rope, I never did like maths. Sleep tight, reader."

"Yes, reader, sleep tight."

Those Two Bad Guys are a pair of bad guys who not only provide bloodshed, but also exposition in the form of conversation between them; not to be confused with Those Two Guys. They are usually foils for each other; commonly Brains and Brawn, and sometimes Red Oni, Blue Oni. They probably also look different, in such ways as Fat and Skinny or Salt and Pepper. When they show up in a video game, you can usually count on the player facing them as a Dual Boss at some point.

Anime & Manga
"Kakuzu: (having just reattached Hidan's head to his neck) Watch the stitches, they'll break if you move too much. Hidan: You know what, Kakuzu? Eat a dick."
 * JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
 * Subverted with Wekapipo and Magenta Magenta in "Steel Ball Run". Although they make a good team combat-wise, they personally despise each other and eventually
 * In Part 3, we have the Oingo Boingo Brothers and Hol Horse and J. Geil. Hol Horse and Boingo eventually team up after each of their partners is incapacitated.
 * Gin and Vodka from Detective Conan. Despite being responsible for the main character's... condition, they really don't seem all that bad. Then then they plant a bomb on a train in the manga (in the anime, it's two completely-unrelated men in black). They do get a lot more evil later on, however.
 * Cold-hearted assassin Kieth Baker and inept robber Sam Perkins in the Western manga Miriam. While they lack the duo dynamic usually present, and they don't usually work together, they fit the mold in a lot of other ways (like the customary occasional personality clash).
 * In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui", Jet is pursued by two of these guys, who also appear to be based on the Blues Brothers.
 * Rex Raptor/Dinosaur Ryuzaki and Weevil Underwood/Insector Haga in Yu-Gi-Oh! arguably become this as they begin to associate with one another almost exclusively.
 * Thorgrimm and Atli in Vinland Saga, up until Thorgrimm tries to make a play for power. Doesn't work out very well for Thorgrimm.
 * Mutant experiments no. 666 and 777 in Dead Leaves.
 * The Punch Clock Villain Kajinan and Enge from Overman King Gainer. When Japoli joins them they become Those Three Bad Guys.
 * Jackals
 * Hans and Gacho.
 * Arguably, the main characters Nichol and Huya are also examples of this, being a pair of assassins themselves.
 * Naruto
 * Hidan and Kakuzu. They both bicker a lot, and don't appear to really get along, but are partners nonetheless. Kakuzu being the smart one that comes up with strategy, and Hidan being the rash and loud-mouthed jerk.

": We'll torture you"
 * The same is true for Itachi and Kisame and Sasori and Deidara. And then, after Sasori is killed, Deidara and Tobi.
 * Zetsu and... Zetsu. The left and right sides of his body have split consciousnesses and the halves communicate with each other via speech rather than thought.
 * And they all are part of one organization—Akatsuki. They split in pairs to counter Conservation of Ninjutsu.
 * Luke and Jan, the Valentine Brothers from Hellsing.
 * Gundam
 * The Frost Brothers of Gundam X.
 * Also, Bring Stabity and Devine Nova from Gundam 00
 * Warera, Loli, and Conda from Super Dimension Fortress Macross are technically three guys but fill the same role and have the same general dynamic before their Heel Face Turn. They also have a hilarious Punny Name ("Warera Lolicon da" is Japanese for "we are pedophiles").
 * Female version: Sailor Aluminium Siren and Sailor Lead Crow in the Stars season of Sailor Moon.
 * Gatomon (pre-Heel Face Turn) and Demidevimon from Digimon Adventure.
 * In the Zanpakuto filler arc from Bleach, the role is filled by the spirits of Rangiku and Momo's weapons, Haineko and Tobiume.
 * You wouldn't know it from looking at them (or listening to them), at least at first, but of Durarara!! are absolutely terrifying. This is mostly because , which would lead most people to think they're just kind of odd. Even better,  end up influencing their other hobby, so there ends up being quite a bit of dissonance between their relatively innocent   and their horrific threats.


