Comedian duo

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Paul Cézanne : Pierrot and Harlequin (Mardi Gras - Carnival), 1888

A comedian duo is a figure constellation in film , circus , theater or cabaret , in which two actors appear as a comic couple .

General

The two partners of a comedian duo are usually different in temperament and behavior, their comedy is usually still determined by opposing physiognomy (big / small), intelligence (smart / stupid) or character traits (good / bad). Often the two opponents deal with the question of the status of authority and its loss, which can also lead to a (brief) role reversal. The loser enjoys the recognition of the audience, for example through a successful pun or a language parade , as does the superior. The comedian couple is a very traditional type whose external contrast already suggests the gradient between the characters: "Two people, one huge, the other tiny, walk along arm in arm with dignity."

In the tradition of the circus , the comic duo as is White Clown and silly August announced the White Clown, the authority is by the clumsiness is made of August in question. In cabaret , the comedian duo appears as a double conference . The best-known film comedian couple is Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy , who made over a hundred films as a comedian duo from 1927.

In China there is the tradition of Xiangsheng as a comedic dialogue between two actors.

circus

White clown and stupid August : Les Rossyann

In the classic circus , the arrangement of the two contrasting comic figures consists of the white clown and stupid August , with the elegant, blasé, pseudo-intellectual white clown always trying to torment the other, dumber one. And the other, the helpless and supposedly oppressed, strikes back with even greater meanness.

This milestone was created in the development of the modern clown around 1900 in the Renz circus by Tom Belling , who invented the clown figure of "Stupid August", who was originally just a clumsy stable boy, dressed in a poorly fitting, too tight suit, patched trousers and oversized ones Shoes. In addition, the white clown in a sumptuous costume made of velvet and silk, bloomers up to the knees, silk stockings, elegant shoes, with a characteristic white face paint, mouth and ears red and black lines as eyebrows. At first glance, the stupid August appears to be the black sheep, chaos, idiot, destroyer and unlucky raven, while the white clown in his expensive suit symbolizes grace, elegance and order, in short the angelic, good aspects. The two soon appeared as a team that was even allowed to make a fool of the director (= the authorities) with its pranks.

The white clown goes back to Harlequin , Pierrot and Gracioso , its ancestor is the mimus albus , the “white mime ” (from then on the clown's face became white), who played the funny role in the ancient comedies of the Roman theater . Stupid August also goes back to antiquity, the centunculus (hundred spots) played his rough jokes in markets and public places. He appeared in a brightly colored costume, pants and jacket were patched up from many rags, his comical effect was heightened by the fact that he appeared without shoes and without hair. He already had the bald head that is one of the distinguishing features of today's “incompetent” clown, as well as the oversized heelless shoes that cause his strange gait. The gestures, facial expressions and posture of the incompetent clown are reduced: his whole appearance heralds failure.

The concept developed by Renz of the always quarreling couple of white clown and stupid August is almost exactly retained to this day and has been adopted by countless clown actors all over the world. Federico Fellini explained the argument between the two clown characters as follows: "The white clown and August - they are teacher and child, mother and rascal, one could also say: the angel with the fiery sword and the sinner."

cabaret

In cabaret , the comedian duo often appears in the form of a double conference , which consists of a "linguistic duel" consisting of a dialogue between two actors, one of whom takes on the role of a clever and educated conversation partner, while the other acts as a dumbfound fool. This shape originally came from Budapest and was perfected by Karl Farkas and Fritz Grünbaum in Vienna in the 1920s . Farkas appeared with Grünbaum for the first time on November 1, 1922 in the Simpl cabaret in Vienna, Farkas gave the clever ones, Grünbaum the stupid ones. Farkas later formed such a comedian duo with Ernst Waldbrunn (“Der G'scheite und der Blöde”) and with Maxi Böhm . At first, the double conference was more of a transition than an independent comic number, the actors also addressed each other by their real names. After the Second World War, however, with Waldbrunn as “Stupid”, pairs of figures such as Mr. Berger and Mr. Schöberl were created for television, who no longer only played in front of the curtain, but in the backdrops. Farkas defined the double conference as follows: “A double conference is a dialogue between a foolish person and a fool, whereby the fool tries to explain something clever to the fool as intelligently as possible, so that the fool is able to give as silly answers as possible - with him Result that in the end the stupid is not smarter, but the thing is too stupid for the clever. "

