Comedy Duos

In film, though more commonly found in television, comedy duos usually appear as two significant characters being the forefront of the comedy in the piece. Good examples of this usually are in the form of television shows or live acts. Famous examples are Laurel & Hardy, The Two Ronnies, Ant & Dec and so forth.

More often than not, the humour usually comes from the contrast between the characters, usually one is more foolish and bumbling where as the other is serious and is always in direct conflict because of the others actions. A good example is the famous Four Candles sketch by The Two Ronnies. In this sketch, the customer (Ronnie Barker) is reading his shopping list to the shopkeeper (Ronnie Corbett). However, the humour comes from the misinterpretation and annoyance from the shopkeeper as the items on the list aren’t clear as they sound just like another item through the customer’s accent and use of language. In this scene the shopkeeper is the more serious character, who is being affected by the fool, which in this case is the customer because of his incoherent shopping needs.

Most comedy duo acts follow the same idea of mismatched character humour, it often brings out more comedy within the responses of the more serious character. Another good example is Laurel & Hardy. These two are said to have been the founding figureheads for comedy duos and a lot of similar acts follow the same suit as the sketches the two feature from the 1920s and 1930s. Hardy is the more serious of the two and Laurel often inadvertently causes mischief for Hardy. Hardy usually reacts in an angry matter which again more situations arise.

Slapstick & Cartoon style

Slapstick comedy is a more visual based comedy through the use of comic violence, and actions that the characters make, just like the kind of visuals we see in Laurel and Hardy films which are themselves classed in this genre. An older form of the slapstick, violence based humour is Punch and Judy. Punch and Judy is a puppet show that performs shows from a booth that acts as a stage for the puppets (the puppeteer is in the booth also). These shows often do a pantomime-esque show that uses audience input though a lot of the humour behind the show revolves around the slapstick nature.

(Example of Punch an Judy show in Lincoln).

A lot of cartoons often adopt this type of humour for comedic sequences especially those with opposing characters such as (frequently mentioned in my blog) Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Tweety. Usually the violence that the antagonistic characters in these shows tend to fall back upon the antagonist, this is either due to the protagonist reacting or being blissfully unaware of the situation. This is a very staple practice for cartoons and is very easy to relate to for most audiences such as children and adults.

https://www.thoughtco.com/slapstick-comedy-definition-801516

For my own duo of characters I want to use this style of mismatched characters to easily show the difference between the two characters. Drawing from more slapstick based comedy such as Laurel and Hardy as well as cartoon comedy styles. For my project I want to aim for more visual based humour, this means it is more understandable for numerous audiences as well as making the sketches a lot less complicated. For my project I will use the similar theme of having a more antagonistic character and a more bumbling character, however, within cartoons the common theme for the antagonist is that they never succeed. For my antagonist, they will always succeed. Although, they will always pay repercussions humorously afterwards when they do.

Skeletons in Cartoons

Funnybones (1992)

Funnybones  was an animated children’s TV program that aired for one season in 1992. The show was based upon the books of the same name. The main characters are two skeletons who are brothers appropriately named “Big” and “Little” as well as their dog who is, again, appropriately named “Dog”.  The episodes tend to revolve around problems that impact the characters, specifically Big and Little rather than Dog and their solutions to them. Often the problems are to do with the spooky theme that the characters entail such as other elements that can be associated with Halloween, this includes black cats, ghost trains etc. The pairing does however contain some elements of comedy duos with Little being the more serious and leading character whereas Big is shown to be more dimwitted. This is shown as Little has all of the ideas for the episodes and Big never comes up with solutions and only agrees with whatever plot Little makes, with his signature phrase “good idea” always following.

This show stylistically shows the skeleton’s in a world that matches the theme and all of the occurrences are very thematic. All of the extra characters and animals are skeletons and the environment that they live in is a “dark, dark town.” The show always opens and finishes with narration describing how the skeletons start and finish the episode. This is always narrated by the moon, offering a sort-of fourth wall break in the show as the moon is describing to the audience.

http://www.toonhound.com/funny.htm

Silly Symphonies – The Skeleton Dance (1929)

The Skeleton Dance is a 1929 short animation film by Walt Disney Studios. In this short, four skeletons simply come out of their tombs from a full moon and simply spend the night dancing with music until the night ends and they scurry to get back into their tombs before sunrise. Just like Funnybones this piece uses the themes that skeletons are associated with and uses these to push the narrative, such as graveyards, black cats, full moons etc.

This piece humanises the skeletons in a way that they are doing more fluid movements, less like the stick-like bone movements skeletons are perceived to have. (Perceive being a loose term since there aren’t proper movements for real skeletons). It also uses common imagery such as using one of the skeletons ribcages as a xylophone as the two look somewhat similar.

Both of these examples share the same characteristics from using common themes and techniques that people associate with skeletons, especially in comical animation. I mentioned the xylophone above for physical imagery, however, this same instrument is used I both examples for the movements, most notably the steps for the skeleton characters as if this is the common sound for the bones. This technique possibly counteracts a more grotesque sound of crunching or crackling that bones have and makes the characters seem lighter and more cartoon-esque. Differences mainly lie within the nature and designs of the characters. Design-wise the Funnybones’ have more basic shapes and less details towards the bodies whereas the Disney skeletons are more detailed and have less traditional shapes within the designs. A reason for this could purely be down to reputation as there is a lot more content for Funnybones though the dancing skeletons are only featured within this one short film. Another difference is within the personalities of the characters, the Funnybones have talking characters with their own developed personalities and features, although the dancing skeletons don’t speak and all have the same design. This again can be down to the nature of the pieces, one being a TV show (adapted from book) and one is a one-off short film.

For my own characters I think keeping themes that are associated will be a good idea to keep within my own sketches. Though, looking at breaking the norm and trying a different way of displaying skeletons within their own world would be an interesting idea to play around with.