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"Hello, pig. Hello, twig. It's like the number 10 just walked in."
Mimi (to Drew and Lewis), The Drew Carey Show

This is where a fat and a skinny character make up a two-character ensemble. This is usually a comedy trope, usually with the skinny character being the Straight Man, although inversions of this are seen as well. Sometimes both characters are silly and this is often seen in the Terrible Trio type of villains, although there are also examples of heroic, or at least not villainous, pairs who fit this description. They often fit into the tropes of Those Two Guys or Bumbling Henchmen Duo.

These two guys usually (but not always) have some specific characteristics that tropify their relationship: The fat one is usually a dopey optimist, while the skinny one is cynical and refined (unless the fat character is also shorter, in which case the reverse is common). This pair, even in villain form, are devoted to each other. The skinny one has all of the ideas, and the fat one is also the strong man. On the rare occasion the fat guy has a brilliant idea, either the skinny guy will express extreme surprise at the fat guy's ability to rub two brain cells together, or the idea will be waved away as unworkable and then re-appropriated two seconds later as the skinny guy's idea.

If these characteristics are not followed, then it's usually because the fat one is a brute who beats up the whiny skinny dude a lot.

Compare Big Guy, Little Guy, which is this trope with height as opposed to size. Often overlaps with Smart Jerk and Nice Moron. Add a third guy that's shorter than both the fat and skinny guys in the mix and you get Big, Thin, Short Trio (this trope's Sister Trope).


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Horizontal Guy and Vertical Guy, who appear in Comic Party.
  • Pretty Cure:
  • Eyeshield 21 has Hiruma (Skinny) and Kurita (Fat), two of the founding members of the Deimon Devil Bats and the only ones left when Sena ends up joining the team.
  • Jet and Droy in Fairy Tail after the 7-year Time Skip. Incidentally, Droy was the lankier of the two at the start of the series, but he started eating too much due to Levy's disappearance.
  • The Aldini twins from Food Wars!. It's the fat one (Isami) who's the calm, stabilizing factor to his Hot-Blooded brother Takumi, but otherwise they follow the trope pretty spot on.
  • Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama featured a pair of con men known as the Black Brothers as recurring characters. One was skinny and the other was overweight.
  • Moyashimon has Tadayasu's upperclassmen friends Misato (skinny) and Kawahama (fat).
  • Sanson and Hanson, Grandis' cronies in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, invert the mold. The tall, skinny Sanson is incredibly strong (because he's named after the biblical Samson), while the short, rotund Hanson is a peerless genius.
  • Dia and Pearl from the Pokémon Adventures manga. Pearl is the scrawny fast-talking idea man, and Dia is the chubby good-natured dimwit buffoon. Slight subversion in that Dia is revealed to be only Obfuscating Stupidity and sometimes makes borderline snark comments that Pearl chooses to ignore. (In one scene, Platinum observes the boys practicing and asks if the Dope Slap hurt Dia. Pearl insists that he has to brutally slap Dia so the audience will hear the smack-like sound effect, and this is necessary to convey emotion. Dia then mutters that Pearl could hit him a little softer, and still get the message across.) May also be somewhat inverted in that Pearl is physically the stronger of the two boys (even capable of having the heavier Dia stand on his shoulders throughout an entire gym match when they covertly help Platinum. Pearl does finally pass out from exhaustion a short while later.) Played straight in their manzai comedy routines, all of which are written by Pearl.
  • Popuko (fat) and Pipimi (thin) from Pop Team Epic.
  • Tamagotchi's final unique installment, GO-GO Tamagotchi! (the tenth and eleventh overall seasons of the show), introduces the skinny Orenetchi and his plump sister Neenetchi to the cast. Both are huge fans of Kuromametchi, with Orenetchi seeing him as his sempai and Neenetchi having a crush on him.
  • Billy (thin) and Fred (fat) from Transformers: Armada.
  • Tonzler and Boyacky, Doronjo's henchmen from Yatterman. Well, strictly speaking, Tonzler is a muscular Top-Heavy Guy, but the effect is the same. Ditto their many Expy counterparts from the other Time Bokan series.
  • Lumis and Umbra from the Battle City arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!; Umbra is tall and thin, Lumis is short, squat, and chubby (but actually a rather good runner and jumper).
  • The yonkama manga Pocha Pocha Swimming Club has a Rare Female Example in the short plump Katsuyo and the tall skinny Ayumi. Or as the other girls like to call them, Piglet-chan and Toothpick-chan.
  • The PaRappa the Rapper anime features a pair of incompetent crooks named Gaster and Groober as recurring characters. Gaster is a svelte rabbit, while Groober is a chubby cat.
  • In Swan Lake (1981), this applies to the main villain duo. Rothbart is quite plump, and his daughter Odile is very thin.

