Hi
#2: Jul 7th 2016 at 6:13:12 AM
If there's enough examples of both types to warrant the split, I'm fine with it.
How sweet it is
#3: Jul 7th 2016 at 6:14:20 AM
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
Memers
Since: Aug, 2013
#4: Jul 7th 2016 at 8:15:34 AM
Did some prelim sorting the anime section.
Messy, probably got a few of them wrong and most will need a rewrite but there is enough of each for a split I think.
Manzai Comedy would also have an index of famous duos like FUJIWARA
◊, all probably being red links but encourages people to add pages about them.
Manzai comedy act
- Sket Dance
- In one chapter, Bossun and Himeko partnered up on the spot during the closing round of a live Manzai contest. Their flawless performance eventually gave them the win against their cheating opponent.
- Himeko once participated in a TV show pitting two pro or amateur comedians against each other in an "all-out tsukkomi clash", delivering line after line of loud comedic reactions to see who was the superior tsukkomi.
- In the "Tower of Terror" episode of Pokémon, the Ghost Pokemon trio (Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar) are first seen watching such a routine on TV.
- In the Diamond and Pearl saga of the Pokémon Special manga, the goal of the two main characters is not to be great Pokemon trainers, but to be great manzai performers. They take a chance to practice their act in every chapter.
- The premise of Lovely★Complex is the budding romance between Huge Schoolgirl Risa and The Napoleon Ootani, who has trouble seeing Risa as anything more than his partner in their Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. Everyone calls them "All Hanshin-Kyojin," after a famous tall & short manzai comedy duo, and the show even takes place in Sakai, Osaka with everyone speaking in a Kansai Regional Accent, just to drive it home.
- In an episode of Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, Kaede entertains guests at a victory party by performing both parts of the routine with herself as the tsukkomi and Blanche as the boke.
- Aizawa Sakuya from Hayate the Combat Butler more or less views life as a non-stop series of gags and comedy routines, frequently treating the unwitting Hayate as the boke and viciously assaulting him for any number of completely nonsensical reasons (mainly for being really bad at being a boke) whenever she makes an appearance. Her antics, in turn, often set her up for the boke role whenever Nagi is nearby, who answers attacks on Hayate in the name of comedy in kind.
- Bleach
- Around the time Ichigo first used his Bankai, one Omake held a manzai routine with Ichigo as the straight man and Ganju, Orihime and possibly someone else as the comic counterpart. The entire think was based off of similar sounding words to Bankai and manzai (such as banzai and sempai), in sentences that are worded so as to be self-referential humor and correct. Surprisingly, this skit of Japanese wordplay was brought over in the dub. The important words were explained in a series of rapid-fire notes, but left untranslated.
- In Souls, the Bleach character book (for the manga), a short omake chapter has Mayuri Kurotschi discussing this with Nemu, while both wear stand-up comedian suits — however, Kurotschi is taking "tsukkomi" in its alternate Japanese meaning of the verb "to stab" and is apparently looking forward to the part where he gets to stab Nemu. Then again, this is Mayuri Kurotsuchi we're talking about; he doesn't seem content to produce anything less than half of the horrors in the entire series.
- Pretty Cure
- Later, an actual manzai duo, named Audrey, guest-stars in one episode of Fresh Pretty Cure!.
- Exaggerated in episode 17 of Smile Pretty Cure!. The entire main cast signs up to act in the manzai contest with two tsukkomis and three bokes (one of them being The Comically Serious to the point where she has No Sense of Humor) just acting their normal selves. Nothing goes All According to Plan between all the mistimed punchlines, so Miyuki calls a timeout only to trip on her way off stage. Can be seen here, beginning at the 50-second mark
.
- In episode 7 of Sailor Moon, two female classmates of Usagi's develop this act for a talent show, which turns out to be set up by the Dark Kingdom to harvest the Life Energy of aspiring stars.
- In Motto! Ojamajo Doremi, former SOS Trio member Sugiyama forms this act with straight-A student Ogura as rivals to the new Trio. Helped along by Aiko (who's from Osaka), Momoko finds them as stupidly hilarious as Hazuki does for the other team
- Black Lagoon features this in an omake, which has Yukio and her kohai trying to do a manzai. No one in Yukio's yakuza gang apparently gets the idea of slapstick, and it doesn't end well. Brass knuckles get involved.
- In a strange example from The Law of Ueki+, this trope is actually part of a character's Dark and Troubled Past, where he was badly injured while practicing one of these routines and his partner left the city without him, so he stopped believing in friendship. This character is otherwise completely serious, and upon the other characters being told about this, they decide to proceed to use Brain Bleach.