The comedian couple Liesl Karlstadt and Karl Valentin (1933)
Max Rott at the Orpheum in Budapest , where he performed together with Benjamin Pale
Tünnes and Schäl , group of figures by Heinz Klein-Arendt
Manzai -Duo (color wood print by Yajima Gogaku, between 1818 and 1830)
  • The Viennese folk singer Johann Baptist Moser (1799–1863) created so-called “Conversations” in which the types of the “clever” and the “stupid” (often supplemented by the “Frotzler”) met: The Conversation in Paradeisgartl (1866 ), Conversation on Birthdays , The Two Chair Bearers (1843), The Conversation in Front of the Displacement Office , and The Conversation in the Glass House (1859).
  • From 1911 Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt were a congenial couple in cabaret and film in a stage partnership that lasted about 25 years . Valentin was of a long, lean figure, which he emphasized with slapstick-like inserts, his apparent awkwardness exposed the absurdities of modern society. "With inexorable sharpness of wit and absurd comedy, they pierced the categories of reality and already anticipated categories of absurd theater ". Liesl Karlstadt was small and corpulent, slipped into various roles through disguises and often presented the best samples of her talent in trouser roles . At the side of Valentin she played the mischievous " confirmation ", the clumsy assistant in the photo studio and in the theater (The repaired headlight) as well as the jovial "neurologist", the stressed wife (The theater visit) and the authoritarian conductor in the orchestra rehearsal .
  • Together with Benjamin Blaß, Max Rott formed the singing and comedian duo “Gebrüder Rott”, which performed in the Orpheum in Budapest with Jewish jargon comics that were performed in Yiddish- tinged Viennese and later also gained great popularity in Vienna. When Benjamin Blaß fell ill in 1899, Rott found Bernhard Liebel as a new partner.
  • Dzigan and Szumacher (also: Shumacher), was made up of Szymon (Shimen) Dzigan (1905–1980) and Jisroel Szumacher (1908–1961), who came from Lodz and played in Yiddish in Poland before the Second World War and then in Israel. They also appeared in the film Our Children (Poland 1948), in which the comedian duo play all the roles from a Scholem Alejchem story for children who survived the Holocaust as orphans.
  • Wolfgang Neuss formed a duo with Wolfgang Müller from 1949, they appeared as "The Two Wolfgangs". In 1950 they went to West Berlin , where they accepted an engagement in the cabaret Die Bonbonniere . They stood out in supporting roles in the musical Kiss me Kate in 1955 and also staged a parody of the musical called Shooting Me Tell . From then on, they received one film offer after another.
  • Helmut Qualtinger and Gerhard Bronner formed a comedian duo in the Viennese cabaret of the 1960s in the sketch series "Travnicek", in which a "typical Viennese" (Qualtinger as a related figure of his " Mr. Karl ") petty and intolerant about various topics such as vacation, Christmas, election, ball season and motorization, which his friend (Bronner) enticingly demonstrated to him.
  • In the GDR , Eberhard Cohrs and his long-time partner Horst Feuerstein formed a popular stand-up comedy duo.
  • Cabaret Divertimento is a Swiss comedian duo that cultivates a diverse and sometimes experimental mix of sketches , dialogues, vocal interludes and parodies .
  • The Tadbrothers are a German-Jewish comedian couple, consisting of the brothers Avi and David Toubiana, with programs of self-deprecating Jewish humor , such as “theater comedy”.
  • Heinz Werner Kraehkamp and Michael Altmann formed the cabaret duo "Hartmann und Braun" for over 30 years since the 1970s, in which Hartmann was the sensitive and sarcastic philosopher and Braun was a clown of deeply penetrating narrow-mindedness. The two were also in F. K. Waechter 's children's theater classic School with Clowns (premiered in 1975) and from 1983 to 1986 with Waechter's "Kiebich und Dutz" ( Adolf Grimme Prize ), a successful comedian duo in which Kraehkamp (as a former acrobatic clown) the stout but agile engine was, Altmann the reserved, skeptical white clown . Also in Sean O'Casey's slapstick homage The End of the Beginning (see below theater) Kraehkamp and Altmann stood on stage as a comedian duo for twelve years.
  • Muckenstruntz & Bamschabl was an Austrian comedian duo consisting of Peter Traxler and Wolfgang Katzer , who met in 1975 on the ORF youth program “Spotlight” and from 1976 appeared together as the “One and a Half Man Show”. Their different heights of 1.56 and 1.98 m (“Little Mucki and the Long Schabl”) and their appearance in black tails were striking. The duo was active until Traxler's death in 2011.