 * Natsumi, Minami and Kumi from School Days are "these three bad girls". As well as Otome's incredibly nasty Girl Posse.
 * Ciel and Sebastian from Black Butler. Also, Claude and Alois.
 * Shin and Noi of Dorohedoro wear the same kind of black suits as the Pulp Fiction protagonists and like to have body count competitions. They're also surprisingly nice off the job and good-looking under those terrifying masks they wear. Due to Gray and Grey Morality, they are among the protagonists.
 * The two thugs who actually pull off kidnapping Nagi, until Hayate's interference, in the beginning of Hayate the Combat Butler, show up later and kidnap Saki from Wataru's video store, until Sonia's interference, have this kind of dynamic between them.
 * Dragonball Z
 * Dodoria and Zarbon, Frieza's top henchmen.
 * Also Spopovich and Yamu from the Buu arc.
 * Mai and Shu, Pilaf's lackeys in the original Dragon Ball.
 * Frieza and Cell apparently become this while in Hell during their fight with Goku in Dragon Ball GT.
 * Tom and Tab from Kimba the White Lion.
 * Christopher Shouldered and Hong Chi-Mei from Baccano! are two murderous homunculi prone to Seinfeldian Conversations in between their murderous escapades—Or rather, Christopher is prone to Seinfeldian Conversations while Chi plays his Straight Man.

Comics -- Books

 * Hazel and Cha-Cha of Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy. They like the simple things in life. Candy, cookies, pie. And dismembering innocent people with hack saws while plotting nuclear Armageddon.
 * Burt Schlubb (Fat Man) and Douglas Klump (Little Boy) from Sin City aren't exactly killers, but still somewhat fit.
 * Fite and Maad, agents of APES, from The DCU's Young Justice. Ironically, they're much more pragmatic than some of the series' other antagonists... but their goals are often much more cruel. By the end, possibly due to intentional Villain Decay, they're the Overprotective Dad of YJ's newest member, and his wacky friend.
 * Invincible
 * The Mauler Twins are like this (with the rapport and the squabbling and the being evil thing), but they're Mad Scientists, not assassins or anything like that.
 * Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant are a more straight example.
 * Spider-Man's foes Styx and Stone (they'll break your bones!) and several other Marvel Comics villains, like Knight and Fogg, Hammer and Anvil, Brother Sun and Sister Moon, and the Brothers Grimm.
 * The Satan Brothers in DC's Lobo; again a Blues Brothers parody.
 * Nightwing villains and Evil Albino twins the Pierce brothers, who, despite looking and dressing exactly the same, do have rather distinct personalities; Barry is a megalomaniac who tends to think only in terms of himself, while Buddy is somewhat dimwitted and easily manipulated.
 * Rob and Don in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns blur the line between this and Those Two Guys; They're dangerous gang members, and fanatically attach themselves to the most powerful group, but they're comparatively harmless and mostly comment on other peoples' actions.
 * Cannon and Saber from the Vigilante comic in The DCU. Word of God confirms that this pair are gay.
 * Cannon later appeared in Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink with a new partner, Slipknot.
 * Assassins Carl and Larry in Southern Knights.
 * Bone has the two "Stupid stupid Rat Creatures".
 * Slice and Dice, a Brains and Brawn pair of ninjas, in G.I. Joe.
 * Bland and Brass, a pair of body-looters/entrepreneurs from Rogue Trooper.
 * Roughhouse and Bloodscream, a pair of superhuman mercenaries who constantly bedevil Wolverine and are virtually never seen apart.
 * Luke Cage malcontents Shades and Comanche
 * Thor adversaries Mr. Hyde and King Cobra.
 * X-Men villains the Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy almost exclusively worked together after a while. Similarly, the Blob and Unus the Untouchable were inseperable and worked together even when not in a larger team.
 * Daredevil ran up against a pair of thugs named Turk and Grotto for years during and after Frank Miller's run. More recently, Ed Brubaker introduced two street level criminals named Chico and Merv who are based on Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt.
 * Sturm and Chong, the gorilla gangsters in the Batman chapter of JLApe crossover,
 * Chuck Dixon, author of the above, was also responsible for Cheech and Drang, the cyber-gorilla terrorists in Green Arrow One Million. Note the displaced Theme Naming.
 * Sam and Max fit this pretty well.
 * Alonzo and Ramon in The Broken Ear.
 * Idget the Midget and Dangerous Dan Mc Boo in Mickey Mouse comics. Idget is slightly smarter than Dan, but they in general seem equal partners in crime—sometimes employed by others, sometimes working on their own.
 * DC universe enjoys the company Monsieur Mallah & brain—who take this to the extreme—one's a brain in a can, the other's a gorilla... they also really love discussing philosophy—and each other.
 * Arguably, Trypticon and his yes-man Wipe-out in the Transformers comics; They're both persisting menaces that are only barely affiliated with one side; Wipe-Out's primary role is just doing things for the not-exactly-mobile transforming city, and they aren't exactly equals or anything, but....
 * The Harley and Ivy miniseries featured Slash and Burn, who were all but directly stated to be, uh, close.

