A Brief History Of The Straight Man/ Funny Man Comedy Duo

The concept of the straight man/funny man has been around for thousands of years. Some of these duos remain cultural icons to this day, while most have faded into total obscurity.

The first acknowledged straight man/funny man comedy duo was uncovered by archeologists on a dig in Nevada. They found cave paintings that told the story of "KROD & DORK" who acted out intricate hunting stories that always ended up with DORK getting whacked on the head with a club, or DORK tripping and falling buttocks first onto a porcupine. The cave drawings even indicated that KROD & DORK charged a cover of 3 Sticks/show.

Dan Brown, author of the best selling book "The Davinci Code," has insisted for years that Jesus & Judas (pronounced Hay-soos & Hoo-duss) started out as a musical comedy duo until their relationship eventually soured. He claims that Jesus was the straight man and main writer, while Judas' talents lay mainly in providing harmonies and doing pratfalls. Brown even goes so far as to hypothosize that The Sermon On The Mount was the first ever concert presentation and the impitus for the duo's downfall. He insists that the bible code reveals that Jesus made off with all the door receipts and it angered Judas (and the Roman Winery that sponsored the event) so much that Jesus was hunted down and crucified for "screwing 'em over."

Europe was taken by storm in the late 18th Century by the first ever multi cultural comedy pairing of The Earl Of Martin & The Marquis de Louis. Very little is known about this comedy duo other than the Marquis de Louis was thrown in prison for spraying Luis XVI (no relation) with a misfired spit-take. Apparently, The Marquis de Louis died of syphilis just days before the Storming of the Bastille.

But it was the days of American Vaudeville that saw the comedy duo rise to previously unknown heights. Literally millions of comedy duos popped up over night and quite often comedy bits (bits of comedy) were shared among performers. In fact, one of the most famous bits of comedy (comedy bit) Who's On First" is often credited to Bud Abbott & Lou Costello when it was actually first explored and brought to stage (although in slightly different form) by 2 New York intellectuals by the name of Jackie Black & Steven White. These two students of existentialism were fed up by base humor involving banana peels and wooden planks to the head. They wanted to raise the bar a little by exploring a more cerebral approach to comedy. Perhaps it was the cumbersome title that made their version of it fail. They called the bit "Why Is Who On First, And Why Would Anyone Bother Going To Second And Then On To Third When An Umpire Who Was Created By Human Beings To Give Their Pathetic Lives Meaning, Would Call Them Out Anyway?"
Say what you will about Abbot & Costello's originalitiy, but their version made depression era audiences less depressed.

The late 1960's and early 1970's saw a resurgence of sorts for the comedy duo. But it didn't take long for audiences to reject bit's about doing acid, psychedellic music, and gang-banging Goldie Hawn.

Maybe the Straight Man/Funny Man comedy duo will make a triumphant return. Maybe one day the marquee will shine again with names like "Punky & Brewster," or, "Roe & Wade." Who knows?

K, bye for now