Double Act - U.S. and Canada

U.S. and Canada

In the United States and Canada, the tradition was more popular in the earlier part of the 20th century with vaudeville-derived acts such as Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, and Wheeler & Woolsey, and continuing into the television age with Martin and Lewis, Kenan & Kel, Bob and Ray, the Smothers Brothers, Wayne and Shuster, Allen and Rossi, Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber, Rowan and Martin, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the Wayans Brothers,Troy and Abed from Community, and Shawn and Gus in Psych.

More recently, the idea has been largely supplanted by that of the "buddy movie" genre, which has introduced several notable comedy partnerships not formally billed as a single "act" in the traditional manner. The earliest example of such a team may have been Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; later examples include Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, David Spade and Chris Farley and child stars Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Based on the gag-man/straight-man concept, "Stoner" duos like Cheech and Chong, Jay & Silent Bob, and Harold and Kumar have also proven quite popular with audiences.

The double act format can also be used in presenting noncomedic information in an entertaining manner, such as the Savage/Hyneman pair of the Discovery Channel's MythBusters. From 2006 to 2010, Apple used the double-act formula successfully in its popular series of I'm a Mac/And I'm a PC ads with John Hodgman and Justin Long.