Can Someone Be Both the Funny Man and the Straight Man

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Obi-Wan Takes the Loftier Basis! - The Loop

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"Well, the straight guy is never given enough credit...[Bud] Abbott gets no credit for framing a gag, for the architecture, for the support, for the drive. He does everything except the punchline; he's amazing."

Somebody has to set up the joke so the funny guy tin can deliver the dial line. That's the Straight Man. He rarely gets the funny lines, but has to take impeccable timing and delivery and then that the comic (the other half of a comedy duo) can hit information technology out of the park. Bud Abbott (widely considered the greatest Directly Human of all time) had to say "Who's on first" with just the right degree of earnestness and irritation and then that Lou Costello could get big laughs saying "Whaddya askin' me for?".

The all-time Straight Men are and then practiced they can sometimes get laughs just by delivering a direct line and so well the audience knows what's coming. (This is substantially the basis of Bob Newhart's "phone" routines: he was playing the Straight Man to zero.) Other straight men in comedy duos take included George Burns (with Gracie Allen), Dean Martin (with Jerry Lewis), and Dan Rowan (with Dick Martin of Express joy-In).

In less-comedic works, the Straight Human is a Foil for the Bunny Ears Lawyer, Magnificent Bounder or Loveable Rogue.

If the Straight Man is the lead in an ensemble similar a Power Trio or Five-Homo Band or even a evidence with Loads and Loads of Characters, this tin can lead to them suffering Designated Protagonist Syndrome by being overshadowed by the rest of the cast who get more interesting plot roles and grapheme development.

The term can apply to women, merely "comedic foil" is a more popular unisex term. In fact women in comic pairings accept frequently played this role over the concluding few decades usually with Women Are Wiser coming into play.

In Idiot box comedy, a Directly Man is frequently one one-half of an Odd Couple.

Run across too The Comically Serious, Directly Human being and Wise Guy and But Sane Man. Likewise Deadpan Snarker, which quite a few comedic foils are. If multiple characters take turns playing Straight Man, they take a game of Sanity Ball.

Not to be confused with a heterosexual man, as many, many examples on this page show.

Examples of Straight Human include:

