If you believe in the phrase “two heads are better than one,” you’ll probably make a terrible surgeon, but you just might be right for a comedy double act.
As the name suggests, the art form involves two people performing comedy in tandem. As such, their relationship is often what drives the laughs, especially with the audience’s understanding of their shared relationship. If you and a partner are looking to take your comedic journey to the next level, we’ve got a guide to crafting hilarious duets, based on some of the most famous twofers of all time.
The unusual character vs. the voice of reason
Many duos, especially in the formative, vaudeville-tinged days of comedy, fall into this classic pairing of energies. The unusual character presents an absurd point of view, while the straight man presents a reasonable sentiment on the same subject.
To quote one of our great comedic axioms: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Much like great pop music can be built on a familiar, even formulaic chorus, our love of comedy often stems from this fundamental, omnipresent arrangement of ideas. Working in a double act means you’re starting from a proven foundation, which also leaves you a lot of ceiling to explore.
The Voice of Reason: How to Play the Straight Man in a Comedy Scene Or radical peas in a pod
An underrated style of comedy is the “peas in a pod” scene. Basically, this is two characters who are both on board with an unusual point of view. There is no traditional straight man present; both characters believe in, and thus can heighten, the absurd core of the joke.
To play peas in a pod with radical agreement is to present an intoxicating work of comedy to your audience, doubling the power of the premise. But you might still need a grounding force, so don’t be afraid to gently gesture to an off-stage voice of reason (e.g., “Most people think we’re weird for doing this, but we think…”).
Sharing is caring
Being in a comedy double act means, by definition, you are sharing 50% of the spotlight. There’s no room for hot-dogging, stage-hogging, or stealing focus from your partner. Like sketch comedy, which double acts will most often be performing, your goal is to understand how you serve the scene or bit, and do that with aplomb. It’s the opposite of the oxygen mask rule: Make your partner look good before you make yourself look good.
Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are undoubtedly a pair of comedy icons to study. In this Academy Award–winning short, you can clearly see their comedically opposed characters—talkative versus silent, frustrated versus open-minded. It’s also worth noting their broad, universal emphasis on physical humor.
Abbott and Costello
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are a classic, exalted comedy double act for a reason. In their crisp “Who’s on First?” routine, the fundamentals are performed impeccably, with each performer inhabiting the role they need to disseminate the jokes perfectly, never stepping on each other’s toes. Also, notice how Costello, the more emotionally volatile performer, is actually the voice of reason in this sketch.
Burns and Allen
Husband-and-wife team George Burns and Gracie Allen delivered classic bits through radio, movies, and television. Their dynamic is simple and palpable: Burns is the unflappable, deadpan straight man while Allen is the unhinged, oblivious unusual character.
Nichols and May
Beyond their individual careers as iconic filmmakers, Mike Nichols and Elaine May were an influential, improvisational comedy duo. Their contemporary-feeling work can be felt in longform improv house teams to this day, and their groupthink is groundbreaking to behold.
Cheech and Chong
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are a great example of a comedy duo that finds different shades of the same energy, rather than the dynamic of unusual versus voice of reason. Chong may be more chill and Cheech may be more high-strung, but they both fundamentally want the same things.
Tim and Eric
Catapulting us into the 21st century are Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, who fling themselves at all matters of postmodern absurdities with editing-aided gusto. They’re a wonderful study of how to use the foundations of a double act with an au courant edge and an eye on stretching premises to their surreal limits.
The Lucas brothers
Most pairs are sketch-leaning, but the form can also be used in the standup space. Here, Kenny and Keith Lucas deliver jokes with an almost eerie “exactly the same” energy (and that’s not just because they’re twins).
Key and Peele
Through five seasons of their sketch show, comedy double act Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele never fell into a repeated, obvious rhythm—and that unpredictability became their rhythm. They commit wholeheartedly not just to their characters but to their base realities, giving their work a sense of realism among the outrageousness.
Kate Berlant and John Early
Through their joint standup appearances, short films, and televised comedy special, Berlant and Early have perfected a group mind tempered with the uncanny valley of a certain modern way of speaking and behaving. There’s always something just a little wrong at the center of their comedy, spiraling it into quiet anarchy.
