One of the oldest comedy memes. You have two characters, one of whom is an imbecile and the other is grouchy and bad-tempered. The grouchy one is by default the dominant one because the idiot is too stupid; but the idiot is constantly doing stupid things that usually result in the grouch getting hurt (which may explain why he’s so bad tempered). If there’s a third party, they’re usually the straightman/voice of reason, whose presence explains how the two losers have survived this long. Two questions: how many of these can you think of, and is this already mentioned on Tropes under some name?
Ones I can think of right off the top:
Laurel & Hardy
The Three Bears (Looney Tunes) Papa Bear, Junior, and Momma Bear
Ralph Kramden & Ed Norton (with their wives collectively the Voice of Reason)
ditto Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble and wives.
Ren & Stimpy
Billy, Mandy, & Grim
Of Mice and Men’s George & Lennie (the original isn’t a comedy but it’s the base of countless parodies).
Pinky and the Brain
The Indian (?) guy and any other guy from Big Bang Theory. (Not really idiots, but I’ve never seen an episode where he does anything smart like the other guys.) Does Sheldon being an anti-idiot count against the other smart guys?
Joe and Averell Dalton (from Lucky Luke). The other two brothers are non-descript and generally just there to keep Joe from killing Averell.
Asterix & Obelix too, to an extent - Asterix isn’t really a grouch, but Obelix’s antics tend to drive him bonkers.
I Dream of Jeannie kind of had this going on. Jeannie may not have been an Idiot per se, but she could be ditzy; and Major Nelson was certainly a Grouch.
These are character types from the tradition of clowning. They are known as the “whiteface clown” (or sometimes just “clown”) and “auguste”. There is also a type called the “contra-auguste” who is sort of intermediate between the two.
Moe = clown
Larry = contra-auguste
Curly = auguste
The same dynamic is found in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers:
Franklin = clown
Phineas = contra-auguste
Fat Freddy = auguste
Charlie & Frank from “Always Sunny”. Only when the two of them are alone though - if any other members of the gang are present, the dynamics change substantially.
Reading up on some of these teams, like Abbott & Costello and the Smothers Brothers, I find it interesting that the one playing the idiot was usually the dominant one with the act and are polar opposite of their on film roles.
Allen and Rossi Burns and Schreiber
To a slight extent, Rowan and Martin; Rowan usually took Martin’s comments calmly, but he became exasperated from time to time.
Monty Python in things like “The Cheese Shop” and “The Dead Parrot.”