  • Werner Schneyder and Dieter Hildebrandt founded a cabaret duo in 1974 with five programs in eight years. In 1982 the couple separated, in order to get together again in 1984 for a significant guest performance in the GDR in terms of cabaret history ( encore Leipzig ). As stage actors, the two appeared in Neil Simon's Sonny Boys (see below) as an aging show duo. Compared to Roger Willemsen , who gave the role of the nosy intellectual, Hildebrandt later appeared as "morally outraged".
  • Nickelodeon is a British comedy couple consisting of Krissie Illing and Mark Britton , who as William & Wilma have been a lovable chaos couple of bizarre entertainment since 1984 and appear as "world champions of nonsense". After years of world tour, the duo settled in Germany in the early 1990s and played the programs Dinner for Two and Great Lovers in History . After a six-year break, a new production of Great Lovers in History and the Christmas Dinner for Two started in Hamburg in 2005 . Since 2012 they can be seen on the stages with Costa del Love .
Nickelodeon: Costa del Love 2014
  • Cabaret AZ refers to the Cologne cabaret duo Corinne Walter and Frank Zollner. She prefers to depict grotesquely exaggerated everyday situations.
  • Ursus & Nadeschkin are a Swiss comedian and cabaret duo founded in 1987, consisting of Urs Wehrli and Nadja Sieger, who, after six full-length stage productions and a season at the Swiss National Circus Knie, are among the most renowned stage couples in Switzerland. Their program is a mixture of cabaret, expressive dance, acrobatics and acting.
  • The Duo Fischbach is a Swiss comedian duo, consisting of Antonia Limacher and Peter Freiburghaus, representing a married couple (Llilian and Ernst Fischbach) who are almost always at odds: Fischbach's Christmas (1990), Fischbach's wedding (1991), Fischbach's im Knie (1998) or Turkish Honey (2005). Her first TV appearance was in 1991 on the program “Viktor's Program”.
  • Uncle Fisch is a German comedy duo consisting of Adrian Engels and Markus Riedinger. ONKeL fISCH became known through their radio comedy programs on 1 Live .
  • Her mistress is the cabaret couple Lisa Politt and Gunter Schmidt, who do political cabaret with a high musical content.
  • Ernst and Heinrich is a Swabian duo, consisting of Ernst Mantel and Heiner Reiff, who perform a mixture of comedy, recital, cabaret and parody.
  • Emmi & Herr Willnowsky are a comedian duo, consisting of Christoph Dompke (alias Emmi) and Christian Willner (alias Valentin Willnowsky) as an unsuccessful, aging chamber singer and penniless pianist and composer from the former Soviet Union , who made appearances in German-speaking countries through stage and television appearances is known.
  • Manzai is a Japanese variant of the double conference , which is native to Kansai and its regional dialect , in which two comedians tell jokes and perform skits at high speed. The two opponents “fool each other”, with the roles of the slightly crazier, punch- initiating Boke and the formative, contradicting Tsukkomi being firmly distributed.
  • Comedian duos do not always consist of two actors or clowns, but can also consist of humans and animals. Examples of this are clown Karandasch with his dog or clown Oleg Konstantinowitsch Popow with his dog; also on television at CBS there was a comedy series with a talking horse and its owner as partner Mr. Ed , as well as the comedian duo on six legs, Florin and Cato. Tom and Jerry achieved world fame as cartoon characters .
  • The Austrian cabaret artists Josef Hader and Alfred Dorfer appeared for a long time as a cabaret duo, their program " India " was filmed in 1993 by Paul Harather .
  • Without Rolf there is a Swiss cabaret duo, consisting of the Lucerne cabaret artists Christof Wolfisberg and Jonas Anderhub, who are jointly responsible for the texts and the execution. When they appear, they leaf through posters on which words and sentences are preprinted. Without Rolf, they tour Switzerland, Germany, Austria and South Tyrol with their programs, also in English and French.
  • Theo Hitzig and Bruno Gschwind (Christian Höhener and Peter Winkler) shaped the 2007 tour of Circus Knie as "the fast tall one and the slow little one" , before they went independent as the comedian duo Lapsus .
  • The two legendary characters Tünnes and Schäl from the Hänneschen puppet theater of the city of Cologne can also be described as a comedian duo, whereby Tünnes is a bulbous-nosed, rustic type with a peaceful disposition and a certain peasant cunning , and Schäl’s figure is slimmer and always wears a tailcoat . His character is portrayed as rogue, cunning and even sneaky.

