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alt title(s): Those Two Blokes 
"What are we, the background scenery or sumthin'?" — Misao, Lucky Star
Two characters, usually in a school setting, to be the mundane Greek Chorus. They're completely ordinary... and no, we don't mean as in the Ordinary High School Student, or the Badass Normal. They're ordinary. Often the best friends of the main character (who is an Ordinary High School Student) before all the weirdness with aliens, robots, magic, demons, etc.
As the series progresses, they're involved in the plot less and less. Given what usually happens to people involved in the plot, it's probably for the best.
Their personalities usually sharply contrast, e.g. calm/hyper, jock/geek, etc., or their appearances contrast, e.g. short/tall, thin/fat.... When they don't, they will be exactly the same. Their names are often esoteric (either too complex or too simple to stand out), plus their non-involvement with the plot usually results in them being called "Those Two Guys".
Occasionally, we get a Lower Deck Episode from their point of view. Expect to ask someone Who Is This Guy Again after a few episodes.
Compare the Beta Couple, Heterosexual Life Partners. Despite the similar name, Those Two Bad Guys have very different personalities from Those Two Guys... even if they are bad guys. If there's only one of these guys in a romance-based series, he's likely a Bromantic Foil. Also associated to members of a musical group who are not the Face Of The Band.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Ranma ½ has two sets of these: Ranma's friends Hiroshi and Daisuke, and Akane's friends Yuka and Sayuri. They're also basically the only people without overly complicated Meaningful Names, just very common ones, indicating how normal they're supposed to be. In the original manga, they didn't even have names.
- Technically, Akane has four female friends gravitating around her, both in the anime and the manga. Yuka and Sayuri are just the most prominent — semi-fanonical names for the other two: Asami and Hiroko. They tends to often comes in pair, though, fitting the trope most of the time. Nabiki also has her two cronies, seen mostly in the anime.
- Komatsu and Hatta from Kimagure Orange Road are a standard indistinguishable perverted pair of best friends of the main character Kyōsuke.
- Keigo and Mizuiro from Bleach. Possibly a subversion coming up in the pipeline, as the local Trickster Mentor Urahara mysteriously told them that it was time for them to get involved near the beginning of the current arc, although no sign of this (or even Urahara) has since appeared.
- Earlier in the series, Orihime and Tatsuki filled these roles, although Tatsuki got into the supporting cast, and Orihime is now a regular, in fact she's the whole motivation for the current arc.
- Although they aren't seen together (some people would love if that happened), Chizuru Honshou and Ryou Kunieda seems to apply to the female part of the trope, at least in the manga continuity, where they are the two most active females from the human background cast.
- Don't forget Kiyone and Sentaro, Captain Ukitake's co-lieutenants.
- Umanosuke Tsuchida and Kazuhiko Amagasaki from Tenchi Muyo!
- Chie and Aoi from Mai-HiME are female examples.
- Jubei-chan has two sets of these, of both genders — Maruyama Shoko & Sachi Toyama are Those Two Girls for Jiyu, and Kozaru & Ozaru are Those Two Guys for Ban.
- In Azumanga Daioh, Chiyo's two friends, Miruchi and Yuka, from before she was sent up several grades, looked like miniature versions of the two main female teachers. They even have similar names: Yuka looks like Yukari, and Miruchi looks like Minamo, a.k.a. Nyamo.
- There was also a That One Girl in the class: Chihiro, who had a grand total of one memorable scene. When another ordinary student was needed, it was usually Kaorin.
- There were also Two Guys who had speaking roles in the first episode and then were barely ever seen again. Only one was given a name (Masaaki Ohyama). The other's main attribute was looking like a male version of Nyamo.
- Haitani and Shirai in Love Hina. The pair is so mundane that Keitaro and the other characters routinely forget who they are. Lampshaded, as both seem frustratedly aware of this.
- Touji and Kensuke from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Subverted (natch, this is Eva we're talking about) in that Touji suffers a severe injury from getting involved in Shinji's lifestyle, and Kensuke harbors extreme jealousy towards Shinji; both emotionally abandon him for these reasons by the end of the series.
- Kyon's two friends Taniguchi and Kunikida from Suzumiya Haruhi. One's tall and lecherous, the other's short and timid. Taniguchi wound up being a sort of Ensemble Darkhorse after getting a few good scenes (and an Image Song CD for the second season), while poor Kunikida is just kinda there.