- A Running Gag in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's omake comics has Hayate being portrayed as a master◊ of the Boke and Tsukkomi routine due to having a Kansai Dialect.
- In one episode of K-On!, Yui and Azusa enter a show on their own, and start their performance with actual manzai, with Yui as the boke, mostly utilizing malapropisms but also by "forgetting" what they were going to play, and Azusa as the fan-wielding tsukkomi, correcting her.
- Goku and Krillen unintentionally do manzai for a crowd in Dragon Ball, much to the latter's embarrassment.
Boke and Tsukkomi banter
- Sket Dance is one giant Shonen-style Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, quite arguably. Although all of the Sket Trio can be any of the two roles depending on the situation, Bossun and Himeko are able to pull off this act masterfully, even when in their everyday interactions with each other.
- Gintama is basically a series of Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. The characters even describe their own interactions as such.
- In Ranma ½, Kasumi occasionally tries to pull off a sequence of these jokes playing both parts herself.
- Shows up in Azumanga Daioh quite often. Tomo occasionally demands to be the "boke" to an utterly unsuited Osaka's tsukkomi, and Yomi (who is eminently suited) has played that part at least once. Osaka was once asked to do this with Miss Yukari, and was asked which person should take which part. She asked Yukari to be the boke, prompting Yukari to bop her. As Yomi stated, "So it begins..."
- Chiyo unintentionally acts as the tsukkomi to Tomo once, and gets berated by her and Osaka for doing so.
- Megumi and Miki in Cheeky Angel frequently refer to Souga as "boke", and there are several joking references to Megumi being his tsukkomi, including an actual Hyperspace Malleting with the Paper Fan of Doom.
- Saki's willingness to be the Genshiken tsukkomi is treated as a Running Gag throughout the series. In the manga, the Genshiken members even make her a Paper Fan of Doom.
- In a typical bit of self-reference, Haré in Haré+Guu said that, since he is the show's Tsukkomi, he is not good at telling funny stories.
- Pokemon
- When Team Rocket accidentally capture Brock's Lombre (they were aiming for a Mawile), Wobbuffet appears to Lombre and they do a bunch of random slapstick skits in the process, all in Pokémon Speak. Funnily enough, it was Wobbuffet, the biggest idiot in Team Rocket, who was playing the tsukkomi. What does Meowth have to say? "A really bad comedy routine".
- Haruhi Suzumiya:
- Haruhi's and Kyon's actions toward one another appear to be a version of this comedy routine, at least in the first season and first light novel. Haruhi makes some outlandish remark, and Kyon comments on how it doesn't makes sense, often to himself or someone else.
- Playing on the Anachronic Order in which the Melancholy episodes were first broadcast, the next-episode announcements at the end of each show of the first season were a compressed boke-tsukkomi exchange between Haruhi (giving the number of the episode in chronological order) and Kyon ("correcting" the number according to the broadcast order and stating the episode title).
- Emphasized even more in Haruhi-chan, since in this particular series, every character undergoes intentional Flanderization.
- Haruhi-chan gives us a second duo in Yuki-chan and Achakura. Yuki is the Boke by the way.
- Rina and Ranfa do an impromptu Boke and Tsukkomi Routine when they run into each other in a Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch episode.
- In Get Backers, Emishi and Amon pull off a number of these. (The first involves Emishi trying to describe the appearance, by comparing her to various celebrities, of a woman he's never met; in the second he insists on the existence of "stomach trilobites" to the point of drawing one on his abs in marker...)
- Kunogi Himawari of ×××HOLiC misinterprets Doumeki and Watanuki's constant arguments as an attempt to be a humorous Boke and Tsukkomi team.
- The Prince of Tennis:
- Doubles partners Hikaru "Dabide" Amane and Harukaze "Bane-san" Kurobane from Rokkaku frequently pull these off. More often than not, boke Dabide makes some rather bad word puns, and tsukkomi Bane kicks him on the head as a punishment. That even happens during matches, where Bane slaps Dabide across the face if he's slacking.
- In the Senbatsu arc of the anime, Amane is paired up with Oshitari (who is an Osaka native) in doubles. He attempts to pull the other into a similar dynamics...only to make the always calm Oshitari lose his temper. It's theorised, however, that Oshitari may not be that upset, just playing the tsukkomi role relaying on verbal insults rather than physical violence.
- Bleach:
- Uryuu and Pesche did this when they were forced to team up. Pesche is acting stupid on purpose, though.
