Straight man
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The term "straight man" refers to the member of a team of comedians who represents the sensible mainstream world.[1] He or she asks the questions, or makes the comments that the funny member of the team riffs on, or misinterprets.
Counter-intuitively, when the two members of the team are paid differently, it is the straight man who receives more pay.
Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis are classic examples of this kind of comedy due.
References
- ↑ Kevin Mullaney. Do we really need a straight man to make comedy work?. Retrieved on 2023-12-31. “Often two person comedy scenes will have one character who is inappropriate, absurd, irrational, illogical or weird, and another character who’s role is to react to this strange character as we think an average person might. This other character is usually more reasonable, skeptical, logical, or rational than the strange one.”