- Let's not kid ourselves. If the progression of the light novels is any indication, there is no such thing as a truly insignificant character in Suzumiya Haruhi. This troper won't spoil anything, but it's fairly safe to assume that Taniguchi and Kunikida are not just decoration. At the very least, they will serve their time as walking plot devices.
- Taniguchi eventually underwent a massive amount of Memetic Mutation, much of which his voice actor Minoru Shiraishi referenced while playing himself in Lucky Star.
- Taniguchi actually serves a significant function in the novels and the anim — he's the one non-SOS Brigade character that has the most important interactions with Kyon. His role is in fact similar to Koizumi's, in that he continuously confronts Kyon with all sorts of uncomfortable facts; and because of this, he is, along with Itsuki, the biggest recipient of Kyon's Obfuscating Stupidity. This comes out more than anywhere else in "Sigh".
- Misao and Ayano from Lucky Star. At one point, Misao even bemoans that she and Ayano are essentially part of the background, completed with them suddenly turning into watercolor still versions of themselves.
- However, just like what happened with Taniguchi and Kunikida above, Misao has become an Ensemble Darkhorse of sorts, even getting her own solo character song album. No such luck for Ayano, though.
- Heck, don't forget their official label, "Haikei (Background) Combination."
- Moe and Miwa, Ichigo's friends from Tokyo Mew Mew, whose names aren't even revealed for several episodes.
- Corrector Yui has both female (Reiko and Akiko) and male (Ichitaro and Hideto) examples of this trope.
- Ryouko and Kyouko from Kaitou Saint Tail.
- Houdy and Dexter from Hamtaro.
- Each of the Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth has her own backup duo, with whom she becomes more and more estranged.
- Alisa and Suzuka from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Alisa had a much bigger role in the Triangle Heart universe, but she was jaded, traumatized and undead, though her current incarnation keeps insisting on involvement in the action.
- In ViVid, Vivio gets her own version of Those Two Girls in Rio and Corona.
- Colin and Mary in Soukou No Strain looked completely set up for this role... until they died in the first episode.
- Honda and Otogi in Yu-Gi-Oh! fit this role later on in the series. In the original manga, Jounouchi and Honda were 'those two guys' who still got to do something cool and useful once and a while, but as Jonouchi became one of the main secondary characters in the duel monsters arcs, Honda was demoted to being a cheerleader for the most part. He often ends up together with Otogi during the scenes that don't focus on ancient Egyptian prophecies and children's card games.
- We have also Insector Haga (Weevil) and Dinosaur Ryuusaki (Rex), who started as kinda-villains then faded into has-been background characters. However, when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh!, they are about as normal as anyone ever is.
- Asuka's friends Junko and Momoe in Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Their main purpose seems to be falling madly in love with every handsome dude in the school (especially Manjyome, Fubuki, and Edo).
- Duck/Ahiru's two friends Pique and Lilie in Princess Tutu.
- In Tsukihime, there is only "That One Guy" (Arihiko, who has this going on with Shiki, the main character, before Shiki becomes an Ordinary Highschool Student), though his role is exactly as in the trope. In Fate/Stay Night, Shirou also only has one (Issei), while Rin, who narrates the prologue, has three (the track team).
- Arihiko is further unusual in that he's surprisingly well-developed for a supposedly minor character. He even gets his own Day In The Limelight story in Kagetsu Tohya.
- Digiko's two otaku from Di Gi Charat are essentially this... except that they're saddled with the unfortunate but memorable collective nickname "Bukimi" (literally "Creepy" or "Eerie").
- In Digimon Tamers, Takato's friends, Kazu/Kenta, and Jeri/Juri. At least, at first. Instead of fading, they're brought into the mix eventually. (Now, Kazu/Kenta and Jeri each have a set of three friends who will fill that role.)
- In Inu Yasha, Kagome's friends from school (Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi in the anime and unnamed in the manga) who try to help Kagome sort out her romantic entanglements — blissfully thinking she's dating a delinquent when in fact she's hanging out with a half-dog-demon.
- Also, anytime Kōga showed up, he would invariably be followed by his two lovable lieutenants, Ginta and Hakkaku — or, in one memorable instance, preceded by them, as they hunted down Inu-Yasha as the only person they could think of who could beat some sense into their packleader while Kōga was being mind-controlled by Big Bad Magnificent Bastard Naraku.
