Examples of the StraightMan on live-action TV.
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* In ''Series/TheATeam'', Face is almost always the Straight Man to counterbalance CloudCuckooLander Murdock's antics, especially when they do scams together.
* Creator/GordenKaye as Rene Artois in ''Series/AlloAllo'' was the OnlySaneMan in a small town in Nazi-occupied France, forever getting caught up in hare-brained schemes by ThoseWackyNazis and members of LaResistance. Often the only one to point out the stupidity and suicidal nature of these plans, he was always ignored and told to do his duty as he was the hero of the Resistance/flattered into it/forced to do it at gunpoint.
%% * In the first and second season of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Angel often played the straight man to Cordelia and Wesley, although Wesley would sometimes play the Straight Man himself in exchanges with Cordelia. Then in Season 5, Angel got to play the Straight Man to Spike.
* Michael Bluth on ''Series/{{Arrested Development}}'' is this combined with OnlySaneMan. His attempts to manage his [[DysfunctionJunction completely and utterly insane family of narcissists]] lead to much of the comedy.
* ''Series/BarneyMiller'' had the titular character (the captain of the precinct) play the straight man (and often the OnlySaneMan) to the rest of his officers. Originally, he was going to be written with as much humor and quirks as everyone else, but the writers soon realized that he worked better as the straight man for everyone else to bounce off of. After the first two seasons one running gag that arose was his inability to tell a joke and make it funny. Never is his straight man status better seen as in "Hash", where the rest of the squad unwittingly eats hashish-laced brownies. He begged off, citing his weight, causing him to have to nursemaid the drugged antics of Yemana, Harris, Fish and Wojo.
%% * In the original ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'': Apollo and Boomer both play this to Starbuck, but the real honor goes to Colonel Tigh.
* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Johnny Galecki's character Leonard plays this role, largely for Sheldon's comic lines, and sometimes for funny lines from other characters as well. In Galecki's much smaller recurring character role on ''Roseanne'', his character David tended to play this role for Darlene and others, as well.
%% * Creator/HughLaurie would usually (though by no means always) fill this role on ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie''.
* Laura in ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' largely served as the straight woman to both the antics of her PointyHairedBoss Brittas and for the other more quirky members of the staff.
* From the second series onwards, Rowan Atkinson's portrayal of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' was more or less a straight man for the characters of Baldrick, Percy and George. Except when he was saying something [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]].
** In the ''first'' series it was ''Baldrick'' of all characters was generally the StraightMan, as well as the [[HypercompetentSidekick Hyper Competent]] and extremely BeleagueredAssistant to Atkinson's StupidEvil Prince Edward, and frequently the OnlySaneMan as well. EarlyInstallmentWeirdness is putting it mildly.
%% * Rene Auberjonois' character on ''Series/BostonLegal'' is a combination Straight Man and OnlySaneMan.
%% * Rupert Giles in early seasons of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* The calm, introspective Sergeant Wilson was straight man to the bombastic Captain Mainwearing on ''Series/DadsArmy'', an English sitcom about the Home Guard during WWII.
* ZigZagged with Sam Malone on ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. At times he really is the most level-headed person in the room and serves as a perfect contrast to the outrageous characters around him. While other times, he can be just as wacky as every other character in the bar.
* On ''Series/TheDailyShow'':
** Jon Stewart plays the straight man to the various fake correspondents, who themselves tend to conduct interviews where they make their subjects unwitting straight men. Stewart also uses footage (sometimes out of context) and reports of various politicians, newsmakers and media whores as straight men for his own punchlines, but it could be argued that sometimes what they are doing is so outrageous that he can only react as an incredulous straight man even for them.
** Stewart also plays the straight man to [[Series/TheColbertReport Stephen Colbert]] whenever he does tosses over to Colbert's show.
%% * Greg to his wife especially, and the rest of the cast in general in ''Series/DharmaAndGreg''. Lampshaded a few times.
* Deborah on ''Series/{{Everybody Loves Raymond}}'' acts as the comic foil to Raymond and his quirky family. Patricia Heaton can sometimes steal the scene by just standing there and saying nothing. Body language conveys it all.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Although Chandler was more of a DeadpanSnarker, he was definitely the straight man to Joey. In one case, he was able to pull it off without even saying anything, as the group prepared to head to London:
-->'''Chandler''': You got your passport?\\
'''Joey''': Yeah, in the third drawer of my dresser. Wouldn't want to lose that.\\
'''Chandler''': ''(just stares at him)''\\
'''Joey''': ...oh! ''(runs back to his room)''
* The writers of ''Series/HiDeHi'' deliberately did not give Creator/SimonCadell (Jeffrey Fairbrother) any jokes in his lines. The humour of the character comes from Cadell's brilliantly dry delivery and facial expressions.