- Less explicitly, there's also Hitsugaya to Matsumoto, Soi Fon to Omaeda, Ichigo to Kon (with Rukia), to his Dad (with Karin), to Keigo, to Urahara, and to Nel, Hiyori to Shinji & vice versa, Nanao to Kyouraku, Maki-Maki to Yachiru, etc., etc. With so many characters, it's no surprise there's a lot manzai duos in Bleach.
- The wannabe comedy duo in Akahori Gedou Hour Lovege, Love Pheromone, are a straightforward example of this. Mostly.
- Pretty Cure:
- The relationship between best friends Nozomi and Rin in Yes! Pretty Cure 5 is not unlike that of a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. Nozomi is an optimistic idiot who is always trying to Jump At The Call while Rin is a sensible realist who always points out the gaping flaws in Nozomi's plans. Usually along the lines of:
Nozomi: I want to do [activity]!
Rin: You were kicked out of the school's [activity] club after three days.
Nozomi: You don't have to mention that!
- The relationship between best friends Nozomi and Rin in Yes! Pretty Cure 5 is not unlike that of a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. Nozomi is an optimistic idiot who is always trying to Jump At The Call while Rin is a sensible realist who always points out the gaping flaws in Nozomi's plans. Usually along the lines of:
- In Fushigi Yuugi, Hot-Blooded Tasuki and his best friend Kouji go into these sometimes.
- In Love Roma, Hoshino's relationship with his girlfriend Negishi mainly consists of him saying or doing something stupid and her slapping him for it. In one scene he mentions their romance is like a boke and tsukkomi routine. She's about to agree, when he mentions he's the tsukkomi and she's the boke.
Negishi: *thinking* I'm the boke?!
- A brother-sister variation occurs in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman with Jun (serious big sis) and Jinpei (smartass kid).
- B Gata H Kei is essentially one big manzai routine between Yamada and her best friend Takeshita. Whenever Yamada bugs her best friend about something sex-related, Takeshita is there to smack her (verbally and/or physically).
- Bakemonogatari's often odd dialogue centers around the main character Araragi as the tsukkomi and the other person in the conversation as the boke. Whether or not the boke is acting as such intentionally is a matter of debate.
- Koganei (a newscaster) and Amasawa (a weatherman) from The Weatherman Is My Lover have a strong manzai dynamic together which creates much of the appeal of their program, as the audience is waiting for the moment Koganei will crack.
- Nodame Cantabile has a notable gender-flip of male-on-female variant played for laughs the same way it would if female-on-male. Tsundere Chiaki often resorts to violence Cloudcuckoolander Nodame does something that annoys him. Nodame herself even admits to playing up the role since Chiaki is the perfect Straight Man.
- In an early episode of Fushigiboshi no★Futagohime Gyu!, Fine and Rein meet a girl named Lemon who comes from a planet where everyone is into comedy, and wants to team up with them for a manzai act. She tries to be the boke, even though she's more suited to be the tsukkomi, and eventually she tells them that she quit being a tsukkomi after she hit her brother (her old partner) so hard that he fell unconscious and quit comedy for good. Later, her brother confesses that he didn't actually faint, he just realized that he couldn't be a good enough boke for her, so he stayed down.
- This is a good part of One Piece's humor. A character will say or do something completely absurd and act like it's no big deal, while someone else will flip out. A more literal example would be the interaction between One Piece Film: Strong World's God-Created Canon Foreigner villains Shiki and Dr. Indigo, who, apparently, have been doing it over 20 years ago.
- Eyeshield 21 has this as a lot of it's humor. Hiruma tends to play a sneaky boke to his team, though almost everyone the team has their boke moments. Kakei and Mizumachi are this pretty much all the time.
- In Strawberry Marshmallow, Miu is the boke, while her usual tsukkomi is Chika. In one episode, Chika's trying to concentrate on homework, but Miu wants to know who'll be the straight man for her antics. She tries to get Matsuri to play the role instead, but she's too "boring" for it. Her other common tsukkomi is Nobue, Chika's older sister.
- The Pet Girl Of Sakurasou has Mashiro and Sorata, an Idiot Savant and her Cloudcuckoolander's Minder, doing the boke and tsukkomi respectively. Many of Sorata and Mashiro conversations end with Sorata freaking over Mashiro's latest outrageous line/act.
- Occasionally happens in Fairy Tail. Erza and Natsu tend to take the boke role while Gray or Lucy are the tsukkomi.
- The author calls England and Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia this, though adds he's not sure who is the boke and who is the tsukkomi.