Films -- Animation

 * Horace and Jasper of One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
 * J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow and Gideon from Pinocchio. They're a pair of con men who both like to get Pinocchio in trouble (such as performing for Stromboli and going to Pleasure Island).
 * Grem and Acer from Cars 2.
 * Giulico Banditto and De La Voro Gangsteritto from Soviet Adventures of Captain Vrungel.
 * The Land Before Time:
 * Ozzy and Strut in II
 * Ichy and Dil in IV
 * Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear from Song of the South.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Jackie Chan fights two villains who fit the trope, first one at a time, and then both at once in the finale of Who Am I?
 * Jules and Vincent (pictured, played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta respectively) from Pulp Fiction.
 * The two NSA agents played by Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman in Grosse Pointe Blank are sort of a marriage of this trope and the traditional Salt and Pepper buddy cop pairing. Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack) and Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) also fit somewhat, although they are rivals.
 * Pintel and Ragetti from Pirates of the Caribbean, who happen to have good guy counterparts in the Royal Navy. By the third film, however, these roles are reversed.
 * Mr. Frying Pan and Mr. Fire from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. (Their actual names aren't given, but this is what they are listed as in the credits.)
 * Going off of the Men In Black reference above, those characters in general have a similar dynamic as this type of character, and the Agents of The Matrix are a particularly good fit. There's three of them instead of two, but that hardly matters.
 * The Twins from the The Matrix Reloaded probably also count. While they don't really exposit much, they do provide some amusing dialogue, talking to each other in an unconcerned deadpan while being shot, and taking part in a highspeed car chase.
 * Cohen and Tate
 * Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre were sometimes teamed up this way after The Maltese Falcon, particularly in their cameo in Hollywood Canteen.
 * Showalter and Grimsrud in Fargo.
 * MasterBlaster, the duo who run Underworld in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome ("They are a unit; they even share the same name"). Master is a mental giant with a body like a small child's; for Blaster, the reverse is true.
 * 4-Lom and Zuckuss in Star Wars. The pair even loses face when forced to work with a third bounty hunter in the hunt for the Yavin Vassilika.
 * Possible Real Life example: Burke and Hare. Their cinematic versions in 1960's The Flesh and the Fiends definitely fit (and Donald Pleasance is particularly Evilly Affable as Hare).
 * The Wet Bandits in Home Alone.
 * Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever.
 * Jacko and Dwayne, the bumbling escaped convicts in the incredibly lame and Narm-riddled The Legend Of Wolf Mountain.
 * Spike and Iggy in Super Mario Bros: The Movie.
 * Budlofsky & Matheson from Pineapple Express.
 * Snatch: Bricktop has a pair of thugs, Errol and John, who function like this.
 * Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson, from Die Hard, count, even if they're not technically bad guys.
 * Howard and Eli from the Video Violence duology.
 * The Joss Whedon / Drew Goddard film The Cabin in the Woods has Hadley and Sitterson, who provide much of the film's humor as well as its most interesting characters.