    Asian Animation 
  • Lamput: The two bad guys who always try to catch Lamput are a fat doctor and a skinny doctor who are appropriately named Fat Doc and Slim Doc respectively.
  • Motu Patlu: The two title characters are this. Motu is the fat one, and Patlu is the skinny one. In fact, their names are the Hindi words for "fat" and "skinny" respectively.

    Comic Books 
  • Asterix and Obelix, though Obelix insists his chest has just slipped a bit.
  • Batman: Black and White: The gangster brothers "Thick" and "Thin" Lyman in "Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder".
  • The one-shot comic Billy Majestic's Humpty Dumpty has the redneck brothers Petus Brakk (fat) and Pervis Brakk (skinny).
  • Kayko & Kokosh, a pair of classic Polish comic characters. Kajko is the short, brainy one, and Kokosz is the giant, brawny foil. Because of this, they occasionally get criticized for being too similar to Asterix and Obelix.
  • Kel-Matu and Ko-Chonu in Les Légendaires. A rare example to not be played for comedy.
  • In Noob, the actors playing The Dividual Bartémulius and Nostariat in the webseries are a man of normal size and a woman that is little on the heavy side. When the webseries got its Comic-Book Adaptation, the characters got turned into this trope. Note that the comic's illustrator and colorist are the actors in question.
  • Plastic Man (skinny) and Woozy Winks (fat).
  • Zelda and Hilda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch are traditionally this. Since the 1990s show, Archie Comics has been making Zelda skinnier.
  • Invoked in The Sandman (1989), with Cain and Abel possessing a contract from Dream to serve as "the thin one and the fat one". They're also the In-Universe Trope Codifier for murderer and victim, among others.
  • Spider-Man: Styx and Stone have it all but stated in their names — Styx is horribly lanky and tall, while Stone isn't necessarily fat, but monstrous and burly.
  • Douglas Klump and Burt Shlubb, "Fat Man and Little Boy" from Sin City
  • We Kill Monsters: Andrew is the skinny one, Jake is the fat one. Jake even comments on it when he sees himself through the eye of his newly-transformed tentacle arm.
    Jake: Hey, whoa, I'm kind of fat.
  • From her earliest days thin and tall Wonder Woman's best friend whom she often fights alongside has been the short and plump Boisterous Bruiser Etta Candy.

    Comic Strips 
  • Aunts Jane and Abigale of The Adventures of Prudence Prim. Aunt Jane is tall and thin, with a stretched oval of a face and dark, straight hair pulled up in a severe bun. Aunt Abigale is much rounder — she has a wide, fleshy face accessorized with round glasses and curly white hair that she wears in a puffy, beehive-like hairdo.
  • Garfield and Odie. Also Garfield and Jon to a degree, as well as Garfield and Arlene.
  • Hägar the Horrible and Lucky Eddie.
  • Mutt and Jeff, in syndication from 1907 until 1982.
  • Uncle Sam and John Bull, the personifications of North America and England, respectively, when they are portrayed together in political cartoons.

    Eastern European Animation 
  • The stepsisters in Cinderella (1979) consist of a redhead plump sister, and a brunette matchstick sister.