- Tamiya and Otaki, the heads of the Nekomi Tech Motor Club, from Ah My Goddess; in a mild subversion of the trope, both of these characters actually manage to take the spotlight from time to time in the manga, though this is less true in the anime series.
- Suzuki and Sato, the heads of the Photography Club, from Ai Yori Aoshi.
- Naru Osaka and Umino Gurio from Sailor Moon, Usagi's classmates. Featuring quite prominently in the first season, they become less and less important over the course of the series and have all but disappeared by the last season. It's even worse in the manga, where they disappear almost immediately: as soon as Ami appears, they're gone.
- In the anime, we also had Usagi and Naru's long-haired classmate Kuri and a chubby girl that never had her name properly revealed. They stick around for some episodes of the first series and then disappear.
- Yu Yu Hakusho; Kuwabara's gang, and later, arguably, Kuwabara himself. Keiko also has two friends who hang out with her in the first story arc, and in the end, she's probably worse off than Kuwa-chan.
- Although to be fair, Kuwabara does return in the manga for one last hurrah at the end.
- Sakuno Ryuzaki, Tomoka Osakada, Satoshi Horio, Kachiro Katou and Katsuo Mizuno in The Prince Of Tennis are These Five Kids for the Seigaku team. In a sense, also Arai and the other second years aside of Momoshiro and Kaidoh.
- The Yamabuki doubles pair known simply as The Jimmies epitomizes this trope, not the least because "Jimmies" is a Japanese term for distinctively average people.
- Shinichi and Daijirou from This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. A standard pair of perverts.
- Hilariously lampshaded in Happy Lesson, where Those Two Guys introduce themselves and are listed in the credits as Student B and Student C, complete with romanji letters showing which one's which on their forehead. They primarily spend time harassing the class president, who they swear is the leader of their trio (hence 'B' and 'C').
- Though they do visit the gravesite of "Student A".
- Drake and Ted from FAKE. Subverted in FAKE II with their promotion to the Five Man Band.
- Poor Rivalz from Code Geass is That One Guy, who goes out of his way to try and do something cool and noble in the season finale... and fails. The Japanese fans nicknamed him "Air", an effective description of how relevant the poor guy actually is to the main plot.
- And yet he seems inexplicably popular in North America, second only to Clovis La Britannia, a throw-away villain from very early in the series, in a poll. This troper believes 4Chan is to blame. (It usually is.)
- The best part? 4chan actually IS the reason for those two topping the character poll.
- Taro, Myu-myu and the other guy from Serial Experiments Lain, often seen hanging out at the Cyberia or somewhere like that; Taro does gets some protagonism though, telling Lain what the Psyche processor is for, and then having a one-scene affair with her.
- They are more a plot-device than Those Two Guys. The series also has a straight example, namely Juri and Reika, Lain's only school acquaintances/friends apart from Arisu. Reika is outspoken, while Juri is kinda childish, for example suggesting that Arisu should date a boy for the sole reason that people wouldn't make rumours about her crush towards a teacher. Neither of the two ever learn about the massive, terrible phenomenon going on right under their noses, even when Juri was the one who first alluded to it in-series (she was seen crying her heart out after receiving an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, who had just killed herself.. right after Chisa's death).
- Yayoi (short) and Lilie (tall) from Mai-Otome.
- Shiratori's three art school classmates in Mahoraba, two girls and one guy, are so ordinary they don't even get get named until the final chapter. One of the Drama CDs revolves around trying to find their names.
- Osamu Tezuka had the same two guys in nearly ever manga he did, a pair named Tic Lamune & Tucker Calpis who were deliberately designed to resemble Abbot & Costello. Tamao, Ken & Shibugaki, the boys from Astro Boy's class also fit the bill.
- In the Hayate The Combat Butler anime, no less than five girls from the Absurdly Powerful Student Council fit into this category. Three of them — Hanabishi Miki, Segawa Izumi, and Asakaze Rika — are more regular in anime appearances and are very rarely found apart. Aika and Chiharu appear much less in the anime and they lampshade this in one episode.
- In a somewhat unorthodox example, Li Syaoran of Cardcaptor Sakura managed to be both the straight man in a Those Two Guys combo (his partner is Yamazaki), a major recurring character and the Love Interest.
- And when Eriol appears, he takes Syaoran's role of the straight man in his duo with Yamazaki.