Anime and Manga

• In Clannad, Tomoya often takes the part of the "Straight Homo" in regards to pranking other characters, particularly Sunohara
• Yomi and Nyamo, Azumanga Daioh.
• Shimura Shinpachi, Gintama. Stated by the narrator during Shinpachi's very start advent onscreen.
• Kagami from Lucky Star plays the "straight human" to Konata.
• Kyon is the straight man for Haruhi's crazyness. Though it has to be noted that Kyon is damn hilarious on his own, too.
• Tenten, from Naruto, seems to be a Directly Homo for her genin squad, since Neji is the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy (and occasional Comically Serious guy), and Gai and Lee are... Gai and Lee.
  • Although afterwards his Heel Face up Turn, Neji sometimes joins her and they form a collective direct pair (no pun intended) to Gai and Lee.
  • Amusingly enough, the Eight-Tailed Ox, an extremely powerful ancient demon, plays this to its host, the Crazy Awesome Adult Kid Killer Bee.
• In Sailor Moon, Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask is everyone's straight man.
  • He'south a master at it, on a expert 24-hour interval he has to play this office for a proficient ten people at once
• In Mahou Sensei Negima, anyone with darkness as a personality trait (Negi, Evangeline) or who has Black every bit their tonus, or Pactio color (Setsuna, Yue, Chisame) volition fill this role.
  • Eishun fills this role during the flashbacks, and Akira occasionally fills this part within the group of Muggle girls.
• In Slayers, Zelgadis is the straight man for Amelia. Lina and Gourry, meanwhile, are a fluid pair, each ane switching between straight man and comic role depending on the routine.
  • Gourry is normally directly man when Lina is plotting something or when she goes on one of her rampages of devastation. Lina is usually straight man when thickheaded Gourry tries to understand something.
    • Also, Gourry frequently tries to abandon the straight human being role by straight-upwardly telling jokes. These are e'er awful, and exit Lina exasperated. Gourry ends up disheartened, though ironically, doing this puts him in the comic role like he wanted.
• For some reason, Teana of Magical Daughter Lyrical Nanoha usually gets this part in Fan Web Comics. This was pretty much acknowledged by the people behind the franchise when they gave us an official Nanoha parody Yonkoma where Teana played the straight human for everyone. Even Fate. See.
• Chika to everyone only particularly Miu in Ichigo Mashimaro.
• Excel Saga: Watanabe are Matsuya are the directly men for the somewhat hyperactive Casanova Wannabe Iwata, and, arguably, Sumiyoshi acts like this for all three of them when Watanabe and Matsuya are of the Merely Sane Man. Excel and Hyatt play Directly Woman to each other, as both take their bizzare quirks that rarely overlap, and to Il Palazzo, who is the Comically Serious.
• In Nerima Daikon Brothers, the very sedate Ichiro typically plays the straight man for the other two members of the grouping—although he has some of his own strange quirks.
• Often, Zoro of One Piece is this to Luffy and even Sanji at times.
• Sumi from Wife and Wife plays this role for her Cloudcuckoolander wife, Kina, making her a Gay Woman Straight Human.
• Haré from Hare+Guu plays this role for pretty much everyone in the series.
• Koganei is the straight man to Amasawa's boke on-screen in The Weatherman Is My Lover.
• Piccolo from Dragon Ball certainly seems to fall into this office, particularly when Gotenks is involved.
• Himeko from Sket Dance and she takes it's very seriously.
• Transformers Cybertron: Jetfire is the straight man, with various other characters up to and including Optimus Prime number and even Primus playing the wise guy role.
• Liquid from Papuwa , as well equally Shintaro from the original serial.
• Beauty and Gasser from Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo.
• Sasshi Imamiya and Arumi Asahina from Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
• Fuyuki Hinata from Sgt Frog.
• Daily Lives of High Schoolhouse Boys take Tadakuni towards the more oddball Hidenori and Yoshitake, and Tadakuni'southward Distaff Counterpart Habara towards Yanagin and Ikushima (who are Hidenori and Yoshitake's Distaff Analogue respectively).

Comic Books

• This point is brought upwards in Batman comics on occasion; 1 of the main reasons that The Joker has given for not simply killing Batman is that the Joker sees Batman every bit his unwilling straight human being.
  • Lex Luthor is also the directly man when the villains team up.

Films — Live Activeness

• Margaret Dumont, the classic foil for the Marx Brothers, particularly Groucho. Zeppo Marx himself was a straight man for his brothers, every bit he had a non-comedic stage persona, but all the requisite timing and skill.
  • Afterwards Zeppo's difference, other actors (such every bit Allan Jones in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races) would have the role.
• Bud Abbott from Abbott and Costello films and radio, equally mentioned.
• In an innovative subversion, Aeroplane! had no comedic actors; in effect the unabridged cast was straight men reacting to the ridiculous situations they're put in (except Johnny, the fruitloop in the control belfry). Yes, even Leslie Nielsen. Before Airplane!, he primarily acted in horror B-movies (anyone recall Creepshow?).
  • Creepshow came ii years after Airplane!, which makes his turn as a murderous cuckold all the more unsettling.
  • He was in Forbidden Planet, however. That was anything but a comedy.
    • One Genre Savvy journalist fifty-fifty went so far as to say that Nielsen's job description was unchanged for his early on dramatic roles and the comedic roles which he became better known for: both hinged on his power to say completely ridiculous lines with a straight face up.
• Steve Carell as the eponymous graphic symbol in The 40-Yr-Sometime Virgin.
  • His role has some overtly comedic moments, every bit in the famous torso-waxing scene, in which it's the ladies doing the waxing who are playing the "straight man" role.
• Volition Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean area plays the Straight Human being to Jack Sparrow.
• Spencer Tracy in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Earth.
• Jason Lee, in pretty much any role except Vanilla Sky (where he was horribly misused).
• Jack Lemmon plays the straight man to Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple and Grumpy Old Men.
• Arguably, Larry from The Three Stooges, since his mode of sense of humor was often to simply react to the extreme characterizations of Moe and Curly (and later on Shemp).
  • Information technology is probably more authentic to say that the miscellaneous guest actors in the shorts constituted the straight men, who (like the supporting characters in Marx Bros. films) are there to act appalled at the comedians' antics.
• In a less obviously comedic instance, Paul McGann every bit Marwood/"I" plays a pitch-perfect direct homo to Richard E. Grant (Withnail) in Withnail and I, grounding his manic performance in a solid emotional reality; the film wouldn't work near as well equally it does without him.
• Kelly in Mystery Team to the wild and zany eponymous trio
• In that location'southward a good chance that if he'due south in a comedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger volition play the Direct Man. This is particulary credible in Twins and Junior, where in both he plays the straight man to Danny DeVito, simply can also been seen in films like Last Activeness Hero and Jingle All the Mode.

