Editing Double act (section)

==Format==
Humor is often derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin, and profession but drastically different in terms of personality or behavior; each one serves as a [[foil (narrative)|foil]] to the other. Typically, one member of the duo—the "[[straight man]]", "feed", "dead wood", or stooge—is often portrayed as reasonable and serious, while the other one—the funny man, "banana man", or comic—is portrayed as funny, less educated or less intelligent, silly, or unorthodox, although there are also double acts in which neither partner is the straight man
{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} When the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other is often referred to as a comic foil. The term "feed" comes from the way a straight man sets up jokes and then "feeds" them to his partner.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Despite the names often given to the roles, the straight man is not always humorless, nor is it always the comic who provides the act's humor. Sometimes the straight man gets laughs through sarcastic reactions to the comic's antics, such as [[Stewart Lee]]'s [[deadpan]], reasoned reactions to [[Richard Herring]]'s ridiculous antics in [[Lee and Herring|their pairing]]. When the straight man serves no specific comic purpose, but acts as a device to make the comic look good, he is known as a stooge. Sometimes considered a derogatory term, "stooge" began to fall out of use by the 1930s with [[The Three Stooges]]. Most often the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off of each other, rather than from the individual players. In many successful acts the roles are interchangeable.