Literature

 * The Lord of the Rings gets in on this with Shagrat and Gorbag, who Sam overhears discussing Shelob, and they later conclude that Sam is a mighty Elven warrior.
 * Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, the Old Firm, from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. "Obstacles obliterated, nuisances eradicated, bothersome limbs removed, and tutelary dentistry." Interestingly it lampshades the Brains and Brawn nature of the pair by referring to them as "the fox and the wolf" at several points. One theory on that point is that they're actually different werewolves.
 * The demons (Dukes of Hell) Hastur and Ligur in Good Omens also fit pretty well.
 * As do The Men in Black in American Gods.
 * Finney and Mudd from Tad Williams' Otherland series fit this trope extremely well... and their copies inside the Otherland network practically define it, since the network is essentially constructed out of story tropes.
 * Discworld
 * Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, the New Firm, from The Truth are based on the archtype, and contain references to other Those Two Bad Guys pairs, like Jules and Vincent. "Do you know what they call sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm?"
 * In The Art Of Discworld, Pratchett lays out the principle of this trope—if a gang has two members (a "gangette"), one will do the thinking and the other will "talk like dis". If there is a third, the same applies but the third guy will be called Fingers.
 * Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series has Guido and Nunzio, who work for the main character Skeeve as part of his new connection to the Mafia. It ends up neither one is that bad, and Guido has a history in the theater. And a degree in business administration. Also, Nunzio worked as an elementary school (primary school, for our royal cousins) teacher in the past. Also, oddly, as an animal trainer.
 * Hawker and Boon, the schoolboy-suited Prefects from Jonathan Barnes' The Somnambulist. They are called into service by a greyish protagonist, but they really are not nice people.
 * Pex and Chips from Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, though they are conspicuously lacking on the Brains side.
 * Mr. Skruff and Mr. Valdemar from the Norwegian-only children's book Kampen om Speilet (The Battle for the Mirror) fits this trope to a T, up to and including tall-and-thin/short-and-plump builds and eloquent speech. Chief lackeys to Evil Sorcerer Vesperon, they are notable for obsessing over finding the right answers for the right questions and cheerfully killing forest animals by blowing cherry stones at them.
 * Bookend killers, bonebreakers, and all round intimidators Crask and Sadler from Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. stories fit this trope like a kidskin glove. After all, they do give people a sporting chance... if you can make it from the middle of the lake to the shore faster than them, they'll let you go, no hard feelings. Of course, did they forget to mention the 100 pounds tied to your legs? Oops...
 * Sean Cullen's Hamish X series has Mr. Sweet and Mr. Candy.
 * Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever (1956), probably the Ur Example of this trope... except unlike most examples, they're explicitly a couple. Romantically. They bang.
 * Blue and Grey, who menace protagonist Joe Sixsmith in Reginald Hill's novel Blood Sympathy. Blue has pretensions to intelligence and is Evilly Affable; Grey is openly uncouth. Both are dangerous men.
 * The Welkin Weasels series:
 * Rosencrass and Guildenswine (their names being one of many shout-outs to Shakespeare). Usually they're just spies, but near the end of Castle Storm they commit murder on a whim and are willing to kill Sylver and his gang for money. Since they do this in a magical forest, this proves to be their downfall.
 * Both depicted generations of the Herk and Bare families could also fall into this category—the first pair are mercenaries, and the second pair are graverobbers.
 * Two of Eva Ibbotson's young adult novels -- The Dragonfly Pool and Journey to the River Sea—have comically villainous duos who are hired to kidnap the hero.
 * Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World features "Big Boy" and "Junior", who try to extort information about the Professor's dealings from the book's protagonist midway through the book.
 * Mr and Mrs Cavendish in the Nightside book Nightingale's Lament. They run a nightclub where the singer Rossignol, the titular Nightingale, performs, but because they her voice now induces her listeners to commit suicide.
 * Simon R. Green also plays with this one a bit in one of his Secret Histories books: first he invokes it straight with the Russian werewolf/gangsters, the Vodyanoi brothers, and then he parodies it with a couple of Mooks who get so caught up bickering with one another that they forget they're supposed to be intimidating the hero.
 * Tom and Ty in Simon Spurrier's Contract, two thugs acting as disposable backup for Michael Point, a professional assassin. Tom's a frustrated New Zealander with a taste for casual ultraviolence and Speed, and Ty's a hulking Jamaican who never speaks louder than a whisper. They're also short-lived Scrappies.
 * The Duke and the Dauphin from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are Con Artists, not killers, but they're still the lead antagonists who do the heroes the most harm. However, it should be noted they are not a villainous duo prior to their introduction in the novel, but become one shortly after meeting up.
 * Finney and Mudd, Felix Jongleur's hirelings in Tad Williams' Doorstopper quadrilogy Otherland—not only do they oppress and sometimes torture his employees, but their online avatars wreak havoc in the titular computer network, taking on various forms including creepy versions of the Walrus and the Carpenter.
 * Dr. Talos and Baldanders from Gene Wolfe's magnum opus The Book of the New Sun.
 * In Warbreaker,
 * Flingler and Dr. Roboy in The Yiddish Policemens Union.
 * Gotz and Meyer makes Those Two Bad Guys the focus of the story, as a teacher several decades later reads of their part in the Holocaust and tries to figure out what their motivations were..
 * Agents Myers & Franks from Monster Hunter International. Myers is the polite, educated one, and Franks is the quiet, brutal one who's quite capable of curb-stomping the hero, Owen Pitt. (Owen managed to kill a rampaging werewolf with his bare hands in the opening chapter, so that should tell you just what a badass Franks is...) Both are full-blown Knights Templar.
 * Goss and Subby from China Mieville's novel Kraken. With a twist. In fact, Miéville referenced this page in an interview.
 * Flatnose and Cockerel from Inkheart.
 * Rip and Snort, the coyote brothers from the Hank the Cowdog series.
 * Trope Maker and Ur Example, possibly: Hemingway's The Killers.
 * Bauchelain & Korbal Broach from Steven Erikson's Malazan books. One's an intelligent scholarly (and of course completely immoral) summoner/conjurer, the other's a necromancer, nearly always silent and a eunuch to boot. What a lovely pair of monsters they are.
 * Tempus and Julius Fugit from Abarat. Right down to the parallel speech patterns.
 * Practicals Severard and Frost from The First Law, the personal assistants of Inquisitor Glokta. They're like secretaries. Scary, twisted secretaries.
 * In his days working for the Mafia-like Jhereg, Vlad Taltos had a pair of thugs working for him called Sticks and Shoen (basically "Sticks and Stone(s)"). Shoen is short for his species and more of a brute, whereas Sticks is very tall and is personable off the job.