Literature

• On the Discworld, Rincewind and Sam Vimes seem to play the straight homo for the unabridged world.
• The trope is lampshaded and identified by name in the Dresden Files novel Blood Rites when Harry observes that one of the incidental characters is a born Straight Human being and could provide some enterprising wise guy with perfect straight lines for life.

Live-Action TV

• Monty Python'south Flight Circus often subverts this past making the Straight Man even stranger. A recurring character called The Colonel often served this role, shutting down a sketch partway through because he felt that he hadn't delivered a unmarried funny line.
  • John Cleese is the straightest man in the globe.
  • Graham Chapman, generally, played the role straight, although, he had a more active part in the humor than most direct men. Which is funny considering he was gay.
  • In the Motor Insurance sketch, in that location are subtitles that say "Straight Man" and "Another Direct Human being" referring to the sketch's... well, straight men. And even there, it's subverted to hell and back.
    • "Excuse me... do I have whatsoever more lines?
• In the uber-famous Sarah Palin-Katie Couric sketch in SNL, Amy Poehler's Katie Couric works equally the quintessential Direct (Wo)Man to Tina Fey's ridiculous Palin. Hilarity ensues.
• Mindy on Mork and Mindy, as the but human who tin deal with Mork'due south silliness without feeling threatened by it.
• Larry on Perfect Strangers.
  • Averted later the get-go flavour or and then, as Larry's wacky schemes concluded up driving the plots more than and more often. By the time the show concluded, both characters were getting an equal number of gags. All the same, Larry's original job as straight man got lampshaded most the end of the series in an Imagine Spot where Balki and he play Laurel and Hardy, respectively.
• Face is virtually always the Straight Man to counterbalance Murdock's antics, especially when they do scams together.
• Oscar is commonly the Straight Human being to Felix on The Odd Couple, except when the joke is based on Oscar'due south messy habits; then the roles are reversed.
• On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart plays the straight man to the diverse fake correspondents, who themselves tend to conduct interviews where they make their subjects unwitting straight men. Stewart also uses footage (sometimes out of context) and reports of various politicians, newmakers and media whores as straight men for his own punchlines, only information technology could be argued that sometimes what they are doing is and so outrageous that he tin simply react equally an incredulous directly man fifty-fifty for them.
  • Stewart besides plays the straight homo to Stephen Colbert whenever he does tosses over to Colbert's evidence.
• From the second serial onwards, Rowan Atkinson'south portrayal of Blackadder was more than or less a straight human being for the characters of Baldrick, Percy and George. Except when he was saying something snarky.
• Burton "Gus" Guster is Straight Human to Shawn Spencer on Psych.
  • The title of directly man is passed around to everyone that isn't Shawn, every bit Gus is part of Shawn's jokes as oft as he'south Direct human being to them. In those cases usually the direct man reverts to Lassie or Shawn'south dad.
• Hugh Laurie would usually (though by no means ever) fill this role on A Fleck of Fry and Laurie. This is appropriate, because Stephen Fry is non a direct human being.
• Flipped around on Jeeves and Wooster, where Fry plays the incomparable Jeeves to Laurie's goofy Wooster.
• Jamie is the Straight Man to Adam'due south eccentricity in MythBusters.
  • According to the other wiki, Adam was cast for co-host of the show because Jamie felt he would exist as well dry of a host on his own.
• Similarly, James May to both Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond on Top Gear.
• Everyone at the 4077th can fill this office for Eagle when needed, but the classics were Major Burns and Col. Flagg.
• A casual glance at Morecambe and Wise often leads people to conclude Ernie is the Straight Man, but in fact the ii of them ofttimes exchanged and transcended the part, as in this commutation:

