Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Burns and AllenBurns and AllenStart with: The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (CBS, 1950 to 1958) The original template for the patient straight man and the partner whose logic runs on its own track. George Burns and Gracie Allen met in 1922, married in 1926 and carried the act from vaudeville to radio and then television.…0
  2. 2Laurel and HardyLaurel and HardyStart with: The Music Box (1932) The screen's great slow-burn partnership. Stan Laurel played the clumsy, childlike one and Oliver Hardy the pompous gentleman who suffers for it, and the comedy lives in the pauses: Ollie's long look into the camera, Stan's crumpling face. Off screen the division…0
  3. 3Abbott and CostelloAbbott and CostelloStart with: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), then "Who's on First?" in The Naughty Nineties (1945) Bud Abbott was the sharp, scheming straight man and Lou Costello the flustered innocent, a burlesque setup they first worked together in 1935 and drilled until the rhythm became the…0
  4. 4Bob and RayBob and RayStart with: the "Slow Talkers of America" sketch Radio's driest double act and the quiet ancestor of every deadpan parody on this list. Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were Boston announcers who filled rained-out Red Sox airtime with improvised banter until WHDH gave them a weekday show in 1946, and…0
  5. 5Martin and LewisMartin and LewisStart with: Artists and Models (1955) The loudest, loosest act of the postwar nightclub boom. Dean Martin sang, stayed cool and played straight man, a thankless job he made look effortless, while Jerry Lewis turned into a flailing, shrieking man-child around him. They debuted at Atlantic City's…0
  6. 6Nichols and MayNichols and MayStart with: An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May (1960 album) The duo that moved comedy from jokes to scenes. Mike Nichols and Elaine May met at the University of Chicago and began at the Compass Players, the forerunner of Second City, building improvised two-handers about telephone…0
  7. 7Stiller and MearaStiller and MearaStart with: their Ed Sullivan Show sketches (1963 to 1971) A husband-and-wife team who made marriage itself the material. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were among the first graduates of Chicago's Second City to become famous, and their sketches lampooned everything from marriage to everyday life…0
  8. 8Smothers BrothersSmothers BrothersStart with: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS) Two brothers, a guitar and a double bass, and a folk song that never gets finished. Tom Smothers played the clueless one, Dick the exasperated straight man, and their musical numbers kept collapsing into sibling squabbles that Tom ended with his…0
  9. 9Rowan & Martin's Laugh-InRowan & Martin's Laugh-InDan Rowan and Dick Martin, hosts of Laugh-In (NBC, 1968 to 1973) Rowan and Martin were a nightclub double act of the most traditional kind: Rowan the exasperated straight man, Martin the dim guy who derailed every introduction with misunderstandings and tangents. Their genius was putting that…0
  10. 10Cheech & ChongCheech & ChongStart with: Up in Smoke (1978), then the album Los Cochinos The act that turned the counterculture into a two-man road show. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong met in Vancouver and found their audience on comedy records, playing sketches like radio plays with a buzz on. There is no real straight man…0