Live-Action TV
"Tony Driscoll: We entered into a business arrangement with a Russian contortionist. (Beat) Danny Driscoll: Consortium."
 * Mr. Breughel and Mr. Mahler from the US Max Headroom series. In a later episode it was revealed that Mr. Breughel had had to (ahem) replace Mr. Mahler with a new one.
 * The two agents from the first episode of the second series of Spaced.
 * The seekers from Charmed. Suddenly the "fox and a wolf" reference on Croup and Vandemar makes more sense.
 * Chris Partlow and Felicia "Snoop" Pearson of The Wire.
 * Power Rangers
 * Female versions: Marah and Kapri from Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
 * Also Baboo and Squat from the first three seasons, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
 * Rito and Goldar in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo.
 * The two assassins in a 1961 episode of Danger Man titled "The Island".
 * Flint and Knox on Heroes.
 * Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective features two bad guys who live the cliché. At one point, one of them realises it, and points out that neither of them has a name—a combo of Breaking the Fourth Wall and Lampshade Hanging that only adds to the already epic levels of Mind Screw.
 * They're not villains so much as creepy-but-essentially-neutral set dressing, but the two undertakers in the first season of Slings and Arrows otherwise fit this trope perfectly (including the personality types and manner of speech outlined in the example).
 * Traidy and Sorm, the two Orion Syndicate assassins in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "A Simple Investigation".
 * For series 3 of Merlin, Morgana and Morgause held this trope, until the latter was critically wounded and in the next season died.
 * Murphy and Camier, two cleaners in the Once A Thief TV series who get involved in all manner of strange jobs, including one (ep 19) where they spend much of the episode waiting for a mark whose name is not quite Godot.
 * The Get Smart episode "Run, Robot, Run" featured evil British agents "Snead" and "Mrs Neal"; spoofs of Steed and Mrs Peel from The Avengers who fit this trope surprisingly well.
 * The two unnamed Alliance agents wearing blue gloves (nicknamed the "Hands of Blue") in Firefly.
 * Doctor Who uses this trope occasionally, one example being Dibber and Sabalom Glitz in The Mysterious Planet.
 * The Driscoll Brothers in Only Fools and Horses and The Green Green Grass.