    Fan Works 
  • In Ask Hoops and Dumbbell, the titual characters fit the bill - though Dumbbell, the 'fat' of th two, is less fat and more just stocky. they also invert the typical dynamic with Dumbbell(usually) playing the Straight Man.
  • A Good Day downplays this, as, while she is chubby and therefore heavier, Ryuuko isn't fat but plays this role, while Satsuki, who is slimmer, plays the skinny role.
  • According to the Gensokyo 20XX series, Moukou and Kaguya is this, as, chapter 27 of 20XXIV has Miko noting that the latter has gone up about 3-8 dress sizes, while the former remained as slender as always, implying that Kaguya had put on weight since the last time she had seen her (assuming she wasn't always stout).
  • The King Nobody Wanted: * Fat and Skinny: Marya Seaworth and Gwendolyn Chelsted become fast friends and Cersei thinks of them as a "dumpling" and a "beanpole," respectively.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Laurel and Hardy, the Trope Maker, sometimes known by fans as "the Fiddle and the Bow". In many countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, they are actually known as "Fat and Skinny", while in Germany they are known as "Fat and Stupid", reportedly the most pejorative name for the duo. They also defy the usual stereotypes in that Hardy is the smart one and Laurel the fool. Of course, interpretations of this can vary.
  • Abbott and Costello.
  • Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.
  • Jay and Silent Bob, with the fat Silent Bob as the Straight Man.
  • Moe and/or Larry and Curley or Joe or Curly Joe.
  • The Mexican comedy duo Viruto (skinny) y Capulina (fat).
  • The two mythical beasts, Bicorn and Chichivache. Justified in that one eats devoted husbands, which are plentiful, and the other obedient wives, of which there is a shortage. At least at the time the legend was written.
  • About the Little Red Riding Hood has the villainous duo of wolves appropriately called Thin and Fat. Thin is smarter and crueler, while Fat is easily manipulated and has little real interest in chasing Little Red Riding Hood or doing anything villainous at all.
  • John Bunny and Flora Finch played a husband-and-wife variant on this trope in A Cure for Pokeritis and at least a hundred more short comedy films, made over a decade before Laurel and Hardy. As usual, it's the skinny one (here Finch, who played the shrewish wife) who dominates the fat one {her fat Henpecked Husband, played by Bunny).
  • In Batman Returns, the Penguin's circus-themed gang includes the Fat Clown and the Thin Clown. As usual, the Thin Clown is a genius (Penguin has him install a jamming device inside the Batmobile) while the Fat Clown is pretty dense.
  • The Blues Brothers. Perhaps explained by their Trademark Favorite Foods; Jake's "four fried chickens" (yes, whole ones) and Elwood's "dry white toast".
  • The Bodyguard From Beijing has the two bumbling assistant bodyguards, Charlie and Ken.
  • Cherry Falls: Dino (fat) and Wally (played by the very skinny DJ Qualls) sit together in class and the cafeteria and approach girls together at the pre-orgy dance.
    • Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi again, in Neighbors.
  • Komatsu and Oyama from the 1950s Japanese family film, Chibideka Monogatari, known better by it's English title Skinny and Fatty, which apparently cemented itself permanently in the minds of those who grew up in Japan in the late '50s.
  • Children's Party at the Palace has Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker (who already appear on this page).
  • The City Of Ember: Scrawny Corrupt Quartermaster Looper is accompanied by a plump crony in a few scenes.
  • In The Dark Crystal, skekAyuk the Gourmand (fat) and skekEkt the Ornamentalist (thin) are often seen together, and seem to share a common love of food.
  • The two male leads of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are the slender Newt Scamander and the chubby Jacob Kowalski.
  • Max and Thor in the film version of George of the Jungle.
  • Jolly U and Rat in Guest from the Future.
  • A gender inversion is Tracy Turnblad and Penny Pingleton from Hairspray (1988).
  • Shannon Mullins and Sarah Ashburn from The Heat.
  • Harry and Marv in Home Alone (although in this case, "fat" and "skinny" are inverted from their normal personalities). Somewhat downplayed in Harry's case as he's not especially fat, but he's definitely more heavyset than the bearded beanpole he's paired with.
  • Killer Party has a fat and skinny pair of Beta Tau frat boys (known as 'Fat Bee-Boy' and 'Skinny Bee-Boy') who lack any of the redeeming characteristics (such as they are) of the other frat boys and generally exist only to act inappropriately towards the sorority girls.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Gimli and Legolas arguably fit this trope- though dwarves in general tend to be more short and stocky than actually “fat” (Bombur from The Hobbit is an exception).
  • On the Buses has fat Ruby and skinny Vera, the first two female bus drivers to turn up at the depot.
  • Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet in a number of 1940s films, starting with The Maltese Falcon. They were often, though not always, a villainous pair. This was lampshaded during their cameo in Hollywood Canteen, when a soldier thinks they're threatening him. They were actually offering him a cigarette.
    • Lorre also sometimes appeared in films with Vincent Price, again often playing characters who were in some way foils to each other and fit this trope.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean has two sets, two Royal Marines Murtogg and Mullroy based on Abbott & Costello and two pirates Pintel and Ragetti based on Laurel & Hardy. The pairs meet a few times.
  • Maynard and Zed of Pulp Fiction are a villainous version. Pudgy Maynard is the nervous one, while Zed is more coolly evil and gets a more protracted and painful death.
  • Return of the Scarecrow: Virgil (fat) and Wyatt (skinny), who decide to dress up as the titular scarecrow and scare some campers.
  • Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Spaced...
  • Prom Wars : Thompson and Dubinsky, the two main two Selby students besides the prefects, are a pair of nerds who hang out a lot, with one of them being thin and the other being fat.
  • The Shaw Brothers martial arts movie, Pursuit has protagonist Lin-chung as the skinny, a fair, patient noble warrior and his best bud, Flower Monk Lu, a hotheaded Boisterous Bruiser. Even their weapon of choice reflects their appearances, with Lin using a thin spear with a fine silver tip, while Lu uses a giant polearm resembling a killer shovel.
  • Sky High (2005): Speed, the fat guy, actually has Super-Speed, but Lash, the skinny guy, has stretching powers.
  • Solarbabies: The two bounty hunters. Malice is chunky and Dogger is thin.
  • C-3PO and R2-D2 from Star Wars.
  • Super Xuxa contra Baixo Astral: Titica and Morcegão, the main villain's henchmen.
  • Evan and Seth from Superbad
  • Police, Hal and Ed from The Terminator.
  • David Spade and Chris Farley in Tommy Boy and Black Sheep (1996).
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Diana is tall and thin while Etta Candy is short and fat.

