That's Chris Tucker (left) and Jackie Chan (right), of Rush Hour 3, a formula action comedy that, like its predecessors, is improbably effective. In fact, I'm willing to nominate Chan and Tucker as candidates for most entertaining mismatched movie duo, illustration of the principle that opposites attract.
The requirements, it would seem, for this kind of team is that one possess all the traits that the other lacks. In the case of the Rush Hour pair, Tucker excels in verbal comedy, Chan in the physical variety.
The mismatched comedy duo goes back at least to Laurel & Hardy, where in movie after movie the skinny, lazy one ruined the methodical plan of the fat schemer. It continued through the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals where the patrician-looking Fred twirled and pratfalled with the plebeian joker Ginger. (He gave her class, it was said; she gave him sex.) The salt-of-the-earth Spencer Tracy and upper-crust Katharine Hepburn had a similar act, in reverse, in the 1940s. That was also the era of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, the tightly-wound guy and his laidback pal. They were followed by their '50s iteration, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Mr. Slob and Mr. Suave. I can't think of any '60s counterparts, but would nominate Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, the nebbishy intellectual and goddessy space cadet, as the 1970s models.
I skipped over Abbott & Costello, Aykroyd and Belushi, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. But you don't have to. Your favorite mismatched comedy duo? Show your work.
Comments (20)
Carrie, you're comparing Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUTTA YOUR MOUTH? xox
Posted by Guajovacen | August 9, 2007 4:26 PM
Posted on August 9, 2007 16:26
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito in Twins. Isn't that whay Hollywood calls the "high concept" film?
And it worked so well!
Posted by Paul | August 9, 2007 11:06 PM
Posted on August 9, 2007 23:06
Kermit and Miss Piggy.
Posted by Peter | August 10, 2007 7:42 AM
Posted on August 10, 2007 07:42
Butch and Sundance; Sundance and Etta; the guys in "The Sting"
Posted by JDM | August 10, 2007 8:51 AM
Posted on August 10, 2007 08:51
Steve Martin and John Candy in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"
Posted by Paul | August 10, 2007 5:36 PM
Posted on August 10, 2007 17:36
How 'bout Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette in "After Hours"?
Posted by chris schneider | August 10, 2007 7:59 PM
Posted on August 10, 2007 19:59
Heck, Griffin 'n Teri Garr!
Posted by JDM | August 10, 2007 8:36 PM
Posted on August 10, 2007 20:36
Guys, gals, we want more than naming names here. What's so satisfying about the mismatched-partner genre is the sense that characters have found their other half, or, in the words of Renee Zellweger in "Jerry Maguire," someone who completes them. That reason, I think, is why the mismatched-partner template worked so well in the Astaire/Rogers, Hepburn/Tracy and Keaton/Allen pictures. What we love about Kermit and Miss Piggy -- besides the prospect of interspecies love, which I suppose is a metaphor for interracial friendships -- is that an idealist is so attractive to a narcissist. For instance, Paul, what about John Candy and Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains etc" make them such an effective mismatched couple?
Posted by Carrie | August 11, 2007 8:47 AM
Posted on August 11, 2007 08:47
Yesterday - Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau (10 films together, not including "Kotch," in which Lemmon directed Matthau)
Today - Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson (8 films together, so far, including "The Cable Guy," which Stiller directed and in which he plays a small supporting role)
Tomorrow - Steve Carell & Maria Bello (No films together so far, but I can dream, can't I?)
Posted by Joe | August 11, 2007 5:24 PM
Posted on August 11, 2007 17:24
There isn't a more mismatched couple than Eddie Murphy & Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs. Eddie is the funny, fast-talking, suit wearing, woman seducing, ex-con. Nolte is the intense and serious detective, who doesn't care how he looks and can't even keep a girlfriend. Yet it somehow all works, and 48 hrs has stood the test of time as one of my all-time favorite movies. All these years later, Eddie Murphy still hasn't had a better "straight-man" to his comedic talent.
Posted by Mr HKmovie | August 12, 2007 7:32 PM
Posted on August 12, 2007 19:32
I'm suprised on a Philly Blog not to see the most obvious Philly based example.