Tabletop Games

 * In the prologue to the Scion sourcebook Hero, Hugin and Munin, Odin's two talking ravens, behave this way. Although they're not so much "bad" as they are not very nice at all.

Theater

 * The Fox and the Cat in the opera The Adventures of Pinocchio definitely qualify. Although a bit bumbling, and definitely comedic, their scenes can be intensely creepy. And also a bit something else. They might not kill anyone outright, as they're rather poor at their jobs and more tricksters than assassins, but they certainly make a good try at it. (Such as trying to lynch Pinocchio for the five gold coins he got out of sympathy from the puppet show owner.)
 * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead fame counted—they might not be straight up villains in Hamlet but they definitely qualify.
 * A few William Shakespeare cases, especially the two killers sent after Clarence in Richard III.
 * The Dumb Waiter is all about Those Two Bad Guys.
 * The First Man and Second Man from Kiss Me, Kate don't kill anyone on stage, but they are mobsters and they talk an awful lot.
 * The trio of nameless villains in the Kurt Weill opera Die Bürgschaft, who take dirty work where they find it.

Video Games

 * A bit of a subversion, but Tenta and Tickles from Dragon Quest VIII count as this. They are actually only tentacles, given voice by the squid Khalamari.
 * Kariya and Uzuki from The World Ends With You. For their appropriate definition of "death", anyway.
 * Flap and Guido in Broken Sword.
 * Some would argue that Army of Two is a deconstruction that lets you play these guys.
 * Xzar and Montaron from the first Baldur's Gate game.
 * The two random Inquisition soldiers who arrest Antharia Jack in Zork: Grand Inquisitor, and show up in other cutscenes.
 * Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver, the Camp Gay minibosses from the game God Hand.
 * Final Fantasy
 * Thanks to bad translation of Reno's wisecracking, Reno and Rude became this in the English version of Final Fantasy VII. They were originally more of a Boke and Tsukkomi duo.
 * Zorn and Thorn from Final Fantasy IX certainly count. As a bonus, they're also creepy clowns.
 * Biggs and Wedge in Final Fantasy VIII. Who suffer demotions after every encounter, Biggs and Wedge are your teammates in early Final Fantasy VI. Considering you were being  and they worked for the ones who did it....
 * Logos and Ormi, the co-dragons to LeBlanc in Final Fantasy X-2, with special emphasis put on the aspect of them being nearly complete opposites of each other. Logos is tall while Ormi is short, Logos is skinny while Ormi is fat, Logos is one of the smartest villains in the series to date while Ormi is one of the dumbest, Logos has a calm and collected personality while Ormi is impulsive and easily excited, Logos speaks in a low monotone and rarely raises his voice while Ormi's usual tone is screaming at the top of his lungs, Logos uses a pair of ranged weapons in battle while Ormi uses a single melee weapon, Logos favors a battle strategy of inflicting multiple status ailments to slowly wear down his enemy while Ormi favors a strategy of overwhelming his enemy with brute force. About the only things they have in common are their fanactical loyalty to LeBlanc and their willingness to do everything in their power to ensure that her plans succeed.
 * Slogra and Gaibon from the Castlevania Series. Debuting in Super Castlevania 4 as the first two members of a Four Is Death final boss run (with the third and fourth members being Death and Dracula) In later games the pair have been reduced to mere Elite Mooks.
 * Balio and Sunder from Breath of Fire III, two enforcers of the local mafia who keep harassing Ryu for a large portion of the early game.
 * Solt and Peppor from Chrono Cross fill this role in addition to being part of a Goldfish Poop Gang.
 * The Kirby has recurring bosses Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright, an anthropomorphic moon and sun that usually attack Kirby in tandem.
 * Jasper and Frank from Echo Bazaar.
 * Belial and Nebiros from Shin Megami Tensei. They play the role of Papa Wolves to their beloved adopted daughter Alice.
 * Albert Wesker and William Birkin in Resident Evil 0.
 * Fighting Fafnir and Fairy Leviathan, the Bulk and Skull of Mega Man Zero. Too bad they're just stand-in characters for the Four-Temperament Ensemble.
 * The Twinrova witches Kotake and Koume in several The Legend of Zelda games.

