Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,907
edits
Straight Man: Difference between revisions
removed unnecessary italics from new entry, added missing word; pothole text elsewhere
mNo edit summary |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (removed unnecessary italics from new entry, added missing word; pothole text elsewhere) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:straightman2 5026.png|link=The Order of the Stick|
{{quote|''"Well, the straight guy is never given enough credit...[[Abbott and Costello|[Bud] Abbott]] gets no credit for framing a gag, for the architecture, for the support, for the drive. He does everything except the punchline; he's amazing."''
|'''[[Mel Brooks]]'''}}
Somebody has to set up the joke so the funny guy can deliver the punch line. That's the Straight Man. He rarely gets the funny lines, but has to have impeccable timing and delivery so that the comic (the other half of a comedy duo) can hit it out of the park. [[Abbott and Costello|Bud Abbott]] (widely considered the greatest Straight Man of all time) had to say "[[Who's on First?|Who's on first]]" with just the right degree of earnestness and irritation so that [[Abbott and Costello|Lou Costello]] could get big laughs saying "Whaddya askin' me for?".
Line 19 ⟶ 20:
[[I Thought It Meant|Not to be confused with]] a heterosexual man, as many, many examples on this page show.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* In ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', Tomoya often takes the role of the "Straight Man" in regards to pranking other characters, particularly Sunohara
* Yomi and Nyamo, ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]''.
Line 117 ⟶ 118:
* Ironically, Jerry is usually the straight man to his wacky friends on ''[[Seinfeld]]''. despite being a stand-up comedian himself.
* This gets used ''a lot'' in the shows ''[[Yes Minister]]'' and ''[[Yes Prime Minister]]''. Essentially, Hacker and Humphrey are ''both'' playing the Straight Man role to Bernard. The actor who played Bernard has even gone so far as to say in an interview that, though his role was technically the most minor of the three main roles, he feels that he got the best job, because Hacker and Humphrey would often have extremely long sections of memorized, straight dialogue (which, given Humphrey's penchant for [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]], is all the more impressive) before he jumped in with a short, but often hilarious, punchline.
*
** ''[[Get Smart]]'' follows this same pattern of "one sane woman"; Agent 99 is a lone intelligent character as foil to a ship of fools (86, 13, Chief). The series [[Jumping the Shark|jumps the shark]] upon moving from NBC to CBS for its ill-fated final season where the "99" character, as the one sane figure, is effectively demoted from secret agent to yesterday's little woman and mum of twins.
* [[Our Angels Are Different|Castiel]] on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', especially in Season 5. He doesn't understand when the other characters are being funny and/or sarcastic, which makes his sincere replies hilariously adorable.
** In earlier seasons, Sam often played the Straight Man to Dean.
* Gordon Kaye as Rene Artois on English sitcom ''[['Allo 'Allo!
* The calm, introspective Sargeant Wilson was straight man to the bombastic Captain Mainwearing on ''[[Dad's Army|Dads Army]]'', another WWII English sitcom (this time about the Home Guard).
* ''[[Friends]]''. Although Chandler was more of a [[Deadpan Snarker]], he was definitely the straight man to Joey's foil. In one case, he was able to pull it off without even saying anything, as the group prepared to head to London:
| |||