    Literature 
  • Gaunt's Ghosts: Bragg and Larkin certainly count. Although that's more Freakishly Huge and Skinny than Fat and Skinny. (Bragg is at least 8 feet 8 inches and probably bigger.)
  • Depending on the artist or screen portrayal, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson sometimes get this treatment. It's canonically true of Sherlock and Mycroft. Both fit either side of the Geek Physiques, but Sherlock is a lithe yet physically strong man while Mycroft is a corpulent Non-Action Guy.
  • Fattypuffs And Thinifers begins with Edmund's skinny brother Terry calling him a Fattypuff. They then ride down a long escalator to a fantasy world which is entirely divided between a fat half and a thin half.
  • The main characters of the Italian novel for children Sussi e Biribissi by Paolo Lorenzini (aka Collodi Nipote). Sussi is rosy and short, with blond curly hair, and looks like a lump of butter, Biribissi is tall, skinny, dark haired and quite dirty. Later in the novel, they swap roles.
  • Lyle and Lloyd from Geoph Essex's Lovely Assistant are practically an off-model Laurel and Hardy mixed with Threepio and Artoo.
  • The Magic Map has Longitude and Latitude, with Longitude being the fat one and Latitude being the thin one.
  • Anne Shirley (Skinny) and her best friend Diana Barry (Fat) from the Anne of Green Gables series.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid gives us Lean and Mean Anti-Hero Greg and his Fat Best Friend Rowley.
  • Discworld:
    • Sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs. Fred is the sort of big, red-faced man who is destined to be either a sergeant or a pork butcher, and the Ambigiously Human Nobby is so scrawny that the Lemony Narrator comments "Technically he had arms, because his hands were attached to his shoulders, but that was about all you could say."
    • Granny Weatherwax (tall and thin) and Nanny Ogg (in her own words "comfortably built") offer a female version, when they aren't being The Three Faces of Eve with Magrat.
    • They're not really a double act, but Spelter and Carding from Sourcery at one point stand next to each other and are described as "looking exactly like the number 10".
  • Don Quixote (skinny) and Sancho Panza (fat)
  • Fat Kid Rules the World has best friends and bandmates Troy and Curt. Troy is a depressed, nearly 300 pound teenager while Curt is very scrawny guy who gets mistaken for a drug user due to his looks. They form a punk band together (with Troy on drums).
  • Locke Lamora (Skinny) and Jean Tannen (Fat) from Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series. While Lamora embodies the classic 'brains and sarcasm' role of the skinny one (and main protagonist), Tannen is, somewhat unusually for the fat one, the voice of reason, the conscience, and the badass, instead of merely the foil.
  • Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg's The Positronic Man: When Sir invites US Robots executive Elliott Smythe and Chief Robopsychologist Merwin Mansky, it is apparent that Smythe is tall and skinny, while Mansky is short and fat.
    They were a curiously mismatched pair, for Elliott Smythe was a slender, towering, athletic-looking man with long limbs and a great mane of dense white hair, who seemed as though he would be more at home on a tennis court or in a polo match than in a corporate office, while Merwin Mansky was short and stocky and had no hair at all, and gave the appearance of someone who would leave his desk only under great duress.
  • The lazy and horrid Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge of James and the Giant Peach who both have Meaningful Names.
  • In Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Christopher Drawlight and Henry Lascelles seem to fit this trope, with Drawlight being plump and rather dim-witted, while Lascelles (the taller of the two) is brutally sarcastic and, in a darker take on the trope manages to effectively scheme against Norrell and Strange, and murders Drawlight. Based on body type alone, Norrell and Strange themselves fit this trope, but do not qualify in other ways.
  • The Land of Green Ginger: The Wicked Princes Rubdub Ben Thud of Arabia (fat) and Tintac Ping Foo of Persia (thin), who spend most of the book ganging up on the hero Abu Ali, despite the fact that they hate each other, play hard into this trope visually, especially in the illustrations. However, they're both idiots; most of the bright ideas come from Rubdub's Small Slave.
  • In Momo, Momo's friends include a couple who run an inn. Nino is skinny, and tends to be bad-tempered or impulsive; Liliana is plump, and tends to be more easy-going and wiser.