- Those two guys from Fruits Basket. They are literally so unimportant to the main plot that the poor guys aren't even given names, despite them showing up various times, mostly to make fun of Kyo.
- Izumo and Kotetsu from Naruto. Up until their involvement in the fight against Hidan and Kakuzu, they were always the ninja Those Two Guys, even to the point of remaining unnamed in the manga through multiple character popularity polls.
- Kazu and Onigiri from Air Gear.
- Least at the start of the series, they're upgraded to main characters later on. On the female end, Emily and Yayoi who are generally Team Kogarasumaru's cheerleaders and sometimes backup memebers.
- The three old men from Cowboy Bebop.
- The two girls in Amu's class in Shugo Chara. One wears glasses and the other, who is later revealed to be named Manami, wears her hair in two buns.
- Toradora has Noto and Haruta
- Subverted: They become more significant later on.
- Yamanaka and Iwashima generally serve this role in Gash Bell, although Iwashima's U.F.O. obsession often goes into weird places.
- Gaku, Masashi and Ninamori (Naota's friends) from FLCL come to mind, being observers and commenters of all the weird things going on around them, though Ninamori plays a big role in episode 3.
- Drafted basketball players Satake and Yamaoka of Eyeshield 21, who mostly show up to remind readers that yes, the Devil Bats do have enough players for a full football team.
- Also, Muro and that other guy periodically show up to be obnoxious and end up humiliated for their effort.
- Keroro Gunsou has Natsumi's classmates Yayoi and Satsuki, who actually come very close to discovering the Keronians' existence on several occasions.
- Kaze No Stigma has Ayano's two friends Yukari and Nanase.
- Maria Ross and Denny Brosh seem headed this way at the beginning of Fullmetal Alchemist, but then Ross gets unpredictably swept away by the plot and Denny is left to fend for himself as that one guy. He could probably team up with Riza's friend Becky, that one gal.
- Gokinjo Monogatari has Pii-chan on Mikako's friends' side, and Jiro on Tsutomu's. They never get an important role because Pii-chan is apparently just an excuse for Yazawa to draw sweet lolita outfits due to Author Appeal, and Jiro is always busy with his part-time jobs.
- Tomita and Okamura from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. Those two kids who like Satoko and Rika. The fandom largely ignores them, for obvious reasons.
- Kitamoto and Nishimura from Natsume Yuujinchou.
- That One Girl Ayu from Gokujou Seitokai is a big subversion. Hint: There's two silhouettes used to show the Covert Squad agents in the Opening. Examine the shape of the one on the left.
- Yoland and the other guy from Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny.
- Kimi Ni Todoke's own Hirano and Endo tend to just stand around, occasionally commenting on the situation at hand. Other than that, though, they usually blend into the crowd, especially in the manga.
Comics
- For most of the '90s, Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle were Those Two Guys of The DCU. They practically never got up to anything important of their own, but often showed up in team books or other heroes' series, where they invariably got into trouble thanks to some Zany Scheme or another. This came to an end in the '00s, when DC remembered they were both heroes in their own rights, Beetle died heroically, and Booster went on to star in his own series again.
- Sam and Twitch, NYPD homicide detectives, from the Spawn series. Sam Burke was a large and headstrong man, with a tendency for foul language. "Twitch" Williams, on the other hand, was thinner, bespectacled, and was usually the brains of the group.
- Bone's Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures.
- Peanuts' Patty and Violet. They're the two generic girl characters from the early decades of the strip and enjoy tormenting Charlie Brown by, for example, telling him they're going to throw a party and not invite him. The two almost always appeared together, except sometimes when filling out crowd scenes or setting up punchlines for other characters. Their appearances decreased significantly in the 1970s, and by the 1980's, they had almost vanished. Not to be confused with Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who could almost qualify as Those Two Guys if they'd have less distinct personalities.
Fanfic
- Sam and Naoko provide the human commentary in The Return it's even Lampshaded how everyone else seems to get turned into a succubus but they've hung around the main character for half a million words so far and are still human and un-kidnappedd. When Sunshine reveals she is a succubus, they just look at each other and the loser pays the winner with an "I told you so".
Films
- The Pirates of the Caribbean series has two sets of these. One set are pirates (Pintel and Ragetti) who explain the convoluted plot to each other, and the other, less-used pair are a duo of Laurel and Hardy-inspired redcoats who are always debating things (Murtogg and Mullroy).