* Al Borland (Richard Karn) would play the straight man to Tim Taylor (Creator/TimAllen) in ''Series/HomeImprovement' particularly during the ShowWithinAShow, "Tool Time" where Tim was terribly accident prone. Often, when Tim would ask Al to do something dangerous, he replied with the line "I don't think so Tim," which became his CatchPhrase.
%% * The ''Bit of Fry & Laurie'' example is flipped around on ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'', where Fry plays the incomparable [[TheJeeves Jeeves]] to Laurie's goofy Wooster.
* ''Series/HimitsuNoHanazono2007'': Natsuyo is this to her quirky, cheerful ex-boss Ryoko, whereas Wataru is this to his bumbling idiot little brothers (most often Osamu and Satoshi). Ryoko, depsite being her superior, is a cheerful wide eyed idealist whereas Natsuyo can only think of work and is so dedicated to it she misses her birthday for it, while Wataru had to step up to care for his brothers after their father's death. The 4 of them formed a unit to create manga later.
* ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'': The cast can be mostly divided into the straight men (Arthur, Lancelot, Léodagan, the armsmaster) and the comedic dumbasses, but what's interesting is that they can be the comedic foils to each other.
** The best example would be Léodagan (Arthur's father-in-law and essentially a FeudalOverlord), who shares in Arthur's dejection when something idiotic happens (Perceval flubs yet another quest, the peasants are revolting again, Attila the Hun is at the gates, etc.) but then serves as the foil himself when the right subject comes up (investing in a ring of watchtowers all along the coast of Britain, buying a dozen AwesomeButImpractical SiegeEngines for defensive purposes, increasing taxes, etc.).
%% * ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Taiga Hanaya does his best to act as [[PerpetualFrowner brooding]] TokenEvilTeammate. This usually leaves just enough space for Nico Saiba to troll him, [[NotSoStoic ruining]] his effort.
* In ''Series/KenanAndKel'', Kenan was this to Kel's funny man. Interestingly enough, ''Series/AllThat'' shows that Kenan could ''also'' be the funny man, even before he got onto ''Saturday Night Live''.
* The ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' sketch "McGuillicutty and Green" play with the set up by having the straight man magange to be ''too'' straight.
* Everyone at the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th]] can fill this role for Hawkeye when needed, but the classics were [[ButtMonkey Major Burns]] and [[{{Jerkass}} Col. Flagg]].
* The comedic duo ''Mitchell and Web'' generally have Mitchell as the straight man.
* During his time on ''Series/MondayNightFootball''; Frank Gifford filled this role in his commentary, particularly in the early years alongside [[LargeHam Howard Cosell]] and Don Meredith but this continued later on with [[DeadpanSnarker Al Michaels]] and Dan Dierdorf.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' All of the members took turns being the straight man, if the sketch used one at all, and many of the sketches ''didn't''. A recurring character called The Colonel often served this role, shutting down a sketch partway through because he felt that he hadn't delivered a single funny line.
** Creator/JohnCleese is the straight man in the Parrot Sketch
** Creator/GrahamChapman, generally, played the role straight, although he had a more active role in the humor than most straight men.
** Creator/TerryJones, as in "Nudge, Nudge" and "Buying A Bed".
** Creator/EricIdle has also fulfilled parts like these, for example in the "Kilimanjaro Expedition" sketch.
** Creator/CarolCleveland probably played straight parts the most. In many sketches, she is either [[WomenAreWiser the voice of reason]] or the [[OnlySaneMan only sane woman]] amidst all the madness. Examples are the "Dennis Moore" sketch and "The Visitors", for instance.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2R_DDZPCM Motor Insurance sketch,]] there are subtitles that say "Straight Man" and "Another Straight Man" referring to the sketch's... well, straight men. And even there, it's subverted to hell and back.
--->"Excuse me... do I have any more lines?
* A casual glance at ''Creator/MorecambeAndWise'' often leads people to conclude Ernie is the Straight Man, but in fact, the two of them often exchanged and transcended the role[[note]]The critic Kenneth Tynan famously said that Ernie was a comic who wasn't funny, and Eric was a straight man who ''was'' funny.[[/note]], as in this exchange:
-->'''Eric''': How are we going to play the Three Musketeers when there's only two of us?\\
'''Ernie''': Easy, I'll play one, and you can play the other two.\\
'''Eric''': Can I really? That's very good of you, Ern!
* Pam Dawber as Mindy on ''Series/MorkAndMindy''. Dawber had that vital charm and intelligence to play the only human who can deal with Mork's silliness without feeling threatened by it.
* Creator/BobOdenkirk is usually the straight man in comparison to Creator/DavidCross' LargeHam on ''Series/MrShow''. This is often a great source for comedy on Bob's part, as in one sketch where he passes a lie detector test despite saying all sorts of outrageous things (in a completely deadpan monotone), up to and including [[GagPenis derailing a train with his penis.]]