Web Comics

 * Dom and Ed from Megatokyo, though they are enemies.
 * The Caterers of Calumny, Texto Porfiria and Zuzux Uzbochs, in Unicorn Jelly. Their favorite modus operandi is rather unusual—they pose as caterers and serve poisoned food.
 * Hunter and Arcturus from Suicide for Hire are a Villain Protagonist variation.
 * The reptilian bounty hunters Gannji and Enor from Order of the Stick.
 * The two robbers in one of the earlier Girly arcs. Arguably, the two-headed turtle may fit in this category as well.

Web Original

 * Broken Saints has two pairs: Sociopathic Soldiers Lt. Charles and Lt. Bravado, and strip club bouncers Phobos and Deimos. Also, all four of them could qualify as Giant Mooks.
 * From the point of view of the Mary Sue victims, most PPC agent pairs are this. The agents' opinions may vary.
 * As of V4, Survival of the Fittest has Richards and Baines. Although the terrorists are often used as vehicles for exposition, it tends to be this pairing more than any others, particularly given their penchant for not keeping secrets too well.
 * Bowser's Kingdom has Hal and Jeff.

Western Animation
"#21: Could you sign this, boss? It's for 24, he got knifed by the Moppets. The Monarch: Which one is 24 again? The Monarch: Right, right, right, the one that sounds like Ray Romano. I like him."
 * Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb of Codename: Kids Next Door (a homage to Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd).
 * Static Shock
 * Specs and Trapper.
 * Puff and Onyx, too, a little.
 * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mr. Touch and Mr. Go.
 * In the 1987 cartoon, Bebop and Rocksteady.
 * Danny Phantom's Guys in White are a subversion; They don't even try to be civil and clearly dislike one another. The X-treme Ghostbreakers aren't much different.
 * The Venture Brothers
 * Watch and Ward, who are constanly bickering and trip each other up at every turn. Dr. Girlfriend and the Monarch might qualify, too.
 * Kevin and Tim-Tom, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's Murderous Moppets, definitely fit all known qualifications for this trope.
 * A Lampshade Hanging:
 * 21: What?! You're kidding, right? Let me give a hint: you know how every time you talk to me, there's usually another guy next to me. That's 24.