- Manos: The Hand of Fate has those two teenagers who are sitting in a car making out with each other. They have no relevance to the plot in any way. It also has a pair of policemen, whose presence at least makes sense, even if they are just as meaningless.
- Robin Hood: Princes of Thieves has the two guys who first argue over which is left and which is right, then try to rob Marian and Sarah in the woods.
- Jay and Silent Bob in most Kevin Smith movies.
- Additionally, Steve-Dave and Walt "The Fanboy" Flanagan fit this role from time to time as well, though obviously not to the same extent as Jay and Bob.
- As Askewniverse movies tend to be extremely dialogue driven, any Two Guys can be up-graded and down-graded into a greek chorus.
- Somewhat subverted in that although the other characters consider Jay and Silent Bob to be random, unimportant guys, Kevin Smith fans loved them so much that they actually gained importance as the Askewniverse movies went on. Not only did they end up with their own movie (which could still fall under the trope) but in Dogma they are major characters without whom the world would have ended.
- Mean Girls has the the other two Plastics Karen and Gretchen who devotedly follow around first Regina and later Cady.
- Star Wars: R2-D2 and C-3PO.
- Later comics reveal that practically any pair of Stormtroopers, Imperial guards, Clone troopers, Sandtroopers, no-name jedi, etc., is likely to be Tag and Bink, a pair of screw-ups who fumble their way from the Jedi Academy to the Tantive IV to the Death Star (both times), etc. Literally, pretty much any time you see two anonymous stooges in the movies, that's them right there.
- And the two characters who inspired them, Tahei and Matashichi from Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress.
- Mariah Carey's woeful "star vehicle" Glitter has Louise and Roxanne.
- Harold and Kumar's semitic duo, Rosenberg and Goldstein.
- A very early film example are "Charters and Caldicott" from The Lady Vanishes (and a half dozen other movies of the early 40s) who spend their on screen time mostly obsessed with the current cricket scores.
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure stars two of these.
- Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt in Desperate But Not Serious appear several times, discussing which Star Wars characters are gay.
- In The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe (Sellers' colleagues from The Goon Show) pop up in a largely non-speaking capacity several times after the opening scene of a show recording, symbolizing Peter's disconnect with his old friends and his first great success out of his ambition to become a film actor, and his eventual alienation of virtually everyone he was ever close to. (Peter was actually quite close to these two guys throughout his life, but it's the kind of movie that's not interested in the good times.)
- According to Word Of God, the heroes of The Road to El Dorado are Those Two Guys because they'd seen so many memorable sidekicks upstage the boring heroes.
- In the independant vampire movie Cold Hearts, is peppered with a pair of officers (Fife and Felching) who quip back and forth.
- Max and Thor from the George of the Jungle movie.
- Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King. They later got their own series, and their own movie.
- Lumiere and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast.
- Andy and Andy from Hot Fuzz.
- The two unnamed hearse drivers from Bubba Hotep.
- The moose Rute and Took in Brother Bear.
- Despite going on to the spin off movie Harold And Kumar, John Cho's role in American Pie was in Milf Guy #2, one of Those Two Guys with Milf Guy #1 (Justin Isfeld).
Literature
- Tamora Pierce gives us lots of these in her Tortall books; there's Raoul and Gary in the Alanna series, Miri and Evan in the Immortals quartet, Merric and Seaver in the Protector of the Small sequence, and Aniki and Kora in the Provost's Dog trilogy.
- Merry and Pippin in The Lord of the Rings.
- Though less in The Return of the King, where they get bigger roles as knights of Rohan and Gondor respectively.
- Turkey and Nippers in Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Scrivener.
- Nobby Nobbs and Fred Colon frequently fulfill this role in Discworld City Watch stories.
- Not to mention their various international counterparts... every locale has an ethnic equivalent of Fred & Nobby.
- Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson in Sherlock Holmes. Good enough coppers in their own way but naturally can't compare with the Great Detective. Their role in the series dwindles towards the end.
- Harry Potter, having Loads And Loads Of Characters, has several of these: Fred and George, Crabbe and Goyle, Dean and Seamus, Lavender and Parvati, etc.
- From The Faerie Queene, Braggadocchio and Trompart, mostly harmless nuisances who go around posing as a knight and his squire after Braggadocchio steals Guyon's horse.