Eric: How are we going to play the Three Musketeers when there'south only two of us? Ernie: Like shooting fish in a barrel, I'll play ane, and you can play the other two. Eric: Tin can I really? That'south very adept of y'all, Ern!

• Rene Auberjonois' character on Boston Legal is a combination Straight Human being and Just Sane Human being.
• The comedic duo Mitchell and Web more often than not take Mitchell as the straight man.
• Ironically, Jerry is usually the directly man to his wacky friends on Seinfeld. despite being a stand-upward comedian himself.
• This gets used a lot in the shows Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Substantially, Hacker and Humphrey are both playing the Straight Man office to Bernard. The actor who played Bernard has even gone so far as to say in an interview that, though his office was technically the nearly minor of the three primary roles, he feels that he got the all-time chore, because Hacker and Humphrey would often have extremely long sections of memorized, straight dialogue (which, given Humphrey's penchant for Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, is all the more impressive) before he jumped in with a short, but ofttimes hilarious, punchline.
• Mary Tyler Moore's MTM studio was decumbent to cast i sane woman every bit a foil for a clown car worth of idiotic or comical male main characters, such every bit her character'south boss on her eponymous sitcom or only about every grapheme except the handful of sane ladies (Jennifer, Bailey, and the station manager's elderly mum) on WKRP in Cincinnati
  • Go Smart follows this same pattern of "one sane woman"; Agent 99 is a lonely intelligent character equally foil to a transport of fools (86, 13, Main). The series jumps the shark upon moving from NBC to CBS for its ill-fated last season where the "99" character, as the one sane figure, is effectively demoted from hole-and-corner amanuensis to yesterday'south trivial adult female and mum of twins.
• Castiel on Supernatural, specially in Season 5. He doesn't empathise when the other characters are being funny and/or sarcastic, which makes his sincere replies hilariously ambrosial.
  • In earlier seasons, Sam often played the Straight Human being to Dean.
• Gordon Kaye as Rene Artois on English sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! was the Only Sane Man in a small boondocks in Nazi-occupied France, forever getting caught upwards in hare-brained schemes by Those Wacky Nazis and members of La Résistance.
• The calm, introspective Sargeant Wilson was straight man to the bombastic Captain Mainwearing on Dads Army, another WWII English sitcom (this fourth dimension about the Home Baby-sit).
• Friends. Although Chandler was more of a Deadpan Snarker, he was definitely the straight homo to Joey's foil. In one case, he was able to pull it off without even saying anything, as the group prepared to head to London:

Chandler: You lot got your passport? Joey: Yeah, in the third drawer of my dresser. Wouldn't want to lose that. Chandler: (just stares at him) Joey: ...oh! (runs back to his room)

• Jim, Pam, Toby, Stanley, and Oscar on the U.s.a. version of The Office all serve as every bit Straight Man/Woman to the wackiness that emanates from various corners of the office.
  • This makes Oscar a Invisible to Gaydar Straight Man. (You may groan now).
• Carly in iCarly. Carly is something of a "Jerry Seinfeld" instance, every bit the show is named after her. Carly provides the setup for virtually of Spencer and Sam's jokes. Her primary comedic role is to evangelize rejections to Dogged Nice Guy Freddie, who has a crush on her. Nevertheless, half the fourth dimension Sam delivers them instead. They also get phased out during Season 3 and 4, leaving her to suffer Designated Protagonist Syndrome.
• Mark and Ann on Parks and Recreation. This unfortunately makes them one the most wearisome Beta Couples of all time.
• Rodney Trotter on Only Fools and Horses.
• Frasier and Niles, while getting their ain funny lines ofttimes enough, tend to deed every bit this for Martin in Frasier.
• Rupert Giles in early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Colonal Tigh in Battlestar Galactica.
• In the first and 2nd flavour of Angel, Angel oftentimes played the direct man to Cordelia and Wesley, although Wesley would sometimes play the Straight Man himself in exchanges with Cordelia. Then in Season 5, when Cordy left the show, Angel got to play the Directly Man to Spike.
• Greg to his married woman especially, and the rest of the bandage in general in Dharma and Greg. Lampshaded a few times.
• Britta on Community has a reputation as a buzzkill.