  • Croup and Vandemar, the Old Firm, in Neverwhere.
  • Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men
  • Finney and Mudd from Tad Williams' Otherland sci-fi series. Servants to the main villain, the skinny one, Finney, is brilliant and manipulative, and Mudd, the fat one, is described as "Almost subhuman". Copies of them exist within a massive VR simulation network where these characteristics are played up even more by the intelligence controlling the system, which essentially constructs its understanding of the universe from stories, almost making these copies a reference to the trope itself..
  • The Railway Series book "Small Railway Engines" introduces two clergymen who are railway enthusiasts: the Thin Clergyman and the Fat Clergyman. The Thin Clergyman is an analogue to the series' creator the Rev. W. Awdry and the Fat Clergyman to Awdry's friend the Rev. Teddy Boston. They also appear three books later in "Duke the Lost Engine" where they lead an expedition to find Duke; the Fat Clergyman is the one who finally finds Duke when he falls through the ceiling of Duke's shed.
  • Donegan Bane and Gracious O'Callahan, the Monster Hunters, in The Maleficent Seven. Donegan is described as a "tall, skinny Englishman" while Gracious is "the short, powerfully built Irishman".
  • The doctors Boril (Fat) and Robil (Skinny) in Tales of the Magic Land. In an interesting subversion, it's Boril who's the brainier one.
  • The Tribe: Officers Sellars and Cassidy from "Camp Cannibal", the two policemen assigned to watch over Spencer during his house arrest period, are these respectively.
  • Miles and his clone-twin Mark in the later entries of the Vorkosigan Saga; Miles' near-constant hyperactivity and odd metabolism has kept him rake-thin, while Mark gained a great deal of weight while being force-fed by a captor, and decided to keep the weight after escaping - at least partly so that he and Miles could never be mistaken for one another. Although they usually operate independently, they are together often enough that they have acquired the in-universe nickname of "The Chance Brothers" - Slim and Fat - but nobody calls them that to their faces. Nobody's that stupid.
  • Welcome To Wonderland:
    • The first book has Sydney and Stanley Sneemer, the thieves who pulled off a jewel heist in 1973. Sydney is skinny, and Stanley is fat.
    • The third book introduces Darryl and Travis, professional sand sculptors Edward Conch hired as the Wonderland Hotel's sand sculpting team. Darryl is fat, Travis is skinny.
  • Lord Tywin and his younger brother Ser Kevan Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire are a physically fit example of this trope. Tywin is described as having broad shoulders and a slender build, but with thin and muscly arms, Kevan is mentioned to have 'gone stout in recent years', but still has broad shoulders and is a capable warrior.
  • The Golden Hamster Saga has Mr. John's guinea pigs: fat, black-and-white Caruso and skinny, red-and-white Enrico.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Manolo and Benito from Manos a la Obra. Benito may not be that skinny, but he's obviously not as fat as Manolo.
  • The Mexican entertainers Viruta and Capulina.
  • El Gordo y la Flaca (lit. "The Fatman and the Skinny Woman") is a popular gossip show from Univision for Spanish-speaking audiences hosted by paparazzis Raul de Molina and Lil Estefan who are Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • David Mitchell and Robert Webb - one bit, for instance, has Rob mocking David for asking whether a shirt made him look fat. Referenced in Peep Show when Jeremy steals one of Mark's sausages (I'm the skinny one. I need food more than him.)
  • David Walliams and Matt Lucas.
  • Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter, although Andy Richter is the straight man.
  • UK 1980s comedy duo Syd Little and Eddie Large (not their real names).
  • Pedrão and Jorginho from Brazilian comedy show Os Caras de Pau.
  • Ace of Cakes has Duff Goldman and Geof Manthorne, two Heterosexual Life-Partners who make cakes and take names. Inverted, however, in that Duff is the brazen one of the two, while Geof tends to sit back and spout wisdom/ineffably dry humor for the most part.
  • Better Call Saul: Jimmy is a tall drink of water while his brother Chuck is corpulent, helping emphasize their different personalities. Also Jimmy and his Fat Best Friend Marco.
  • Burnistoun has a series of sketches centered on two friends, Scott and Peter. Scott, who plays the Straight Man to Peter's wackier personality, is skinny while Peter is fat. They comment on this contrast in one sketch, where Peter posits that he's the dominant one in the relationship and predicts that Scott will soon become fat as a result.