- Some of Redwall's PunchClockVillains appear in pairs, but aren't nasty enough to qualify as Those Two Bad Guys. Lousewort and Sneezewort from The Long Patrolare probably the most memorable.
- In the very long 18th century Chinese novel The Story of the Stone, written by Cao Xueqin and Gao E, There are two minor characters who appear in the first two chapters. They are Jia Yu-cun, a tutor, and Leng Zi-xing, an antique dealer. They have a conversation over wine in a tavern, and the point of this conversation is to give a description of the Jia family and their situation to the reader.
- Ivanhoe opens on two Anglo-Saxons: Gurth, a swineherd, and Wamba, a jester. They playfully banter, making a linguistic observation in the style of Steven Wright. Wamba misdirects the local man of the cloth and a Knight Templar away from the home of Cedric, the local thane, in order to protect Cedric's daughter from unwanted advances. (They make it to the castle anyway, making for an uncomfortable dinner.)
- Bodger and Grift in JV Jones' Book of Words books are pretty much used for Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern observational purposes for the whole trilogy, and occasionally have to do something important for the plot.
- The House of the Night series has a female version in 'the Twins', two of Zoey Redbird's friends, who aren't literal twins (in fact, one is the Token Ethnic Minority) but are very close friends to each other. They even have complementary Elemental Powers, with one being fire and the other one water. I can't even remember which has fire and which has water. They have a brief romantic fling with a more typical set of Those Two Guys, incidentally.
Live Action TV
Music
- The two guys from Fall Out Boy who aren't Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump.
- The Police, AKA Sting and Those Two Guys.
- Perhaps the ur-example of music is Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. They've been in at least four bands together and have always played this role.
Puppet Shows
Theater
- This is Older Than Steam, the original pair being Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. The later POV Sequel, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, subverts this.
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are also quasi-subverted in the trope-making story, as they are also unintentional evil minions. Hamlet kills them anyway.
- These two go on to inspire and inform several Greek Chorus duos, most obviously Vladimir and Estragon (Waiting for Godot), more recently, Jay and Silent Bob (The Askewniverse films) and even more recently and obviously, Rosenberg and Goldstein of the Harold and Kumar films.
- Not to mention the near-Expy of the duo in The Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa, who then get their own Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
- And the Doctor Who serial "Warrior's Gate" (not one of the Robert Holmes ones) has Royce and Aldo.
- Salarino and Solanio from The Merchant of Venice are similar, only with even less relevance to the plot. They also have so little individual personality that actors refer to them as "the Salads".
- Cleomenes and Dion in The Winter's Tale. This troper even called her Dion "Guildenstern" backstage.
- The smugglers in the opera Carmen are often played like this.
- The Tempest features Trinculo and Stephano.
Video Games
- The Final Fantasy video game series features repeated incarnations of Those Two Guys, invariably named Biggs and Wedge after two minor characters from Star Wars.
- The Turks would also be a good example, Reno and Rude acting much like a comedy duo in The Movie Advent Children.
- Also, Fujin and Raijin for the 12 people on earth who actually played Final Fantasy VIII.
- Actually, Final Fantasy 8 is pretty popular. Final Fantasy IX, on the other hand...
- Of course, Biggs and Wedge are generally a minor subversion, as they tend to get killed at some point
 .
- An especially weird example occurs in Kingdom Hearts where Donald and Goofy objectively fill this role as "normal" characters, despite technically being much more well-known than the Squeenix-born characters.
- Selphie fills the role to a T in the second game (Tidus and Wakka are only mentioned). She shows up to talk to Kairi and then... obscurity. Yeah.
- Fire Emblem will have two ordinary Social Knights/Cavaliers travel with the main lord of the game. They generally are not in charge, important, or in any way special. The pair were just chosen to protect the Prince/Princess when plot happened. They are always sharply contrasting, they have no late game dialog or importance, you could let them die at any point. They are a recurring theme for the series, one of the knights wears red, the other wears green. Generally, any dialog with one has the other in it as well (except for certain one-on-one dialogs that happen later on).
- Fire Emblem 9 has Oscar and Kieran, who do not appear together when you first meet them. However Kieran has a not short dialog with Oscar showing them to be another example of this trope. Since Kieran is a self-obsessed duty bound ignored self-proclaimed rival, and Oscar is a laid back lazy relaxed friendly guy who wonders what crawled up Kieran's backside.
