Talk:Straight man

Double acts

This article should probably be merged with, or redirected to Double_act. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.112.204.241 (talk) 01:22, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

I concur, but I'm too lazy to go about it right now... But yes, it's odd having an article out there called "straight man" that doesn't even try to disambiguate uses, and has way too much content for a single source. There should also be a separate Lists of Straight Men, as hilarious as that may seem. Ender and Peter 02:00, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Harvey Korman could never have been a straight man. Look what Tim Conway did to him on The Carol Burnett Show! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.203.22.205 (talk) 18:45, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 2 March 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: consensus to move the page, per the discussion below. The dab page had three entries, so I have moved that to Straight man (disambiguation). Dekimasuよ! 01:15, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

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Straight man (stock character) → Straight man – This is the obvious WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for "Straight man". Per WP:TWODABS the disambiguation page is unnecessary. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 01:05, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

• Support - We don't have any other article competing for this title. Hatnotes can cover for the two other listed topics, and the dab page can always be recreated in the future with little effort. -- Netoholic @ 02:33, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support per nom and Netoholic. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:33, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support Clearly primary topic. JDDJS (talk) 16:31, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support, clear primary topic with much room for expansion. bd2412 T 04:19, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

translations for wikidata

I am not sure if this concept is transferable to other languages, but in Italian there what we call "comedic shoulder" (spalla comica), which has about the same role.

• This is the Italian entry, I'd like to add "Straight man" for the English definition https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25229942
• I see the dictionary translates spalla with "sidekick", what is the difference between sidekick and straight man , or stooge?

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S.vecchiato (talk) 08:39, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Retitle to Comedic Foil

Re Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, I thought there should be a link to “stooge”, and found my way here. Stooge is an old but not very nice term; it seems to be retired. But the title of this article is also out of date. Actress Marina Massironi joined the trio as a foil, so I edited accordingly. But we shouldn’t need a special term for women any longer. “Straight man” is historic, but this is the 21st century! I suggest the article be retitled Comedic Foil. I can’t do it but I can raise it. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 22:36, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

Straight woman, vs "comedic foil"

Um... shouldn't this already be an existing term? Isn't "comedic foil" a... gender neutral term? Wouldn't "comedic foil" apply to both male AND female characters? I mean, i at least THINK i've seen one use of "straight woman" once. FanOfYoshi (talk) 20:06, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Sideshow Bob from "The Simpsons".

Sideshow Bob was also a successful straight man and was resented for it by his brother. RichardBond (talk) 00:06, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

Other Straight Women

I always considered Cher, on the "Sonny and Cher Show", the "straight guy". P2BADeac (talk) 22:50, 27 January 2026 (UTC)