Line #42 Main/TalkerAndDoer


1	->''"If I discovered the origin of the universe, my brother would find a way to market it as a foot massager."''
2	-->-- '''Evelyn Deavor''', ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''
3
4	A variety of two-person ensemble where one person has [[GadgeteerGenius technical]] or artistic expertise but lacks social and commercial skills to advertise them, while the other, though lacking geeky know-how, has [[TheFace a silver tongue and a keen profit sense]]. They often bicker a lot (especially about the Doer's habit of "DoingItForTheArt") but grudgingly acknowledge needing each other.
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6	Less optimistically, the Talker may be a CorruptCorporateExecutive taking advantage of the Doer's [[NerdsAreNaive naivete]], [[AbsentMindedProfessor lack of attention]] to anything but their work, or [[ReadTheFinePrint legal ignorance]] in order to get away with abusing their inventions[[note]] obviously this only applies to doers who are inventors[[/note]], [[StealingFromTheTill taking more]] than their fair share of the profits, or StealingTheCredit for the Doer's creations. An even more hostile relationship may involve ForcedCreativity, [[KidnappedScientist Kidnapping]], AnOfferYouCantRefuse, or a LeonineContract.
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8	As [[MostWritersAreWriters most creators are creators]], the creatives are less likely to be evil, but a MadScientist may be using the company as a front for some evil scheme, and it's also possible for a said scientist to team up with a VillainWithGoodPublicity to run EvilInc.
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10	A ReclusiveArtist will often benefit from this relationship. See also OddCouple and OddFriendship. Compare RedOniBlueOni and AloofLeaderAffableSubordinate.
11	----
12	!!Examples:
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
17	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}''. A rat who can cook but can't be understood by humans teams up with a human who can't cook. Played with in that the human isn't really a very competent Talker either, saying things like "Appetite is coming and he's going to have a big ego!", but the rat needed ''anyone'' who could get him into a kitchen because he couldn't on his own.
18	* In ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'', the world-class telecommunications company that wants to sponsor the Parrs to bring Superheroes back to the spotlight is run by BrotherSisterTeam Winston and Evelyn Deavor. Evelyn is the GadgeteerGenius who creates the technology, while her brother is the company's face who sells her inventions to great success.
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
22	* ''Film/ExtraordinaryMeasures'': Dr. Robert Stonehill is the doer as the InsufferableGenius who is developing the cure for Pompe disease; John Crowley is the talker as the CEO of a company he created to cure said disease. Since the movie was BasedOnATrueStory, this crosses over to RealLife, except that Stonehill was the CompositeCharacter of several researchers.
23	* ''Film/TommyBoy'': Tommy is the talker, standing in for his father "Big" Tom Callahan, a charismatic auto parts CEO; Richard is the doer, having served as Big Tom's right-hand man for some time. They start out struggling to sell their brake pads due to both Tommy's inexperience with sales and Richard's InsufferableGenius tendencies annoying everybody. They make their breakthrough [[CentipedesDilemma when Tommy realizes he was trying too hard to emulate his father, and as he starts acting naturally, the two start getting along and successfully selling break pads]].
24	* In ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', Mr. Browne proposes this setup with Miss Price when he suggests that they use her magic to go into show business, with him as the talker and her as the doer, and sings a whole song about it. They never actually pursue it, but he describes it to a T.
25	-->'''Emelius:''' Let us strike a bargain.\
26	You possess a gift,\
27	But I can speak the jargon\
28	That will give your gift the needed lift.
29	[[/folder]]
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31	[[folder:Literature]]
32	* From ''Literature/ACivilCampaign'', Mark Vorkosigan, the business genius and Dr. Enrique Borgos the Escobarran scientist who was going to be sent to prison for his debts (he didn't really understand how selling stocks works). Together they are trying to market genetically engineered cockroaches which vomit out cheap, sanitary, highly nutritious "bug butter"-- but have ''at least'' as much of a public relations problem as that short description makes it sound.
33	* In ''Literature/TheFearIndex'', Dr. Alex Hoffman is a technical genius who has invented a whole new way of automating finance but is generally introverted and awkward, while Hugo Quarry is a fast-talking, profit-headed business genius with no technical knowledge at all.
34	* George and Lennie, the protagonists of ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen'', form a variant on this trope. Lennie is incredibly strong, and would hence be extremely employable on the farms where they are looking for work; except that he's also extremely stupid, too stupid to pass a job interview, so he needs George to speak to the farmers on his behalf.
35	[[/folder]]
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37	[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
38	* Chemistry genius Walter White and amoral attorney Saul Goodman of ''Series/BreakingBad''. Walt makes the world's best meth; Saul hooks him up with a distributor and money laundering services. (Walt tried this earlier with TroubledButCute Jesse Pinkman, but Jesse proved to be as bad at selling as he is at everything else...)