  • El Chompiras and El Botija from Chespirito.
    • In the same show, Chespirito also did some sketches titled El Gordo y el Flaco (the Spanish name for Laurel and Hardy), inspired by the classic films.
    • El Chavo and Señor Barriga, as well as Señor Barriga and Don Ramón.
  • Yick and Arthur from Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High
  • Earl and Roy in Dinosaurs.
  • Bert and Al from Doc Martin. Bert being the short Fat Idiot and his son Al is the sensible Straight Man.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Mr Oak and Mr Quill in "Fury From the Deep".
    • The episode "A Good Man Goes to War" brought us the thin and fat (and tall and short) gay married Anglican Marines. The characters themselves claimed that with a description like that, they don't even need names.
    • The Twelfth Doctor and Nardole.
  • Drake & Josh, until Josh lost his puppy fat.
  • Barney and Junior from Far Out Space Nuts.
  • Filmation's Ghostbusters (the original live-action series) featured two gangsters called Fat Man and The Rabbit in the episode, "The Maltese Monkey." This example goes one further in that The Rabbit is played by dwarf actor Billy Barty.
  • French and Saunders
  • The Clegane brothers, Gregor "The Mountain" (Fat) and Sandor "The Hound" (Skinny) in Game of Thrones. Downplayed in that both men are muscular giants, with Gregor as the bulkier, slightly taller one and Sandor as the leaner, more traditionally-built one.
    • Also in the same series, the duo of Hope Pie (fat) and Lommy Greenhands (skinny).
  • James Corden and Mathew Horne, in Gavin & Stacey and "Horne and Corden".
  • Gilligan's Island is another case where the usual roles are reversed, with Skipper (the fat guy) usually being the Straight Man and Gilligan (the skinny one) the dimwit.
  • R.J. and Miles in The Hard Times of RJ Berger.
  • From Heroes, Hiro is short, goofy, optimistically idealistic, and a little on the chubby side, while his best friend Ando is more serious, worldly, and taller and thinner; they're only rarely seen apart from each other. They seem to be on equal footing as far as intelligence goes, though, and take turns being the one who actually comes up with an idea.
  • Shultz and Klink from Hogan's Heroes
  • In the first 3 seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street, the scrawny hippie relic Munch was paired with the heftier and older Bolander.
  • Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton on The Honeymooners.
  • Jake and the Fatman has the title characters, police detective Jake Styles and prosecutor J.L. "Fatman" McCabe.
  • Justified has Harlan County gangsters Dickie and Coover Bennett. Dickie's an all but emaciated marijuana dealer with a caustic sense of humour, an unpredictable temper, and a penchant for underhanded, half-thought out scheming. His younger brother, Coover, is a colossal, overweight, thug who acts as Dickie's muscle, loses his mind in fights, and lets Dickie do most of the thinking. They live in the same house, operate an ATV front-business together, and despite the fact that neither one is especially bright, are two of Harlan County's most dangerous criminals.
  • Kenan & Kel, with fat Kenan as the Straight Man to skinny Kel.
  • Hurley and various skinny partners (most commonly Charlie, now Miles, occasionally Sawyer) from Lost.
    • Even more so with Hurley's old buddy on the mainland, Johnny, aka DJ Quallis.
  • Power Rangers:
  • Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, and maybe Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker as well.
    • Also, Kermit and Fozzie Bear.
  • Earl and Randy from My Name Is Earl.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Crow is all articulated lamp arms, and Tom Servo is barrel-shaped, literally.
    • Also Dr. Forrester (skinny) and TV's Frank (fat).
    • Later in the series we have Observer/Brain Guy (skinny) and Prof. Bobo (fat).
  • Noah's Arc: Alex and Noah when they're seen one on one; their personalities also fit the silly vs. Straight Man (no pun intended) qualities of the trope.
  • Penn & Teller
  • Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel (and later, Richard Roeper) from Siskel & Ebert.
  • Kramer and Newman in Seinfeld every time they're on one of their Get-Rich-Quick Scheme.
  • Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street.
  • Jamie and Vicki from Small Wonder.
  • Nico and Grady from Sonny with a Chance.
  • Super Sentai
  • Penhall and Hanson toward the end of their partnership in 21 Jump Street.

