I like Laurel and Hardy better than Abbot and Costello, although I can’t say for sure why that is.
The Stooges are just the Stooges. No one else compares, and no one should want to.
Jack Benny made everyone who ever played with him into half the greatest comedy team in the world. The art of straight man never had a greater practioner.
Robber: “Your money or your life!”
Benny:
Tris (rolling on the floor)
“When I was born, I was so surprised, I didn’t speak for a year and a half!” ~ Gracie Allen ~
Oh golly…Morecambe and Wise could get more laughs with less than any comedy team I can think of. That thing Morecambe always did with the paper bag never fails to have me in hysterics. The BBC still broadcast their old programs. Their films are somewhat dated, but much of the television stuff holds up remarkably well.
Other British comedy teams of note:
Flanders & Swann (they of the “Hippopotamus Song” and “Madeira, M’Dear”)
Reeves & Mortimer (a postmodern Morecambe and Wise, really)
Harry Enfield, Kathy Burke, and Paul Whitehouse (a.k.a. “Harry Enfield & Chums”)
Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune (largely impersonation and political satire)
Armstrong & Miller
Most of these are from television (or stage and radio, in the first case), not film (as the OP requested), although Harry Enfield & Kathy Burke recently hit the big screen in their “Kevin & Perry” personae.
Oh, and Mats…“Roy and HG”? Are you kidding me? Next thing you’ll be telling me you like Hale and Pace…
I’ve noticed a strong representation from older teams. All the names so far are great and bring back great memories.
But does the fact that most teams date from the fifties and prior mean that there are no good or funny teams today or just that there are too few of them.
What I think it means is that Comedy routines - and by extention, comedy teams - need time and countless re-tellings to become considered as classics. Add to that the tendancy to go solo (e.g. Jim Carey and “In Living Colour”), and it is not surprising that there are fewer “recent” teams…
IMHO the Goons deserve to be seen as ground-breakers, if not all-time classics, since it was them who pioneered the art of “anarchic” or “non-sequiter” comedy.
Nobody has yet mentioned Wayne and Shuster, from Canada. They were staples on the Ed Sullivan Show, but they also had a number of CBC specials where they used to do a lot of their homegrown stuff.
One such sketch attempted to explain why Canadians say “eh.” Seems it was because the names of so many of our domestic cigarette brands end in the “eh” sound: Export A, Craven A, DuMaurier, Matinee…
Still, a lot of their material translates pretty well internationally. I can still recall at least one of their classic moments:
(One of the two walks into a bar in ancient Rome.)
Bartender: What’ll you have?
Patron: I’ll have a martinus.
Bartender: Don’t you mean a martini?
Patron: If I wanted a double, I would have asked for a double!
Well, I guess you had to be there. But even in old reruns, they can still make me laugh.
It’s probably also worth mentioning Jennifer Saunders, either teamed up with Dawn French (or “The Vicar of Dibbley” fame) or with Joanna Lumley (of “Ab Fab”). I’m sure French and Saunders have appeared in some movie or another…
Also rather fond of the Smothers Brothers myself, particularly their take on “I Talk to the Trees” from Paint Your Wagon. Hell, any of their versions of American folk songs was hilarious.
This is one show that TVLand ought to rebroadcast.
I know they’re fairly obscure, but the team that had me laughing the most when I was younger was Skiles and Henderson. Even though I can’t remember an example of anything they did except for a routine where they sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” three words off the beat.
Also a big no prize and a tip of the Hatlo hat to anyone who remembers The Times Square Two.
Damn, but I wish Rhino or somebody would put their old albums on CDs! I need to be able to hear “The Fox” or “Since My Canary Died” in the car. Then again, maybe not. I’d have a lot of wrecks.
How about Burns and Schreiber? I don’t think they were in any movies either.
Two of my favorites are Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. Spouse and I saw them do a show at the Paramount in Seattle last april. HILARIOUS!!! I know they didn’t do movies (or if they did, they’re forgettable ones) but they are funny, funny men. LOVED the “Baseball player’s farewell” skit.
As for teams, do you mean duos or groups? Because I can’t believe that no one’s mentioned Monty Python yet! Classic british humor, never gets tired or old, always funny!
Oooh, how could I forget Savoy and Brennan? Bert Savoy was one of the first great camp drag queens and Jay Brennan was his—you should pardon the expression—straight man. I have tapes of two of their routines from the early 1920s, and they are hilarious!
Bert Savoy was struck and killed by lightning on Jones Beach in 1923. Rumor had it that he heard a clap of thunder and was struck after putting one hand on his hip, looking skyward and saying, “Mmm-mmm! Ain’t Miss God kickin’ up somethin’ fierce tonight!”!