- There's an exception in Fire Emblem 7; the "red cavalier" of the game, Kent, has romance-based supports with Tsundere female lead Lyndis. If they reach A support, they'll get married.
- Fire Emblem 10 has Edward and Leonardo, neither of which is a knight, but both members of La Resistance at the beginning of the game. True to trope, they quickly disappear from the plot, but with an interesting subversion: when everything is quickly going to hell for Micaiah and she's doubting her choices, they appear for a quick scene that drives the point painfully home that the whole country, including her old friends, are trusting her to be always right.
- Sometimes we get Those Additional Two Guys, generally a pair of axe users: Ward and Lott in the 6th game, Bartre and Dorcas in the 7th.
- Mother 3 has Lou and Bud, two minor characters who appear in chapter 1. Every time Bud says something, Lou slaps him. It's a form of Japanese Comedy.
- Both Osu Tatakae Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents usually feature two team members that stays constant whenever the difficulty changes, except during the hardest difficulty (where everyone gets replaced by girls). They usually follow their current leader and not the one who did most actions (they did, but not as big as the leader, who also does most poses, especially the rivalry poses in Ouendan 2). Their names:
- Ouendan: Atsushi Saitou and Ittetsu Suzuki (Red team), Tsufushi Moriyama and Kenshin Sugita (blue team).
- Elite Beat Agents: Agent Derek and Agent Morris.
- And even the girls have their version of this trope. There's Aoi Kanda and Anna Lindhurst (Ouendan red team), Honoka Kawai and Reika Minazuki (Ouendan blue team), Agent Missy and Agent Foxx (Elite Beat Agents)
- Xenosaga has The Professor & Assistant Scott, a pair of Super Robot otakus trying to make it in a Real Robot world. In the first two games they only play a part in optional sidequests, but in the third they are integrated into the main plot, joining the crew & even rebuilding KOS-MOS into her final form.
- Two Knights in Medieval 2 Total War will always go after your agent if he utterly screwed up. They will never kill him on screen though. Cue Yakety Sax here.
- Huey and Rostam in Treasure of the Rudras. They die early on in Sion's scenario; their bodies however are controlled by Surlent when he dies several days after the incident and goes out to reclaim his own body.
- Persona 4 features Kou Ichijo and Daisuke Nagase, a.k.a. The Fellow Athletes..
- Hanako and Taro in Disgaea 2 and Asuka and Lillian in Disgaea 3. Taro and Hanako lampshade it in the final chapters when, noticing that the game is now Shooing Out The Clowns, realize that they are thoroughly lacking in serious motivations (Taro, for example, is tagging along because he thinks Rozalin is hot) and proceed to make some up on the spot.
- Princess Waltz is fairly unique among Visual Novels by actually providing character models for the random classmates, most of which are Those Two Guys. Most notable are Nodoka (Cute and Perky) and Kazuko (Talkative and Loud). In a twist, one of the even more minor Those Two Guys turns out to be the Secret Identity of a fairly major character.
- Xzar and Montaron from Baldurs Gate are supposedly foreign spies, but this vaguely promising premise is not followed up on at all. Xzar in particular is such a useless character that players have been known to kill him deliberately to make room for someone more interesting. Their purpose seems to be simply to bulk out the party until you meet some of the better characters, and it's assumed in the sequel that you ditched them at a fairly early opportunity.
- Unless, of course, you're evil, in which case you hang onto them and ditch Khalid and Jaheira.
- Corporals Mike and Anton of the Washington National Guard in World in Conflict make it all the way from the attack on Seattle, through the nuclear blast in Cascade Falls, then back to the liberation of Seattle. They don't play ANY role in the story at all but their reunion after getting separated in Cascade Falls just has to make you shed Manly Tears.
- Tin Pin Slammer fans Shuto "Shooter" Dan and Itaru "Yammer" Yokoyamada as well as ganguro couple Sato and Nao from The World Ends With You.
- Scott and Mark, the "Two Guys from Andromeda" in the Space Quest games, were Author Avatars of series creators Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe.
Web Animation
- Broken Saints has two villainous variations: Sociopathic Soldiers Lt. Charles and Lt. Bravado, and club bouncers Phobos and Deimos. The latter two do fulfill the physical contrast, with one being white and the other black.
