No way Eric Morecambe was the straight man to Ernie Wise, though.
I read about an interesting linguistic tidbit recently. The general rule in English is that a commonly used pair of contrasting terms will put the one that is closest to the speaker first and then work outwards from the speaker. So we say this and that, here and there, now and then, near and far, us and them, me and you. But there are some exceptions like past and present and you and I.
Of course aesthetics and rhythm matter. Sometimes other concerns override, but if rhythm didn’t matter, Poe couldn’t have made “The Raven” sound so creepy by violating the typical rhythm.
“Once upon a midnight dreary,” is four trochees in a row, and “quoth the raven ‘Nevermore,’” is trochee-trochee-anapest.
As in the famous example “the French red big bus”. Native English speakers typically see something wrong with it, but it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what is wrong with it. “The big red French bus” sounds a lot more natural. Hundreds of them come down from Montreal every summer to major tourist traps on the US east coast.