- Nanoha
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT, an alternate Lighter and Softer continuity, the Big Bad of the first season, Precia Testarossa, is the boke, and the Big Good of the first two seasons, Lindy Harlaown, is the tsukkomi. The reason why it works so well is that Precia is both a Doting Parent and Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, unlike her incredibly monstrous Evil Matriarch portrayal in the original series. While Lindy is a very friendly and nice person who never gets particularly angry in the original series, Precia's various antics and sudden disappearances in their workplace just to see her (cute) daughters pisses Lindy off in this continuity.
- Hayate can also be count as the boke to Dearche's tsukkomi.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT, an alternate Lighter and Softer continuity, the Big Bad of the first season, Precia Testarossa, is the boke, and the Big Good of the first two seasons, Lindy Harlaown, is the tsukkomi. The reason why it works so well is that Precia is both a Doting Parent and Amazingly Embarrassing Parent, unlike her incredibly monstrous Evil Matriarch portrayal in the original series. While Lindy is a very friendly and nice person who never gets particularly angry in the original series, Precia's various antics and sudden disappearances in their workplace just to see her (cute) daughters pisses Lindy off in this continuity.
- In Yuyushiki, Yuzuko and Yukari act as a dual boke, with Yui as the tsukkomi.
- Attack on Titan references this in the second guidebook, referring to Beleaguered Assistant Moblit as the "tsukkomi" to his Mad Scientist squad leader, Hanji.
- This is the major dynamic with the cast of Seitokai Yakuindomo.
- Usually it's Takatoshi to play the tsukkomi of Shino's perverted remarks. Ranko even notes that without Takatoshi there to tsukkomi, Shino has no one to play off.
- When Takatoshi takes a leave, Shino or (primarily) Suzu will take center stage, depending on who's boke.
- Even Suzu makes note of Takatoshi's absence when she's the only one left to take up the role. In an OVA episode, Suzu actually suffers physical and mental fatigue being the designated Tsukkomi when Takatoshi was absent from school for one day from an illness.
- And, after Kotomi enters Ousai, Toki, the only member of the cast without the slightest hint of perversion.
- Kaede goes Oh, Crap! when she realizes that because Takatoshi and Suzu are both on their second year trip. She has to Tsukkomi for the student council with includes Kotominote .
- One of Junji Ito's stories (Ghosts of Golden Time) features a profoundly unfunny duo who force the audience to laugh via possession, some of them dying from the strain.
Unknown
- Digimon Xros Wars of all places have this. And it was done during the Defrosting Ice Queen episode for Nene...with Akari.
- Break and Sharon have elements of this in PandoraHearts.
Both
- Maria in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei once spent far too long time watching Boke and Tsukkomi and started slapping people who were looking dazy...on the first day after New Years Eve!!
- Not to mention she tended to make people A Twinkle in the Sky...And then, because it's that kind of show, she joined a secret Boke and Tsukommi underground political organization note .
- When she returns from Japan in Kaleido Star, Sora gives Anna a set of manzai props (a Paper Fan of Doom and an idiot mask) as a souvenir. Anna then immediately tries to get Ken to play boke to her tsukkomi. Ken is not thrilled by the idea.
edited 7th Jul '16 8:25:37 AM by Memers
Memers
Since: Aug, 2013
#5: Jul 19th 2016 at 8:23:58 AM
Bumping this for more input than 2 people.
#6: Jul 19th 2016 at 9:19:02 AM
There seem to be enough to split. I would list the examples that are both on both tropes. A little overlap tends to happen.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
No, the other one.
#7: Jul 19th 2016 at 10:07:18 AM
Just to dump an opinion, a split sounds good to me. And to my understanding, Manzai Comedy would be a subtrope of Boke And Tsukkomi Dynamic, as the act by any definition I've heard includes that dynamic.
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Hi
#8: Aug 16th 2016 at 8:34:30 PM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Agreed.
#9: Jan 7th 2017 at 11:51:21 PM
Clock is set.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Getta
Since: Apr, 2016
#10: Jan 8th 2017 at 2:25:22 AM
So we're agreeing to split, yeah?
We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.
#11: Jan 14th 2017 at 1:51:29 AM
Clock expired with very little progress, closing.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Total posts: 11
A discussion came up in the trope's image picking thread [1]
Currently this trope is being used for
I propose splitting the two into Boke And Tsukkomi Dynamic and Manzai Comedy, the latter covering actual famous Manzai duos and fictional on stage Manzai acts like in K On when Yui and Asusa go on stage [2]
◊[3]
◊ or Ni No Kuni's bit [4]
◊.
Or at bare minimum rename it to Manzai as that is its legit name and its current one is not used anywhere and extremely opaque for the tropes it is covering.
edited 6th Jul '16 10:11:36 PM by Memers