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Comic Trio: Difference between revisions
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If a comedy show has three main characters, they will almost always fill stock roles in the plot. To get how it works, imagine this scenario:
Three people are in a car. The navigator considers himself [[The Leader]] and the smartest, who tries to get the three of them to their destination; but he's seriously out of touch with reality, or has no idea what he's doing but refuses to admit it, and shouts bizarre directions that will inevitably lead to the car going off a cliff.
The driver is a total moron who [[The Blind Leading the Blind|blindly does whatever he's told]]. So, with the navigator screaming directions at him, the car approaches the cliff. In theory, the driver could stop at any time, but he keeps following instructions out of stupidity, ignorance, or spinelessness.
Meanwhile, trapped in the back seat, is the [[Only Sane Man]]. He doesn't have to be smart, but he is the only guy who is fully aware they're about to fly off a cliff, and he's completely unable to stop it. He tries to alert the navigator, but he can't outshout that bullying idiot. He tries to reason with the driver, but since he obviously isn't the designated navigator, the driver happily ignores him. He then looks to the wheel to grab it from the driver, but he doesn't have the guts to try, and risk crashing the car himself. It is his reaction that is usually focused on most as the car goes sailing off the cliff...
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Often the [[Only Sane Man]] resigns himself to his position of powerlessness, even [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] to comment on the hopeless situation. This kind of third man orten becomes a [[Deadpan Snarker]] to deal with their inevitable and repeated doom, and is the most likely to remain calm as the car plummets to its doom.
That's the [[Comic Trio]]. One character powers the plot with their bizarre obsessions, one keeps it going by blindly following orders, and a [[Straight Man]] ''fails'' to prevent the disaster.
The most common set-up is for the navigator to be a [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] and incompetent [[Schemer]] whose schemes always backfire, but there are other ways to do it.
In clowning, these positions are referred to as Whiteface, Auguste, and Tramp.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* The Team Rocket trio in the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime: Jessie and Meowth alternate roles as scheming navigator and driver, though Jessie is often more loudmouthed, while James more often than not suffers in some way, frequently at the expense of his bottle cap collection. James also can act as the driver when Jessie is the navigator, with Meowth too nervous about getting yelled at by Jessie to do anything (often the scenario in earlier episodes). Whenever any one of them decides to enter a competition (other than Jessie's Pokémon Contests) and try to win fair and square for once, they can always count on the other two mess everything up by obliviously playing the villain right as the "good" third actually seems to have a chance at winning.
** It's also been well established that Brock can't follow a map to save his life and Ash (at least before Misty left) is more enthusiastic than smart. He actually even marched right off a cliff once, though, too his credit, he was in a dense fog.
* [[Shin Chan|Shin-chan]] thinks Ryuko, Ogin and Mary (the Crimson Scorpions of Saitama) are this. [[Hilarity Ensues]]!
* The Yorozuya from ''[[Gintama]]'' qualifies. Kagura is the schemer, Gintoki is the follower (despite being the leader of the group), and Shinpachi is the voice of reason, but they change the roles every now and then.
* Also Ino-Shika-Cho in ''[[Naruto]]'' during the Chunin Exams specifically. Their first team battle when saving Sakura is amusing to say the least (the anime even gives it some quirky, fun background music) and in the Viz translation of the manga, Naruto even refers to them as 'The Three Stooges'.
** They even seem to fit the roles of the Comic Trio too: back then, Ino was definitely the hot-headed, driving force of the team, often shooting down the lazy but intelligent Shikamaru's ideas, while bossing Choji around
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* The Chaotix of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Vector is the schemer, Charmy is the follower, and Espio is usually powerless.
** In ''[[Sonic Colors]]'', Eggman is the schemer, Cubot is the follower, and Orbot is powerless.
** Team Rose in Sonic Heroes: Amy is the schemer, Big is the follower, and Cream is powerless.
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi]], under [[Depending on the Writer|certain interpretations]]. Mario is the schemer, Yoshi the follower, and Luigi is powerless.
* Being one of the more light-hearted and comical iterations of the franchise, [[
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'''Josh''': Wait a second Chris, what seems to be the problem here?
(It should be noted that before this scene, Olan gets offended and shoots "Chris", however, he seems to be perfectly fine.) }}
* The Red Team in Red Vs. Blue are often examples of this, with Sarge being the navigator, Simmons going along with it through thoughts of promotion and glory, and Grif being too lazy to stop them
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* ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'': Shake is insane, Meatwad is stupid, Frylock is powerless.
** This is a possible [[Double Subversion]], insofar as, ''as a superhero'', Frylock is easily the most powerful of the three, with a great deal of inherent destructive potential ''plus'' gadgeteering. He's just completely ineffectual when it comes to stopping Shake's antics.
** To be fair, Frylock, as said, is far from powerless, he just has a lot of self-restraint.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' has the mildly ditzy Sweetie Belle, the gung-ho Scootaloo, and the practical, sane Applebloom. Generally, Scootaloo will suggest something crazy, Applebloom will go along with it and Sweetie Belle (who despite being a bit ditzy actually has the most [[Common Sense]] of the three) won't complain loud enough to avoid getting dragged along. Apple Bloom isn't stupid by any means, she's just game for anything.
* ''[[Beast Wars]]'': [[The Dragon|Inferno]], [[The Brute|Quickstrike]] and [[The Chew Toy|Waspinator]] are frequently paired together to carry out minor schemes of Megatron's. Inferno is in charge and gives the orders, but is absolutely batshit crazy. Quickstrike's a complete idiot who will blindly follow anyone who gives him a chance to slag somebody. Waspinator is aware of how ridiculous the two are but is too powerless to do anything but complain to himself, and usually suffers for it.
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