Movie and TV

The comedian duo Siegfried Arno and Kurt Gerron in 1931 at a cooking exhibition
Oscar Heiler and Willy Reichert as Häberle and Pfleiderer at the Friedrichsbau-Theater in Stuttgart
The duo Erkan and Stefan at the radio exhibition Berlin 2006

Germany and Austria

The comedian duo, established from cabaret and slapstick films, was also picked up on television and changed in composition since the 1980s.

United States

Comedian duos, preferably made up of two male actors, were particularly popular early on in American films. The most famous example are the comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who were successful in silent films with their slapstick comics and then also celebrated success in talkies. Many of the well-known duos had already established themselves on stage and / or on the radio before switching to film. Female duos were rarer, among which actually only the pairing Marie Dressler / Polly Moran , both of whom were under contract with MGM , had lasting commercial success.

Laurel and Hardy , the most famous comedian duo in film history, 1943
  • Laurel and Hardy ( Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy ) are the most famous comedian duo in film history and became partners in 1926. They first appeared in countless short films for Hal Roach , whose turbulent slapstick comedies became world successes, before making the leap to full-length feature films in 1931. The fat "Ollie" embodied the fatherly type in the films, who often has to watch in desperation as his friend "Stan" causes a disaster. Stan is the naive and clumsy part. In 1939 there were contractual problems with producer Hal Roach, which is why Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had to split up for the time being. 20th Century Fox re-signed the couple, but most new productions failed to match the success of their previous films. Nevertheless, the two continued to produce until 1952 and made 106 films between 1927 and 1951. In the German rental versions, the two were incorrectly called "Dick and Doof".
  • Roscoe Arbuckle , nicknamed "Fatty" because of his bulky figure, formed several partnerships in the American slapstick genre during the silent film era , primarily with Buster Keaton (whom he discovered in 1917), but also with Charlie Chaplin .
  • Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton appeared in Chaplin's 1956 film Limelight , the only joint appearance of the two most famous silent film comedians in a homage to the London vaudeville scene as a classic comedian duo of the slapstick era as a violinist (Chaplin) and pianist (Keaton).
  • Polly Moran and Marie Dressler , one of the few female comedian couples, first worked together in a film for MGM in 1927 , which brought them to the screen together as a team. Usually the two were seen as landlords who actually don't like each other, but whose children fall in love with each other. Their appearances together were so popular that they made ten films between 1927 and 1932.
  • Olsen and Johnson was an American comedian duo consisting of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson , who had their careers together in small vaudeville clubs . In 1930 they were hired by Warner Bros. for the film. In 1938 they had their greatest success with the Revue Hellzapoppin , first on Broadway and in 1941 also as a film.
  • Abbott and Costello ( Bud Abbott / Lou Costello ) appeared together in shows and on the screen in the straightman / clown constellation since the 1930s and were among the most popular film stars of their time. They made their first nationwide appearance on the Kate Smith Radio Hour Show in 1938 and signed a deal with Universal Studios the following year . In 1940 they filmed One Night in the Tropics with their famous number Who's on First? her first film and by 1956 a total of 35 films together, including the 1948 horror comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ( Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein ). The duo also got their own television series (The Abbott and Costello Show) , which first aired in 1952 and 1953, as well as several radio shows. They also acted as presenters on several episodes of the live television show The Colgate Comedy Hour .
  • Robert Woolsey and Bert Wheeler had success on Broadway before the two appeared for RKO as Wheeler & Woolsey between 1929 and 1937 in 24 films together with music and dance interludes. The first joint film production was the film version of Rio Rita (1929), the musical in which she with him in 1927 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. had met. While Wheeler embodied the type of the romantic lover, Woolsey, who always wore round glasses and cigar as attributes, acted as the comic part. The films were particularly successful because of the duo's quick and absurd puns .
  • Gracie Allen and George Burns were a comedian couple and had their first success on a popular radio show in the United States before continuing their careers in film and television. They made 25 comedies together between 1929 and 1942 and were the stars of their own sketch show from 1950 to 1958 called "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show". They also hosted a successful radio show from 1934 to 1950.
  • Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were one of the rare couples who appeared as a comedian duo, with their show I Love Lucy they created the first American sitcom to invent the genre, and in Ball as a slightly crazy wife and Arnaz as her husband, semi-autobiographical occurred. This encroachment of reality into television fiction has become a hallmark of American sitcoms. On I Love Lucy (1951-1957) sequels followed The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960) and The Lucy Show (1962-1968), later in Here's Lucy was renamed (1968-1974). Some episodes ran under the title Hoppla Lucy 1971/72 on ZDF . Another television show, Life with Lucy , was no longer successful in 1986.
  • Amos and Andy (Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll) played from 1928 on a radio show in America that was based on the minstrel acts, and in which the two portrayed poor black people who come to Chicago from Georgia and become taxi drivers.
  • Frick and Frack , consisting of Werner Groebli and Hans (Hansruedi) Mauch from Basel , was a strange figure skaters -pair in the US from the 1930s to 1950s, which in lederhosen and traditional " Oktoberfest occurred" -Outfit, where the duo defying acrobatic tricks performed on the ice, such as the complicated and extremely painful "cantilever spread-eagle" (outstretched eagle) by Groebli and the famous "rubber legs" by Mauch, who was able to twist his legs on the ice and bend them rubber-like. They also starred in films such as Silver Skates (1943) and Lady, Let's Dance (1944).
  • Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin had already had a hugely successful career in nightclubs and revue theaters when they made their film debut in 1949. The first appearance was still as a supporting actor, but already with the follow-up film, the two comedians were presented in situations specially tailored to their talents. Between 1949 and 1956 they made a total of 17 films together.
  • Bob Hope and Bing Crosby shot as a comedian duo between 1940 and 1962 the series of comedy "Road" films (to Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali, Hong Kong).
  • Elaine May and Mike Nichols were a successful comedy duo. The pair made a sensational debut on Broadway in 1960 with An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May .
  • Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor formed one of the most popular comedian duos of the time in the 1970s and 1980s. They have appeared together in numerous films, such as Trans-America-Express ( Silver Streak , 1976) Zwei insanely strong guys (Stir Crazy, 1980) or Die Glücksjäger (See No Evil, Hear No Evil, 1989)
  • Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon formed an extremely popular combination of pessimist and optimist in American films and played in a total of ten films, often directed by Billy Wilder , including Der Glückspilz (1966), Ein seltsames Paar (1967), Extrablatt (1974 ) and Buddy Buddy (1981) and are considered by some to be "the best comedian couple that ever went to the cinema".
  • Cheech and Chong is a comedy and actor duo consisting of Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin , who starred in the Cheech and Chong film franchise in the 1970s and 1980s . They are considered to be the pioneers of the stoner movie , a film genre that is primarily defined by a comical and exaggerated depiction of cannabis use .
  • Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi first appeared as "Blues Brothers" on the NBC show Saturday Night Live in 1977 and made the 1980 film of the same name, Blues Brothers , in which they played Jake Blues, who was just released from prison, and his brother Elwood to start a wild musical chase that became a cult.
  • Statler and Waldorf , the puppet duo from the Muppet Show (1976–1981) can also be classified among the comedian duos. The two older men are regulars of the show and watch the action from their box. They comment on everyone and everything with sarcastic remarks and behave as if the Muppet Show was the very last. Thanks to their sayings - especially their closing words after the credits - they achieved cult status and became the secret stars of the show.
  • C-3PO and R2-D2 , the robots in Star Wars ( Star Wars ) seem to be recreated as “machine double human figures” comedian couples like Laurel and Hardy or Pat and Patachon .
  • Jay and Silent Bob are two drug dealers who appear in various films by Kevin Smith , who also plays Silent Bob.
  • Harold & Kumar are another popular stoner duo in US cinema.
  • Beavis and Butt-Head from the satirical cartoon series of the same name, which was very successful in the 90s and was reprinted from 2010.
  • Ernie and Bert are two of the most famous and popular characters from the children's show Sesame Street .