 * Just any duo voiced by Hammer and Publick might qualify for this.
 * Inverted by Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder, the OSI operatives sent to Jonas Venture, Jr. to help defeat The Monarch.
 * And then played straight in the Season 4 finale when it turns out
 * Transformers
 * Megatron and Starscream in various incarnations would count if they'd stop insulting each other in the midst of their exposition.
 * Transformers: Beast Machines has Obsidian and Strika, legendary generals.
 * And various pairs like Rumble and Frenzy and all of the Decepticon Targetmasters, Headmasters, and Duocons, the G1 Scorponok and his partner Lord Zarak arguably being the most iconic example.
 * Transformers Animated also has Blitzwing and Lugnut, who tend to hang out together even when they aren't actually fighting anyone. The funny thing about that is, because of Blitzwing's near-Literal Split Personality, they can either be brains and brawn (Lugnut and "cold" Blitzwing), brawn and brawn (Lugnut and "hot" Blitzwing), or brains and WTF!? (Lugnut and random Blitzwing).
 * Not to mention Runabout and Runamuck, an inseparable pair of Beavis and Butthead-like delinquents.
 * Perhaps most emblematically, Spaceshot and Blackout, the mismatched pair who operates one of the most powerful weapons of the Decepticons' entire fighting force, the Decepticon Anti-Aircraft Base. Spaceshot is dutiful, dedicated, and heroic (yes, there are heroic Decepticons), while Blackout is a cowardly, spineless, would-be deserter. What's more, as Micromaster Combiners, they each transform into one half of a vehicle mode, with the other one turning into the other half.
 * Ransack and Crumplezone in Cybertron.
 * And every incarnation of the Dreadwing and Smokescreen molds from G2, including the originals, BB and Starscream from Beast Wars II, Gigant Bomb and Smokesniper from Robot Masters, and Smokejumper and Dreadwind from Robots in Disguise and Armada. While the various incarnations have their idiosyncracies, the constant is that they're Brains and Brawn who pal around to cover up their weakness in either area.
 * Similarly, the original Dreadwind and Darkwing, as well; Like Dreadwing and Smokescreen, they can also combine. (Their combined form is called Dreadwing, but isn't to be confused with the other Dreadwings. Well, not all of them, anyway.) Also, Dreadwind and Darkwing each has an organic partner who powers them up. However, they don't get along with their partners so well.
 * Transformers Prime: Knock-Out and Breakdown.
 * Dumb Muscle Korg and his secretly Not So Harmless Butt Monkey Zet in Magi Nation.
 * Gila and Diesel from Night Hood.
 * Hack and Slash of Re Boot. Or at least, they would be if they weren't so dumb.
 * Two-Badd in He Man and The Masters of The Universe. They even have the name down. They're also a subversion, starting out (in the 2002 series, at least) as rival bounty hunters Tuvar and Baddrha hired by Skeletor to bring down He-Man... before they're turned into a two-headed monster for screwing up the mission.
 * Gutsman and Cutman in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man production. Shame about their IQs. Elecman and Bombman are a less frequent but definite evil duo.
 * The Fairly Odd Parents
 * Though more jerkasses than true bad guys, Tad and Chad fit this role.
 * HP and Sanderson.
 * And on the few occasions they've teamed up, HP and Anti-Cosmo.
 * Bogel and Weird on The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo, whose purpose was to serve the Monster of the Week.
 * Kip and Beidermen from The Wild Thornberrys.
 * In Seabert, Carbon (whose name rhymes with "brawn") and Sulfuric.
 * The Twins from Superjail have this sort of dynamic at times.
 * The Vreedle Brothers from Ben 10 Alien Force.
 * Hip and Hop (Lemmy and Iggy) from the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World cartoons.
 * #88 and #89 from American Dragon: Jake Long.
 * In the second season of Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Duke Igthorn is given some ogres that are different from his normal unnamed Mooks: Gad (who is purple) and Zook (who's green with orange hair). The two are always seen together and, as the series progresses, becomes much more prominent.
 * The Simpsons has two groups, claiming to be on opposite sides of the law: the Springfield Police Department's Lou and Eddie ("Maybe we don't want to give you a ticket.") and the Legitimate Businessmen's Club's Legs and Louie. That other guy? He doesn't count.
 * Rufus and Twig, the Dweasels, from Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders.
 * Invader Zim: Almighty Tallest Red and Purple. An interesting example, because they're technically the Big Bad Duumvirate, but since Zim is the main villain trying to take over the Earth they mostly just act as Mac Guffins, exposition or comic relief.
 * Skulk and Sammy from The Little Flying Bears.
 * Xin Fu and Master Yu, the two bounty hunters hired to track down Toph, from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * Dick Dastardly and Muttley were popular enough on Wacky Races to get their own show the following season.
 * Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
 * Spike and Whitey from Flushed Away.

Real Life

 * Mr. Burke and Mr. Hare, the infamous Edinburgh duo who sold their victim's bodies to an anatomist as medical cadavers, fit the trope fairly well, apart from maybe the exposition bit.