    Music 
  • Williams and Ree.
  • The faces of Barenaked Ladies, Steven Page and Ed Robertson.
  • Insane Clown Posse, Violent J (fat) and Shaggy 2 Dope (skinny).
  • Johns Linnell and Flansburgh, pretty consistently throughout their career. Linnell has always been terribly scrawny, whereas Flansburgh has evolved from being ridiculously buff to rather pudgy, and of course several inches taller. Inverted, however, in that Flansburgh is the idea man, while Linnell broods in the background and plays music, sometimes on stage when you poke him into it.
  • Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., when they were friends.
  • Trout Fishing in America has 7-foot, moderately built Keith Grimwood and 5-foot-5, thicker-built Ezra Idlet.
  • Twiztid from 1997 until 2012 was identifiable thusly: Jamie Madrox was the fat one, and Monoxide was the skinny one. However, Jamie lost a lot of weight and is skinny now.
  • Flo and Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) of The Turtles and Mothers of Invention fame.
  • Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. (a rare female example)
  • Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart. (another rare female example)
  • In videos, live performances and some lyrics, D12 liked to play up the contrast of the Lean and Mean Slim Shady with the Fat Bastard Bizarre.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Kane and pretty much every wrestler he's teamed with, especially when he lets his gut go, except when he pairs with other big men (The Undertaker, Mankind, and The Big Show).
  • Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley during their time teaming without D'Von in 2002.
  • Hell, D'Von has always had more of a cut and muscular build than Bubba (who was downright obese for much of his career) so they too can count as this.
  • Too Cool's 2003/04 incarnation of Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty.
  • V-Squared - Val Venis and Viscera.
  • Owen Hart and Yokozuna.
  • Team IWS, Kevin Steen and El Generico. Equally, Willie Mack and El Generico.
  • TNA Frontline leaders AJ Styles and Samoa Joe.
  • Mark Henry and Montel Vontavious Porter, Mark Henry and Evan Bourne, Mark Henry and Yoshi Tatsu.
  • Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) and ShowMiz (The Big Show and The Miz).
  • Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty.
  • OVW tag team "The Fat And The Furious", Mr. Black being the fat and Trailer Park Trash being the skinny, though they're both heavyweights, fat Black weighs over twice as much as Trash.
  • The Beer City Bruiser and The Last Real Man Silas Young. Silas wanted them to be known as "Milwaukee's Worst" but it didn't catch on. He's also somewhat of a fitness freak, while Bruiser...well beer can give you "Milwaukee's Worst" can give you a belly.
  • Big Moe and Brandon Xavier, who reigned as tag team champions in NWA Midwest for over a year. They're officially known as Meat N Taters and unofficially known as "Bad For Your Health".
  • The Deleters Of World Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy.