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom , traditionally known for its special humor , comic actors, both single and double, also have a long tradition. Examples for this are:

Other countries

  • Pat and Patachon (Danish Fyrtårnet og Bivognen or Fy og Bi ) were a Danish comedian duo of the silent film era , consisting of Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen , who made 55 films between 1921 and 1940. Translated, her name means lighthouse and pendant. The tall, lanky Pat and the small, plump Patachon delighted with their warm-hearted comedy and appeared as tramps who walked around in torn clothes and a few sizes with little clothes or used an old piece of rope as a belt. The two celebrated successes all over Europe and became famous in Germany and Austria as "Pat & Patachon", in Norway as "Telegrafstolpen og Tilhengeren" (telegraph pole and trailer), in the Netherlands as "Watt en Halfwatt", in France as "Doublepatte et Patachon ”, in Great Britain as“ Long & Short ”and in Sweden as“ Fyrtornet och Släpvagnen ”. The proverbial expression “like Pat and Patachon” jokingly describes the clumsy-looking side by side of two people with very different physiques.
  • Fernandel and Gino Cervi formed a comedian duo as Don Camillo and Peppone in the films of the Italian Don Camillo and Peppone series in the 1950s , with the powerful and shrewd Catholic priest Don Camillo in constant conflict with the communist mayor Giuseppe Bottazzi, known as Peppone , who are connected by their common past as partisans .
  • Franco & Ciccio was an Italian comedian duo in which Franco Franchi took on the role of an uneducated, shaggy man from the people, while Ciccio Ingrassia was an aristocratic, well-behaved citizen who mostly stoically endured the misfortunes caused by Franchi. In the tradition of the Italian burlesque comedians , their appearances were also of a musical and acrobatic nature.
  • Bud Spencer and Terence Hill were the most successful comedian duo of the 1970s in numerous Italian western comedies such as The Devil's Right and Left Hand (1970) and Four Fists for a Hallelujah (1971). Hill was the wiry, tricky charmer, Spencer the stubborn, phlegmatic , but good-hearted character. The two were powerful adventurers who excelled with flippant sayings. The obligatory beatings were bloodless and parodistically exaggerated. During that decade, the two appeared together in nine films like Two Heavenly Dogs on the Way to Hell (1972), Two Unstoppable (1978), The Crocodile and His Hippo (1979), or Two Strong As A Bear (1983), all of which were manufactured according to the same recipe for success and have regularly achieved great success. The recipe for success was not used up until the mid-1980s. After a ten-year hiatus, the two actors were seen together again in 1994 in " The Troublemaker ".
  • Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu played as a comedy duo in the early 1980s a total of three comedies to classics of modern French cinema have become, where Richard the scattered and always pity represented causing ordinary citizens and Depardieu the uncouth louts: A Tolpatsch Hazzard , Two crazy jokers and the fugitives .
  • Downtown is a Japanese comedy duo consisting of Hitoshi Matsumoto ( 松 本人 志 ) and Masatoshi Hamada ( 浜 田 雅 功 , "Hama-chan").
  • Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker, also known as the Ylvis brothers or Ylvis , are two Norwegian comedians who became known around the world for their video "The Fox", which they filmed for their talk show "I kveld med Ylvis".
  • Viktor Giacobbo and Mike Müller have been moderating the weekly satirical program Giacobbo / Müller as a late night show on Swiss television since 2008 .
  • The Canadians Kenneth Hotz and Spencer Rice were featured in the comedy show Kenny vs. Spenny known as Elton vs. Simon with Elton and Simon Gosejohann was adapted.

theatre

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza . Bronze figures at the monument to Cervantes (background) in Madrid.

In both classical and, above all, modern dramatic literature, pairs of figures often appear, which are either portrayed by famous comedian duos or whose author was inspired for these characters by an already existing comedian duo. Often the characters differ diametrically in appearance, character and mentality and are therefore also portrayed by actors who have these characteristics and use them for comical effects. In the theater, the comedian duo orients itself on the encounter between the protagonist and the antagonist in classical ancient Greek theater , whose confrontation creates a dramatic situation. As a result, fighting situations arise between partners with opposite interests. This also characterizes the encounter of comic characters in the theater who - often with a fixed distribution of roles - become a comedian duo as soon as their properties represent stereotypes or use complementary / contradicting features to create a comic effect.