Newspaper Comics

• FoxTrot zig-zags this. In the early years of the strip, Roger and Andy were both rather straight, with Andy occasionally being the funny one. Withal, someone slipped an Idiot Ball into Roger Play a joke on's shorts and he never removed it, so Andy was pretty much the directly one throughout most of the comic's run, although in that location have been notable instances where Roger was the direct one.
• Hobbes likewise acts like this to Calvin; although in that location are times where Calvin can identify a little fleck of quirkiness from Hobbes.

Professional Wrestling

• Vladimir Kozlov acted as ane to Santino Marella.
• When Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder teamed together, they were semi-regulars on John Morrison and The Miz'due south online show The Dirt Sheet. Hawkins would play the Straight Man to Ryder who was essentially playing the "tool" gimmick that he would adopt on ECW.

Boob Shows

• One of the all-time great directly men is Bert, the Straight Human to Ernie on Sesame Street (though he did deliver the punchline occasionally, usually in his Bated Glance at the end of the sketch).
• PPDA, the boob for Patrick Poivre D'Arvor, acts as the directly man for absolutely everybody else in Les Guignols de l'info .
• Kermit the Frog from The Muppets is the famous Straight Human being to everyone else in the cast. Yous take to experience lamentable for what he has to put upwards with sometimes, particularly from Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animate being... The guy doesn't really become a break.

Radio

• Bob and Ray were an exception to this, every bit each human could simultaneously be the direct human being and the goof, all in the same routine.
• Bud Abbott from Abbott and Costello most famously in the "Who's on Starting time?" routine.
• In Motel Pressure, Helm Martin Crieff is usually this to his co-pilot Douglas.
• Neddie Seagoon, played by Harry Secombe, was pretty much the Straight Human being to the entire bandage of The Goon Show—when he wasn't joining in the general surreal mess and leaving the journalist of the mean solar day (especially if information technology was Wallace Greenslade) as the Straight Man instead.
• Hamish and Andy has Andy
• The title graphic symbol of The Jack Benny Evidence typically played the straight man to anybody else in the cast. As Benny said, "I don't care who gets the laughs on my prove, as long equally the show is funny."

Recorded and Stand-up Comedy

• Initially, George Burns had his married woman Gracie Allen in the Straight Homo role in their comedy act... until he realized about of the laughter was at her set-upward lines and not the actual jokes. He switched roles with her and spent the side by side several decades as i of the classic straight men.
• Carl Reiner to Mel Brooks' 2000-years-onetime man is another classic of the trope.
• Dean Martin to Jerry Lewis.
• Dick Smothers to Tom Smothers.
• Jeff Dunham to his puppets. Given that he is voicing the puppets, information technology is regularly Lampshaded that he is being the straight human to himself.

Video Games

• Phoenix Wright in the series of the aforementioned proper name, who appears to act as the straight man for everyone.
  • And in the quaternary game, Apollo takes on this part, even playing the direct human to Phoenix.
  • And Edgeworth in example 5 of Trials and Tribulations and Investigations. So basically the protagonist is ever the globe's straight human.
• Peter Puppy in Earthworm Jim, who also qualifies as a Deadpan Snarker at times is ordinarily more than serious and sensitive than Jim.
• Sam from Sam and Max. This becomes a plot point in one episode where a villain specifically wants a straight human to help out with his plan, and Sam is the perfect kind of piece of cake-to-dispense character who just does what he'due south told.
• A meaning per centum of Merrill's jokes in Dragon Historic period 2 come up from her interpreting Airheaded!Hawke'southward sarcastic remarks literally.
• From Dragon Historic period Origins, nosotros have Wade & Herren. As confirmed past the developers, Herren is the straight human while Wade is the funny homo.

