Fifty Words, History, Media, Movies, Radio, Uncategorized

Comic Duos

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Today is significant in history for the 1927 release of The Second Hundred Years, the first Laurel and Hardy film in which they appeared as a team, as well as the 1942 debuts on radio of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and a weekly show by Abbott and Costello.  It is also the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. I suppose Mrs. O’Leary and her cow are a duo, but they are not terribly comic.

Talk about your favorite duo, comic or not.

65 thoughts on “Comic Duos”

  3. Tomorrow we anticipate the very non-funny duo of snow and wind. Today, sunny and 75°. We may get up to a foot of snow this week. I have to pick the spinach tonight.

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  7. Dale and JimEd of course!
    I mostly enjoy Abbot and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy. For some reason it’s easy to overload on them.

    Anyone here remember Peg Lynch and radio show called “The Couple Next Door” or “Ethyl and Albert”? I hadn’t heard of her before, but her daughter, Astrid King, has put a show together called “Peg Lynch; A Funny Woman’.
    Peg has some Rochester connections; grew up in Kasson and worked at Mayo Clinic before going on to become a pretty well known writer. She’s called “The Lady who invented sitcom”.

    Peg’s daughter, Astrid, and James Lileks, (of the Star Trib) have created a show that will be performed in Rochester on November 8th and Mantorville on November 9.

    Here’s a radio show she wrote and acted in:

    And here’s her website. It’s fun reading.
    https://www.peglynch.com/

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  8. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am drawing a blank on this after I acknowledge Dale and Jim Ed. I am so deep into the world of knee rehab that all I can think of is my Orthopedist and my Physical Therapist. I must have crossed some line.

    Excuse me while I finish my morning routine of exercises.

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    1. Well they sound like a duo, whether they’re funny or not. The lady that makes my ankle brace, I called her “My New Best Friend” so I think your people count.

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  9. For those with long memories, back before Dale left the news department at MPR, Garrison and Jim Ed Poole were a duo. Garrison didn’t write scripts as Dale later did, and yet the interplay between them was fun. I think Garrison used to talk about Jim Ed living with a chicken.

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    2. As I recall the Morning Show, and before that, the Prairie Home Morning Show, did in fact contain sketches written by Keillor. He created the persona of Jim Ed Poole who lived at the Hotel Transom with his pet chicken, Curtis. They had “commercials” for made up products as well as interviews with imaginary characters. “Help Me Rhonda” was a staple on that show. I recall that the powers that be within MPR (BIll Kling?), repeatedly tried to remove the decidedly low brow show from the air waves only to be met with the outrage of the listeners and supporters of the show.

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      1. You’re right about the scripts, PJ. They were more of a thing when Dale was doing the show, but there were certainly funny ads for a variety of faux businesses. Of course, Garrison did those with PHC, too.

        Bill Kling sent Garrison a memo telling him not to play country music. Garrison quit, saying, “If you get a memo telling you how to do your job, you have already been fired.” Kling talked him into coming back. Garrison’s power in the organization–which increased over time–was centered on his appeal during pledge drives. MPR and public radio stations all over the country featured PHC during drives.

        Years later, when Dale and Tom were doing TLGMS, MPR leadership announced they would be discontinuing the Morning Show. The message basically said this was marginal, dated programming that would be replaced by something newer and nicer. Listeners raised hell. The leadership reversed its decision. A bit later I smiled to hear a pledge drive promoter asking for subscriptions to support “the most popular show we offer: The Morning Show.”

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      2. speaking of Edward Everett Horton, we’re doing “wind in the Willows” for our fall play. In one scene, during a fight, a painting gets smashed over someone’s head. In the course of testing this, I printed several photos just to try how to attach them to the frame and how hard it is to actually break them over someone’s head. (haven’t gotten to actually try it yet). But I printed out photos of Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Roy Walston, Edward Evertt Horton — none of the kids know who any of those people are. The director and I; we know.

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  11. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
    Archie and Edith Bunker
    Kjeld Petersen og Dirch Passer (OK, unfair you don’t know them, but trust me, they were a Danish comedy duo for many years, and they were hilarious.)

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  15. And considering the make-up of this group, I’m surprised that these duos haven’t yet been mentioned:
    Grilled cheese and tomato soup
    Fish and chips
    Burger and fries
    Soup and sandwich
    Pie and ice cream

    And then there are these old favorites:
    Romeo and Juliet
    Anthony and Cleopatra
    Martha and George (both Washington and the couple from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf)
    Sonny and Cher
    Ike and Tina Turner
    Bonnie and Clyde
    Lerner and Loewe
    Rodgers and Hammerstein
    Simon and Garfunkel

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    1. Another artist I think of in those terms is John Prine. I’m especially fond of his album “For Better, or Worse.” It’s brilliant and pairs him with female singers from Lee Ann Womach, Alison Krauss, Susan Tedeschi, Kathy Mattea and, of course, Iris DeMent and others.

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  18. Love the food ones, PJ!

    Back to comedy,
    Laverne & Shirley.
    Hayley Mills & Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap)

    And I just looked up comedy duos:
    Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis
    Cheech & Chong
    Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor
    Bill Murray & Chevy Chase
    Steve Martin & Dan Ackroyd

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  19. I was just sitting here thinking thinking up duos; Turner and Hooch came to mind, but the dog dies in the end of that one so, no.

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    1. There’s been a few dog movies lately where the dog comes back in the form of other dog bodies. I can’t do it; I can’t watch the dog die time after time.
      The last one, I stayed to watch because wife and daughter told me how good it was. I asked how many dogs were going to die in this movie? Kelly thought just one. Nope, three or four.
      I have to detach myself from the movie or I’d be blubbering through the whole thing.
      “A Dogs Way Home’ and the sequel, “A Dogs Journey”.

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      1. I’m with you Ben. I don’t watch any of those tearjerker dog and cat have to make their way home movies. And I’ve never watch Turner and Hooch again now that I know the dog dies in the end. Or Old Yeller either.

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  23. Besides Dale and Jim Ed there were also the Smothers Brothers and of course anything Carol Burnett and Tim Conway were in and of course anything Lily Tomlin did. Recently watched some old Murphy Brown shows and Candace Bergen and Lily were funny together

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  24. Besides Dale and Jim Ed there were also the Smothers Brothers and of course anything Carol Burnett and Tim Conway were in and of course anything Lily Tomlin did. Recently watched some old Murphy Brown shows and Candace Bergen and Lily were funny together

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