39	* This comes up a lot in murder-of-the-week {{Police Procedural}}s. The victim will be the one who made stuff (the doer), and the partner will by the one who made the company run (the talker). Or less often, vice-versa. Either way, the still-living partner will say that s/he doesn't know how the company will be able to survive without the dead partner (when the partner isn't the Perp).
40	* Hank and Evan Lawson in ''Series/RoyalPains''. Hank is a great doctor but isn't very willing to sell himself. Accountant Evan declares himself "CFO of [=HankMed=]," and handles the business and marketing side of Hank's concierge doctor services.
41	* On ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Quark is a schmoozer and dealmaker, while his brother Rom is very good at fixing things. The relationship between the two is what causes Rom's son Nog to join Starfleet as he doesn't want to be left exploited and miserable like his father.
42	[[/folder]]
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44	[[folder:Video Games]]
45	* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
46	** Master smith Wade and merchant Herren from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''.
47	** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', ''you'' (as [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]]) can become the Doer to Hubert Bartiere's Talker, if you follow up on his SidequestSidestory and agree to co-own the Bone Pit mine. "Doing" in this case mostly boils down to clearing out the mine infestation by increasingly nasty creatures [[OncePerEpisode once per Act]].
48	** In ''ComicBook/{{Magekiller}}'', Marius is a former Tevinter slave trained in one thing: killing magic-users. While his partner Tessa is not a slouch in a fight, either, she is much better at negotiating contracts and talking to clients.
49	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' DLC ''Dragonborn'', a treasure hunter named Ralis Sedarys offers you a partnership to excavate the Kolbjorn Barrow for the ancient relics contained within. You provide the funding ([[CashGate a total of 11,000 gold in four chunks]]) and the muscle whenever the miners run into the draugr, while he manages the dig day-to-day and [[WeHaveReserves hires more miners and mercenaries to replace the losses]]. [[spoiler:In the end, however, you discover that Ralis had been mind-controlled by an undead Dragon Priest buried in the barrow since before you first met him and had quite possibly been sacrificing the miners to him with his own hands.]]
50	* Apparently this is how [[BlowYouAway Kanako]] and [[DishingOutDirt Suwako]] the two goddesses of the Moriya Shrine from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' work. Kanako is the one doing all the planning, strategy, and advertising to gather faith, while Suwako does the heavy lifting with her control over [[https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Mishaguji Mishaguji]].
51	* Malcolm Corley and Adrian Ripburger seem to have this dynamic in ''VideoGame/FullThrottle''. Malcolm, the CEO of Corley Motors, is a genius engineer ([[spoiler:like his secret daughter]]) and puts a lot of effort into his workers' welfare, but most of the day-to-day business running of CM seems to lie with his Vice-President Ripburger, whose management know-how outweighs Malcolm's personal dislike of him. Their partnership ultimately goes very bad, when [[spoiler:Ripburger murders Corley and pins it on the protagonist's gang, in order to take over Corley Motors]].
52	[[/folder]]
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54	[[folder:Web Comics]]
55	* ''Webcomic/GFSerendipity'': Stan is the talker and Fiddleford is the doer. Stan can talk people into buying Fiddleford's inventions and Fiddleford can make products that are so good Stan doesn't need to lie about them in advertisements.
56	* ''Webcomic/OHumanStar'': Brendan Pinsky and Alastair Sterling. Alastair is a repulsive genius and Brendan is a charismatic front man.
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Western Animation]]
60	* Lian-Chu and Gwizdo from ''WesternAnimation/DragonHunters''.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Amity's parents Alador and Odalia fall into this, with Odalia running Blight Industries, while Alador invents all of the [[BlobMonster abomination]]-based technology they sell.
62	* Pete White (Talker) and Bill Quizboy (the one who actually does the work) of WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers.
63	[[/folder]]
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65	[[folder:Real Life]]
66	* Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple. Not quite as clear-cut as the description might imply (they both had technical skills), but basically, Wozniak was the doer -- plenty of technical knowledge but little interest in marketing -- while Jobs was the talker -- he had the vision and the ability to market the new company.
67	* Similarly, Bill Stealey and Creator/SidMeier, founders of Creator/MicroProse: Stealey handled administration and marketing while Meier coded their first games.
68	* Website/DeviantArt, by jark (Scott Jarkoff) and spyed (Angelo Sotira). Sadly, this time it [[http://jark.deviantart.com/art/Things-That-Make-You-Go-Hmm-21117999 didn't]] [[http://justthorne.deviantart.com/journal/6182638/ end]] [[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=522855 well]].
69	* Creator/PennAndTeller have built their entire careers out of this, exaggerated to the point that Teller never talks on stage.
70	[[/folder]]

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