* [[UnfazedEveryman Joel, and later Mike]] would play this role to both [[HarmlessVillain the Mads]] and [[RobotBuddy the Bots]] on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
%% * Jamie is the Straight Man to the eccentric Adam in ''Series/MythBusters''. According to the other wiki, Adam was cast for co-host of the show because Jamie felt he would be too dry of a host on his own.
* ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'': One of Ned's purposes is to be this to everyone else, with the sole probable exception of Moze, with whom he has a "Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone" dynamic.
* ''Series/TheOddCouple1970'' plays with it. Felix and Oscar typically exhibit such extreme tendencies of their respective personalities (Felix being a ControlFreak and Oscar being lazy) that whichever is the straight man depends entirely on who's more rational in a given situation. Otherwise, the viewer or occasional third party character is the Only Sane Man.
* Rodney Trotter and Mike Fisher on ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses''. The standard set-up is either "Delboy has misunderstood something, Rodney (or Mike) tries to correct him, Del says something that suggests he has taken this and [[SustainedMisunderstanding applied it to his original misunderstanding]], Rodders opens his mouths to explain further, then gives up and moves on in the conversation" or "Del has ASimplePlan, and Rodney is trying to persuade him it won't work, but his sensible objections are overruled by Del's own bizarre logic. Also, Rodney is slowly realising that Del isn't going to be the one in the middle of things when they go wrong."
* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'':
** The show starts with Mark and Ann in this role; they generally act as saner, more rational foils to the zaniness of everyone leaves.
** After Mark leaves, the dynamic changes. Ann is still the general comic foil, but as April's apathetic snark gets softer she moves in to become the foil to Andy, and Leslie herself ends up acting as the straight woman to the whole office when they get too wacky. Also, Donna has her moments.
** And later Ben comes in to be the straight man to practically everyone, but mostly to Leslie, Chris and Tom.
* Larry on ''Series/PerfectStrangers'', although the dynamic changed after the first season or so, as Larry's wacky schemes ended up driving the plots more and more often. By the time the show ended, both characters were getting an equal number of gags. Still, Larry's original job as straight man got lampshaded near the end of the series in an ImagineSpot where Balki and he play Creator/LaurelAndHardy, respectively.
%% * On ''Series/{{Psych}}'' the title of straight man is passed around to everyone that isn't Shawn, as Gus is part of Shawn's jokes as often as he's Straight man to them. In those cases usually, the straight man reverts to [[EmbarrassingNickname Lassie]] or Shawn's dad.
* In the Sarah Palin-Katie Couric sketch in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Amy Poehler's Katie Couric works as the quintessential Straight (Wo)Man to Tina Fey's CloudCuckooLander Palin.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'':
** Johnny plays the straight man to his out-of-touch family and the quirky locals, reacting to their behavior as a normal person would. Creator/EugeneLevy joked about this in his 2020 Emmy Speech, given Johnny was one of the first straight man characters he ever played.
** Stevie often plays this role for the younger set or to Johnny in the rare moments he's not fulfilling the role. Later, Patrick often plays the straight man to the younger characters, especially David.
* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', the central premise was originally "Where does a comedian get his jokes," so Jerry typically plays the straight man who reacts to the wacky hijinks his friends get into.
%% * ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Despite being a ShrinkingViolet, ''John's'' the OnlySaneMan to [[BunnyEarsLawyer Sherlock.]]
%% * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
%% ** Castiel especially in Season 5. He doesn't understand when the other characters are being funny and/or sarcastic, which makes his sincere replies hilariously adorable.
%% ** In earlier seasons, Sam often played the Straight Man to Dean.
%% * James May to both Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond on ''Series/TopGear''.
* Julian functions as the straight man in ''Series/TrailerParkBoys'', his serious demeanour contrasting sharply with [[TooStupidToLive the deadly-stupid]] Ricky and shed-dwelling eccentric Bubbles.
%% * Justin in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''.
* ''Series/YesMinister'' and ''Series/YesPrimeMinister''. Essentially, Hacker and Humphrey are ''both'' playing the Straight Man role to Bernard. The actor who played Bernard has even gone so far as to say in an interview that, though his role was technically the most minor of the three main roles, he feels that he got the best job, because Hacker and Humphrey would often have extremely long sections of memorized, straight dialogue (which, given Humphrey's penchant for SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, is all the more impressive) before he jumped in with a punchline.
* George Fenneman, TheAnnouncer on ''Series/YouBetYourLife'', was called "the male Margaret Dumont", by Groucho Marx. As she was the comedian's greatest comedic foil, Fenneman was deeply flattered by the comparison.
* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' has Mike, who is the least involved in the slapstick (and receives by far the least physical blows) and most of his humour comes from making lame jokes, his "cool" attitude, and his many shady business practices. However, he is also the closest the lads have to a "leader" and facilitates several of the jokes, despite being considered bland.
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