Spider web Blitheness

• In the original Cherry-red vs. Blue serial, this role generally fell to Church, Grif, Simmons and Tex (although Tucker and Sarge had their moments too). In the spinoff, Reconstruction, while the old characters are unchanged, Agent Washington, the new guy, fits the bill much more so.

Web Comics

• Gamal from Men in Hats.
• Tin't get out Roy from the The Order of the Stick off this list. As the Only Sane Human being in a political party with a sociopathic halfling, a Spoony Bard, a greedy rogue (is there any other kind?), a dwarf who's agape of copse, and a ability-obsessed elf, Roy has played the Directly Human to each at least once and countless times for nigh, specially halfling Belkar and bard Elan. Roy has proven to be so essential to the comedic chemical science of the The Guild of the Stick that his temporary death left the group fractured and non nearly as funny as normal.
  • Not as funny every bit normal in what context? If you lot mean the comic's comedic value has truly declined considering of that... I'd say Your Mileage May Vary. If y'all hateful the group doesn't act as funny, happy or get-lucky as cohesively on business relationship of that, that is true.
  • While Roy was expressionless and the gang was dissever, Haley became a Straight Man to Belkar and Celia, while Hinjo became the Directly Man for the others. Haley still often plays the Straight Human being to Elan.
• Cherry is the Straight Human being to Hero in RPG World. She is, in fact, prophesied to exist the Direct Man for the unabridged world, as she is the only ane who thinks at that place's something foreign about a world where all battles are turn-based and groups look like their nearly important member when viewed from afar, also making her The Called One.
• Shortpacked has theorised that Batman can make anything funny, because he is the ultimate Straight Man. When you consider that his curvation-nemesis is the Joker, we may have the oddest Odd Couple in history...
  • Ethan in the main storyline originally played Direct Human being to the rest of the bandage (fifty-fifty though he's not direct), but as fourth dimension went on, his quirks became more than pronounced, and now he's but as wacky as everyone else (admitting with more frequent moments of clarity). Now his role is filled by the newcomer, Jacob (who actually is straight).
• Zoe often takes up the Straight Man office in Sluggy Freelance, cheers to being the Only Sane Woman.
• Ozy in Ozy and Millie is normally this to Millie. And his dad. And Avery. Millie is sometimes this to Felicia.
• Elliot or Sarah in El Goonish Shive. Susan counts more as a Deadpan Snarker.
• Louise in Miscellaneous Mistake serves as the Straight Human to her Chaotic Stupid older brother.

Web Original

• In Kate Modernistic flavor 1, Tariq is often this to Gavin.
• In the Whateley Universe, Fey and Tennyo play this role to their roommates, Chaka and Generator respectively. Also, Greasy is the Straight Man and Butt Monkey for Peeper.
• Daniel from Agents of Croaky to Swaim. He himself is occasionally the direct man to other cast members.
• Paul from Llamas with Hats, to Carl'south Comedic Sociopath.

