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:

    Columbus has sailed westward of these isles by the mariner’s compass, but neither he nor his successors have found them. We are no nearer than Plato was. The earnest seeker and hopeful discoverer of this New World always haunts the outskirts of his time, and walks through the densest crowd uninterrupted, and, as it were, in a straight line.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Argument is conclusive ... but ... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.... For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns ... his hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it ... that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.
    Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294)