Straight Man

Straight man may refer to:

  • Straight Man, a 1997 novel by Richard Russo
  • Straight man (stock character), a member of a double act who plays a stooge, feed, or comic foil (an actor not meant to be funny who is surprised by, or is the object of, a joke by the comic) in theatrical comedy
  • A heterosexual male

Famous quotes containing the words straight and/or man:

    The butterfly’s attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly decoded message, a symbol, a sign.
    Primo Levi (1919–1987)

    The momentary charge at Balaklava, in obedience to a blundering command, proving what a perfect machine the soldier is, has, properly enough, been celebrated by a poet laureate; but the steady, and for the most part successful, charge of this man, for some years, against the legions of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely higher command, is as much more memorable than that as an intelligent and conscientious man is superior to a machine. Do you think that that will go unsung?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)