Two actors mentioned above, with different foils. Aykroyd as the straight laced high society blue blood, and Murphy as the fast talking con artist low-life. Of course the added wrinkle in this example is the they trade(ing) places.
A classic.
Posted by yt | August 13, 2007 2:52 PM
Posted on August 13, 2007 14:52
YT:
"Trading Places" is a great example (and a great, if mystifyingly underrated, film). And you're right, its strength is that the marginalized guy gets a view from the inside and the privileged guy understands for the first time what success looks like to those who have their noses pressed up against the outside of the fortunate's window. The film also boasts one of my favorite snatches of Philly dialogue: Aykroyd, reduced to poverty when Murphy takes his place in the brokerage, tries to sell his his fancy watch at a South Philly pawnshop. "It's a La Rochefoucauld," he says to pawnbroker BB King, "accurate in seven time zones and all altitudes. It retails for $7,000.00." King dismisses him, "Well, in Philadelphia it's worth 50 bucks!"
Posted by Carrie | August 13, 2007 3:39 PM
Posted on August 13, 2007 15:39
No naming names? OK, the 20 year old guy obsessed with death falls for the 80 year old obsessed with life. I just liked H & M.
Posted by Wizard Luffy | August 15, 2007 11:25 AM
Posted on August 15, 2007 11:25
Wizard:
You misread me: I said that we want more than just naming names. But you did a perfect job of explaining why "Harold and Maude" is so effective.
Posted by Carrie | August 15, 2007 11:59 AM
Posted on August 15, 2007 11:59
How about Jeff Bridges' stoned slacker Dude and John Goodman's crazed gun-toting pal Walter in The Big Lebowski?
Or Ryan O'Neal's timid guy and Barbra Streisand's loony gal in What's Up Doc?
Posted by Bob Ross | August 15, 2007 3:45 PM
Posted on August 15, 2007 15:45
Sad they they no longer speak to each other but I would say Bill Murray's shifty/slacker guy to Harold Ramis' straight/responsible guy in Stripes and Ghostbusters.
Posted by PhillySaint | August 17, 2007 9:32 AM
Posted on August 17, 2007 09:32
I'll try to add more than just names, honest. But how about Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball in Arzner's "Dance, Girl, Dance" as two contrasting versions of female dancer? It's been too long since I've seen that one.
One might also mention, at the same studio, Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in "Stage Door."
There's a High Art/Low Art kinda contrast (if one may use archaic terms) in both pairings, and the nice thing is that in both films the audience isn't nudged into choosing one partner over the other.
Happy Maureen O'Hara's Birthday, by the way.
Posted by chris schneider | August 17, 2007 5:40 PM
Posted on August 17, 2007 17:40
A really funny comedy pair that only did one memorable movie together was Charles Grodin and Robert DeNiro in "Midnight Run". The two do conform to the formula you cite; nebbish, anal Charles Grodin with gruff, ill tempered DeNiro.
Speaking of DeNiro, regarding your post about Al Pacino, he is probably more guilty than Pacino of mailing it in these recent years, with sub-par performances in schlocky movies. Really, when was the last great performance by an actor many consider one of America's all time greatest? Cape Fear maybe, or perhaps Casino?
Posted by Geoff | August 19, 2007 3:14 PM
Posted on August 19, 2007 15:14
I think a great mismatched comedy duo did in fact come out of the 1960s: Sonny and Cher. She was the slim, sloe-eyed Amazon; he, the pint-size shlub who can't believe he wound up with with this amazing woman. In their opening talk-to-the-audience bit on their TV show, they struck me as one of the all-time great (and possibly the last great) vaudeville team. Too bad someone couldn't find a way to translate their act to movies. Maybe if they hadn't made it big in the very decade that the studio system died its death, we'd be including them here.
Posted by wwolfe | August 23, 2007 4:03 PM
Posted on August 23, 2007 16:03
I am doing a paper about mismatched duos and how they cause comedic relief, and I was trying to find some examples... and why I'm glad this site was helpful I can't believe no one mentioned Chris Farley and David Spade :)
Posted by courtney | October 4, 2007 1:10 AM
Posted on October 4, 2007 01:10