- Mr. Bland and Señor Having a Little Trouble from Homestar Runner. They both entered the Strongest Man in the World Contest... and only lasted a couple of seconds. They only have one line each. Strong Bad jokingly explained their lack of appearances because they were crushed by a falling concession stand. Most of their appearances are in the cartoons poking fun at the creators' old drawing style.
- Coach Z and Bubs or Strong Mad and The Cheat (or as Strong Bad calls them, "the two guys") probably qualify.
Web Comics
- As proof that you can pull these guys from other categories, No Need for Bushido has the pair start out as part of a small group of bandits, the first moment of menace for the Heroine and the chance for the Hero to save the Heroine for the start of a Rescue Romance (or whatever). Then we think they're out of the story. Nope, they show up later, and their oblivious-to-obvious-clues nature pretty quickly becomes a running gag before they end up finding the party and starting to help them out.
- Xander and Max from The Wotch.
- Bob and Elmer from Penny and Aggie. Stan and Jack also fit the trope to some degree, especially in their earlier appearances.
- In Megatokyo, Yuki's friends Mami and Asako.
- "The Lounge Guys" from You Say It First
- The amourous cat boys from Okashina Okashi.
- Spongebath and Emeril from Achewood.
- Sexy Losers had the swearing and the sarcastic friend which are a rather good example.
- "The Comet and the Pirates" arc of Station V3 has "Those Two Frog-Fish Guys" who are obsessed with taking over things (the Station, an incoming comet, the coming-soon ski resort ...)
- Ansem Retort has Darth Maul and Marluxia filling this role. Maul is lazy, offensive, violent, and as much of a Cloudcuckoolander as anyone can be without being retarded. Marluxia is the gayest Straight Man ever — relatively speaking that is, considering that Ansem Retort takes place in Cloudcuckooland.
- Robbie and Jase in PvP. Until Robbie won the lottery and Jase moved in with his girlfriend. Even though Jase is living with Robbie again, their role has significantly changed.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Rasoul and 2/3 (can't remember the exact amount), Royal Guards from Aladdin.
- Lenford "Lenny" Leonard and Carlton "Carl" Carlson from The Simpsons.
- When the show spoofed Hamlet, these two were even cast as
Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Rosencarl and Guildenlenny. And then they die five seconds after being named.
- Also Sam and Larry, the other two patrons at Moe's. You know, the trucker with glasses and the bald guy who isn't Homer. Them.
- Timmy's best friends Chester and A.J. on The Fairly Oddparents.
- Pete White and Master Billy Quizboy from The Venture Bros., who are also business partners and roommates in addition to being super-scientists. In fact, most of the series' characters are foils for one another; Doctor Venture and Brock, The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend, Hank and Dean, Watch and Ward, Monarch Henchmen 21 and 24, etc.
- Code Lyoko has two pairs: the two School Newspaper Newshounds Milly and Tamiya, and arguably Sissi's two cronies, Hervé and Nicolas.
- And starting Season 3, Hiroki and Johnny also fit the mold.
- Flem and Earl from Cow and Chicken.
- Several such pairs exist in Transformers Animated: Blitzwing and Lugnut, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, and Mixmaster and Scrapper.
- In the Transformers comics, Rack'n'Ruin of the Wreckers, who were bonded together in a desperate attempt to save their lives. The fact that they basically have one name (and it's never specified which is which), and that they receive basically zero characterization even as a pair makes them a perfect example.
- Sheen and Carl from Jimmy Neutron.
- Mr. Small and Mr. Nosy from The Mr. Men Show.
- Brian and Stewie in Family Guy have played this role in episodes where they aren't the focus.
- Baljeet and Buford from Phineas and Ferb have become this quite quickly, with an interesting Friendly Enemy dynamic as well.
- Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie (had to look up their names) from Daria.
- In fact, they're SO Those Two Guys, Jamie is usually called something else, only to fruitlessly repeat that his name is Jamie.
- The Badly Drawn Brothers from Avenger Penguins
- Slatislav and Dimitri from Count Duckula
- Rocky And Bullwinkle have Edgar and Chauncey, two guys who occasionally comment on the action.
"Now there's something you don't see every day, Chauncey."
"What's that, Edgar?"
"A [unusual sight]."
"I don't know, Edgar. [punchline].)"
Real Life
- Admit it, you know these guys exist.
- If you want to be fair, it's just a matter of perspective. One's "show" main characters are another's Those Two Guys and vice versa.
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