Western Animation

• Huey Freeman of The Town had go the directly man of Riley Freeman, Robert "Granddaddy" Freeman... and even Uncle Ruckus.
• Carey Ways, who plays Frylock on Aqua Teen Hunger Forcefulness, has the added privilege of playing the Direct Man to lines that usually don't even make sense spoken by anthropomorphic food items and stoned two-dimensional aliens.
• Ditto for Charles Foster Ofdenson, who plays Straight Man to Dethklok and Only Sane Man to the Metalocalypse universe.
• Raffles the border collie from Rover Dangerfield is easygoing and slightly naive compared to the title joker.
• The concept is parodied in the showtime episode of Tiny Toon Adventures when Hampton is being interviewed by Buster and Babs in which he rattles off a list of characteristics of the straight man, presenting them as his ain personal qualities.
• Ulrich of Code Lyoko often plays the Straight Man to Odd's antics.
• Puck of Gargoyles said of his Owen persona, "The Trickster has played many roles, but never that of the straight man."
  • The fangirls immediately latched on that one.
• Brian of Family Guy infamy started out as a elementary foil for Peter and/or Stewie'due south wackyness. The development of Brian'southward character gives u.s. an interesting case study in exactly what level of Character Development is advisable for these types. If all they ever do episode later on episode is set up other character'due south jokes and snark at their buffoonery, you run the take a chance of having a Flat Character. Going too far in the other management, though, takes u.s.a. into much more malignant territory, as giving likewise much exposure to a character whose master purpose is appearing more sensible and intelligent than others volition somewhen necessitate the writers revealing their own prejudices virtually just what they recall an intelligent or sensible way of life is.
• In The Simpsons, Lisa has the thankless job of playing foil to her entire boondocks. In the early days she and Bart were a classic Straight Homo and Wise Guy combo, and while this is still true, she often finds herself playing straight to most everyone else in Springfield. Luckily, she is usually fantabulous at it. Occasionally, especially in later seasons, Lisa'south more extreme personality traits volition come up to the fore and she gets to have someone else play off her for a change.
  • Lisa was in danger of falling into the same trap as Brian (come across in a higher place) in later seasons, as she began to turn into a Soapbox Sadie. In more than recent years the writers have dialed her back to her earlier, more sensible persona; she hardly ever mentions politics anymore, and she has again become the straight man.
• Stan Marsh from South Park is the Straight Man to the WHOLE boondocks in later seasons.
  • While Stan is probably the "straightest" character, others exist too. Kyle is Straight Man near as much as Stan, especially compared to Cartman. Sharon will often play Straight Woman to her less sane husband Randy. And in general, kids are oft the Straight Boys and Girls to the town'southward idiot adults, though at times the Mayor volition do this likewise (despite at other times being an Authority in Name Simply or be just as stupid as them).
    • The premise of the entire show basically boils down to the idea that all kids are straight men to adults: they stand on the sidelines and annotate with cliffhanger on the insanity that is the adult world.
• Kim Possible is a laser focused Straight Man to her Sidekick Ron, both comedically and in the activeness/adventure scenes.
• On Invader Zim, Zim's insanity is commonly assorted to Dib, though his base'southward supercomputer or fifty-fifty GIR can play this role in a pinch. In full general, though, everyone will play this to anybody else at some time or another, because they're all at least slightly insane.
  • When Dib needs to be the insane one when trying to warn anybody about Zim, his sister Gaz provides the foil.
    • Both of them regularly foil their mad scientist father whenever he comes up with a new invention.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes is usually this to the other characters, interim fairly normal (for him) so that Beezy, Heloise, or Lucius can play off of him.
• Archetype Disney Shorts have a trio composed of 2 comedic characters, the unlucky and irritable Donald Duck, and the clumsy and sometimes stupid Goofy... and the lowest Mickey Mouse.
• Ever since soon after he was created, it has been customary to pair Daffy Duck with a Straight Homo—normally Porky Pig, who has been the go-to straight man for Looney Tunes ever since his cosmos years earlier—but after on Bugs Bunny occasionally played straight man to his then more than abrasive personality.
  • Much like his Looney Tunes predecessor, Hamton Squealer in Tiny Toon Adventures often plays this part, often, again, to Daffy's analogue Plucky, though i notable plot played Plucky as suffering straight man to Hamton'south ridiculously nuclear family.
• The cast of Phineas and Ferb is ridiculously wacky, to the bespeak that even more than sensible characters tend to go weirder as the seasons progress. The well-nigh sensible and dead-pan of all of them is probably Perry. That'southward right; the green secret agent platypus is this show'due south straight man.
  • And, of course, Linda, despite her own goofy moments, plays the perfect directly woman to Candance's obsessive craziness. Of course, it's the straight woman attitude that is causing a lot of that craziness...

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Source: https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/Straight_Man