The duality between the small fat and the large thin can be found again and again in modern literature since the novel Don Quixote (1605–1615) by Miguel de Cervantes . The main character Don Quixote, the "knight of the sad figure" and his servant Sancho Panza (translated "holy belly") form a duo, which is formed from the classic configuration of tall, lean master and small, fat servant and numerous pairs of actors with the opportunity for great comedic achievements, such as in the film Pat & Patachon (1926), Fjodor Chaliapin / George Robey (1933), Nikolai Cherkasov / Yuri Tolubeyev (1957), Josef Meinrad / Roger Carel (1965), Jean Rochefort / Johnny Depp , John Lithgow / Bob Hoskins and Christoph Maria Herbst / Johann Hillmann and in the musical Der Mann von La Mancha Peter O'Toole / James Coco, Rex Harrison / Frank Finlay , Josef Meinrad / Fritz Muliar , Karlheinz Hackl / Robert Meyer and Jacques Brel / Darío Moreno .

An early comedian couple at the theater were the characters of Arlecchino and Brighella in the Commedia dell'arte , who depicted their characters in masks with defined typifications, with Arlecchino ( Harlequin ) representing the voice of the people in naive cheerfulness and madness and Brighella its devious counterpart was. The doubling of the booby and the clash of the two offered the opportunity to intensify the comic effect. This constellation is later found in the pairing Pierrot - Harlequin , with Harlequin becoming the alter ego of Pierrot, who embodies his dark side and becomes his doppelganger, even as "two sides of a single soul" even his "brother". In the pieces of Commedia dell'Arte, Arleccino also enters into strange partnerships with the old curmudgeon Pantalone or his opponent Dottore .

In William Shakespeare's plays, comic characters appearing as a couple is a frequently used form, with which the serious plot is interrupted by comic interludes. The most famous are the two gravedigger in Hamlet (who are called "Clowns" in the version of the play from 1603) and who talk about death and transience as if in a cabaret sketch . In Shakespeare's What you want , Sir Tobias Rülp and the knight Bleichenwang form a famous couple. The drunkards Trinculo and Stephano in " The Storm " and the two murderers in Richard III. appear as a comedian couple. The latter are the main characters in John von Düffel's comedy Shakespeare, Murderer, Pulp & Fiktion , where they are the dumb hired killers Pulp and fiction "with the recklessness of two clown characters" the bizarre murder duo Jules and Vincent (played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson ) are recreated in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction .

Wenzel Scholz and Johann Nestroy as National Guardsmen during the March Revolution of 1848

The poet and actor Johann Nestroy and his partner Wenzel Scholz were a famous duo of the Wiener Vormärz , who mainly appeared in the antics of the old Viennese folk theater in the Viennese suburban theaters. Nestroy was tall, slender and gaunt, whose figure "collapsed in half with the applause," Scholz was squat and had a round, mostly motionless face with nimble, lively eyes and a phlegmatic temperament that was in stark contrast to Nestroy, who was with spoke in a tone of "withering mockery". Their great success was due to the fact that Nestroy wrote many roles for himself and his partner Scholz. Their interplay became famous as the shoemaker Knierim and Schneider Zwirn in Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus (1833), as a hairdresser and clothes cleaner in Das Haus der Temperamente (1837), as a millionaire Herr von Lips and Schlosser Gluthammer in Der Zerrissene (1844) and as a son Wendelin and Father Pfrim in fear of hell (1849). In addition to Nestroy's cutting irony, Scholz's seeming harmlessness was indispensable. “Johann Nestroy and Wenzel Scholz seemed to have shared the inheritance of Hanswurst : all sharpness and mobility fell to Nestroy, everything broad and comfortable came to Scholz. Nestroy always had to achieve his success, Scholz had already won when he appeared. Scholz was a representative of the competent, tolerant, Nestroy a representative of the active, attacking comedy ”( Ludwig Speidel ).

20th century

The famous comedian pair of modern theater are the figures of Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1952) as "metaphysical clown" in their appearance, in a black suit with the "Chaplinhut", black melon , as clownish tramp are modeled on the apparition of Charlie Chaplin and spend their time "like a crazy comedian couple" in an indefinable place waiting for a person named Godot, whom they do not know, about whom they do not know exactly, not even whether they even exist. The duality of metaphysics and clowns knows many examples, Jean Anouilh called Waiting for Godot “ Pascal's ' thoughts ' among the Fratellini ” (“Le sketch des Pensées de Pascal par les Fratellini”). The theater historian Pierre Temkine believed he recognized the two desperate people as "two Jews fleeing the Nazis". The author Samuel Beckett saw the ideal cast for Waiting for Godot in the comedian duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, he also thought a lot of the Bavarian "comedian of the absurd", Karl Valentin and his partner Liesl Karlstadt . Famous pairings in these roles were Ernst Schröder / Heinz Rühmann (1954, Münchner Kammerspiele , director: Fritz Kortner ), Burgess Meredith / Zero Mostel , (1961, TV, director: Alan Schneider ), Heinz Reincke / Kurt Sowinetz (1963, in the film , Director: Rolf Hädrich ), Horst Bollmann / Stefan Wigger (1975, Schillertheater Berlin , director: Samuel Beckett), Peter Lühr / Thomas Holtzmann (1984, Münchner Kammerspiele, director: George Tabori ), Steve Martin / Robin Williams (1988, Lincoln Center , New York City ) Traugott Buhre / Branko Samarovski (1991, Burgtheater Vienna ), Michael Maertens / Ernst Stötzner (2002, Bochumer Schauspielhaus), Ian McKellen / Patrick Stewart (2009, Theater Royal Haymarket London) and Samuel Finzi / Wolfram Koch ( 2014, Deutsches Theater Berlin ). In a production by Luc Bondy (1999, Théâtre Vidy Lausanne ), the couple recalled the famous film The Old Couple with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau .

Beckett also used this duo construction in his play Endspiel (1956) and in his novel Mercier and Camier (1946), which Otto Sander and Peter Fitz worked on as a duo for the stage in the early 1980s. It depicts, in absurd comedy, the common journey of two Chaplin tramps who, in the style of Waiting for Godot, only plan a trip with a bicycle, an umbrella, a weather jacket and a sack, but in which they do not get very far.

This constellation has also influenced Tom Stoppard's play "Rosenkranz and Güldenstern are dead" (1966), in which two marginal characters from Shakespeare's " Hamlet " (1602) as a Laurel and Hardy-like couple ( Laurel and Hardy on Acid ) in Beckett's drama remember, two men who are as alike as strangers and who get lost in the game of Hamlet as much as in life. Their philosophical rhetoric resembles the Waiting for Godot dialogues . In the film, the characters were portrayed in 1990 by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth , whose “word tennis match” borrowed from the double conference in cabaret .

Alfred Jarry used the construction principle of the clowns in the circus with the Ubu couple in his classic of the surreal theater King Ubu (first performance 1896). Fernando Arrabal wrote: “The unbelievable Ubu is the hemorrhagic Stan Laurel disguised as an anorexic Oliver Hardy.” In 2008, Samuel Finzi and Wolfram Koch were “a comedian couple to kneel down” at the Free Volksbühne Berlin and cited this constellation as moderators of “Faust “-Theatre award ceremony 2010 in a fight with theater blood and tattered pants.

Karl Kraus used the comedian couple in his monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind (1915–1922). The characters of the nagger and the optimist appear here as satirical commentators and, in the "tradition of the comic couple" (Hilde Haider-Pregler), use elements from entertainment culture: optimist (plump, small), nag (lean, tall). They were played by Peter Lühr / Leonard Steckel , Karl Paryla / Hans Holt , Helmuth Lohner / Peter Weck or Thomas Maurer / Florian Scheuba . The characters of “Subscriber” and “Patriot”, fanatical newspaper readers whose dialogues resemble the sketch and the double conference in cabaret, meet in an even more cabaret-like manner . They were played by Otto Tausig / Ernst Waldbrunn or Paulus Manker / Emmy Werner , for example .

Sean O'Casey put a slapstick couple on stage in his 1937 burlesque comedy The End of the Beginning , which set off a chain of domestic catastrophes reminiscent of the orgies of destruction from Laurel and Hardy's films. Actors like Otto Sander / Wolf Redl , Heinz Werner Kraehkamp / Michael Altmann , Oliver Nägele / Michael von Au or Branko Samarovski / Rolf Ludwig played this Tour de Force.

Neil Simon showed in his Broadway comedy Sonny Boys (1972) the old comedian duo Willie Clarke and Al Lewis, one of whom is demanding and choleric, the other, his former variety partner, calm and level-headed. It is precisely this trait that upsets the other and endangers their reappearance together. The play was filmed in 1975 with Walter Matthau and George Burns ( Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) as The Sunny Boys and offered an ideal template for many great comedian couples such as Harald Juhnke / Wolfgang Spier , Bernhard Minetti / Martin Held , Johannes Heesters / Carl-Heinz Schroth , Heinz Rühmann / Paul Verhoeven , Gerd Voss / Ignaz Kirchner , Werner Schneyder / Dieter Hildebrandt , Peter Striebeck / Ralf Schermuly , Otto Schenk / Helmuth Lohner , Harald Serafin / Peter Weck or Dirk Stermann / Stefan Grissemann .

Botho Strauss used the comedian duo explicitly in his play The Fool and His Wife Tonight In Pancomedia in the two vaudeville comedians Alfredo and Vittorio, for whom Strauss "is able to construct endless existential language warfare from a single antagonism". Actors in this pairing were Fritz Schediwy / Ernst Stötzner and later Christian Habicht / Rainer Philippi , Rudolf Wessely / Fred Stillkrauth and Robert Meyer / Branko Samarovski .

Gert Voss and Ignaz Kirchner appeared in numerous pieces as a duo at the Vienna Burgtheater , mostly in the black comedies of George Tabori (Goldberg Variations, 1991) or in Neil Simon's Die Sunshine Boys (2003), but also in Samuel Beckett's Endspiel and in Jean Genets The Maids . Their joint appearance began in classical pieces such as Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Shylock / Antonio) and Othello (Othello / Iago). "Like Shylock and Antonio, like Othello and Jago, Mr. Jay and Goldberg are a sadomasochistic male couple - a combination like master and servant, father and son, Laurel and Hardy." Voss formed such a comedian partnership with Branko Samarovski in Taboris Requiem for a Spy (1993).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henri Bergson: The Laughter. An essay on the importance of the comic . Arche, Zurich 1972
  2. ↑ Knut Hickethier, Border Crosser Between Theater and Cinema , Edition Mythos Berlin, 1986
  3. ↑ One of the most famous comedian duos
  4. ↑ Werner Scheyder 1001 laughter. kurier.at
  5. ↑ Markus Kupferblum : The philosophy of the clown . (PDF)
  6. ^ Clown history in Renz.
  7. ↑ Beppo Beyerl: The dressage of the diaphragm . In: Wiener Zeitung , May 20, 1998; accessed November 20, 2013
  8. ↑ The clown
  9. ↑ Stefan Schlenker: The clown - history, origin, development.
  10. ↑ Julia Sobieszek: Laughing in the cellar. The Simpl from 1912 until today . Amalthea, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85002-610-9
  11. ^ Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt. on: br-online.de
  12. ^ 3sat.de Liesl Karlstadt and Karl Valentin. TV film about the famous comedian couple
  13. ^ Georg Wacks: The Budapest Orpheum Society . Holzhausen, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85493-054-2 .
  14. ↑ Jewish Comedians (PDF)
  15. ↑ The Tadbrothers: German-Jewish comedian couple. on: compass-infodienst.de
  16. ↑ schuettekeller.de
  17. ↑ daszelt.ch
  18. ↑ ohnerolf.ch
  19. ↑ lapsus.ch
  20. ↑ diepresse.com
  21. ↑ walter-riml.at
  22. ↑ ghetto-theresienstadt.info
  23. ↑ cinegraph.de CineGraph: Siegfried Arno
  24. ↑ von-zeit-zu-zeit.de ( Memento from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Rudi's world. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 31, 2002.
  26. ↑ a b Joan-Kristin Bleicher: From popular humor to comedy. Forays into the history of television humor. ( Memento from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 200 kB) Stuttgart Media University, 2004, p. 83.
  27. ↑ See e.g. B. An optician sketch by Harald and Eddi and The Two Ronnies ( Memento from January 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  28. ↑ FOCUS-Online, October 29, 2007
  29. ↑ The comedian duo In: Sven Bulla: From the Music Hall to the film farce. GRIN, 2008, ISBN 978-3-640-23206-2 , p. 10.
  30. ↑ abbottandcostello.net
  31. ↑ The Story Of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey ( Memento from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
  33. ↑ I love Lucy
  34. ↑ http://www.amosandy.com/
  35. ^ Werner Groebli: Ice Skating's Frick, Dies at 92
  36. ↑ Comedian duo Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. In: Fischer Film Almanach 1992. ISBN 3-596-11198-6 , p. 25. ( Online in the Google book search)
  37. ↑ A strange couple. on: moviemaster.de
  38. ^ Hans J. Wulff: Star Trek between popular culture and knowledge agency . (PDF) derwulff.de
  39. ↑ Comedian duo Pat and Patachon. In: Harm G. Schröter: History of Scandinavia. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53622-9 , p. 78. ( Online in the Google book search)
  40. ↑ doncamillo.homepage.t-online.de
  41. ↑ critic.de
  42. ↑ a b Raymonde Temkine, Pierre Temkine, Valentin Temkine: Waiting for Godot . the absurd and the story. Ed .: Denis Thouard, Tim Trzaskalik. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88221-714-8 .
  43. ↑ Balagancik and commedia dell'arte.
  44. ↑ Georg Kasch: mastermind, puppeteer.
  45. ↑ stattgespraech.de
  46. ^ Johann Nestroy. In: Herbert Küsel: newspaper article. Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg 1973, p. 230. ( Online in the Google book search)
  47. ^ Gina Thomas: "Godot" in London: Beckett's Entertainer - FAZ.net
  48. ^ Arts, January 27, 1953; quoted after Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett. Traduit de l'anglais by Léo Dilé, Paris 1978
  49. ↑ Manuela Reichart: Late salvation of honor of a comedian duo. About Sven Hanuscheck: Laurel and Hardy. A revision. Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-552-05506-3 .
  50. ↑ Show fun with Godot . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1988, pp. 237 ( online ).
  51. ↑ Richard Reich: Happy Waiting for Godot . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 27, 1999
  52. ↑ Josefa Beyer: Review: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead.
  53. ↑ Fernando Arrabal : The incredible Ubu and his "Toiletgate" (El 'presidente-Ubu' y el 'retrete-gate'). El Mundo
  54. ↑ Christine Wahl: Ruepel's dream . In: Der Tagesspiegel , May 24, 2008.
  55. ↑ derwesten.de
  56. ↑ Theater from the end of WW1 to the end of WW2 ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  57. ↑ Petra Hallmayer: The shortened man.
  58. ↑ Matthias Heine: Faustel and Gretel lost in the forest of words. In: The world. April 28, 2001.
  59. ^ Theater Today , August 1991