    Radio 

    Theater 
  • Productions of The Barber of Seville typically cast the main antagonist Dr. Bartolo as fat, while his accomplice Don Basilio is usually skinnier. It's also common for Bartolo to be shorter and Basilio taller. Since both characters have bass voices, this physical contrast is useful to help the audience tell them apart.
  • Finian's Rainbow has Shears and Robust. The former is tall and lean, the latter short and squat.
  • Pantomimes in the UK often use this when casting the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella, usually having a tall, thin one and a short, fat one.

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 
  • The two mysterious guys who seem to be stalking Emily in Damaged. One is tall, thin, and blue. The other is short, fat, and orange.
  • Lyle and Loopty from Helluva Boss are this after their Rapid Aging.
  • Arin and Dan from Game Grumps are often depicted as this.

    Web Comics 
  • In El Goonish Shive, Rich and Larry are fat and skinny characters usually seen together serving as Those Two Guys.
  • One of the main characters in Furthia High is Bruce, a fat red fox, whose best friend is a skinny rabbit named Campy. Both are friends with the last human in the world.
  • Falstaff and Truck, the resident Those Two Guys of Housepets!, which comes with several weight and eating jokes at the latter's expense.
  • Jack Delitt and Mortimer Jones from Newheimburg
  • Poison Ivy Gulch: Two recurring cowboys, Wilbur (skinny) and Nimrod (fat), fit this trope.
  • Schlock from Schlock Mercenary and whoever is pairing off with him at the time. The only thing concrete about this is Schlock being the fat one (unless he's with Brad, Elizabeth or Chisulo), since with Schlock's partner almost always being an officer there's the almost inevitable clash of Schlock's street-smart quick-wittedness vs the partner's genuine (although not always particularly great) intelligence.
  • The first two trolls in Tails Gets Trolled are a particularly hilarious example
  • Jon and Seth, the two main characters of Waste of Time are this.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Scratch and Grounder.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball, Darwin and Anais' parents Richard (fat) and Nicole (skinny).
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Played with in the first two seasons with Zuko and Iroh. While Zuko is a dark, angsty teen with obsessive tendencies and is surprisingly well-muscled, Iroh is the laid-back veteran/mentor with a big belly and committed to taking it easy.
    • In season 3 their roles reverse somewhat; Iroh loses a lot of weight and becomes more focused and determined, while Zuko does a Heel-Face Turn and becomes more emotionally open and vulnerable.
  • Biker Mice from Mars: The 2006 revival featured two pairs consisting of a skinny guy and a fat guy.
    • Incompetent Catatonian goons Puss (fat) and Boots (skinny).
    • Sir Richard Brand-Something's robot butler henchmen Bangers (skinny) and Mash (fat).
  • Bump in the Night: Had this trope with the aliens Sleemoth and Gloog, a pair of minor recurring antagonists. Sleemoth is skinny, while Gloog is fat.
  • The Cattanooga Cats: Crumden and Bumbler from the Around the World in 79 Days segment.
  • ChalkZone:
    • The titular cops in "The Label Police" consist of a fat guy and a skinny guy, the pair looking somewhat like a cartoonish Laurel and Hardy.
    • In "Vampire Cannibals of New York", the overweight Gummy and the svelte Chomp are the only vampire cannibals besides Gore the Vampire Cannibal King who are given names.
  • Classic Disney Shorts: The Karnival Kid (1929) has the two cats that sing the (even by then) classic song Sweet Adeline (to help Mickey woo Minnie).
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Mr. Mogul (fat) and his assistant Simon (skinny).
  • Craig of the Creek: Has best friends (Later girlfriends) Courtney (fat) and Tabitha (Skinny), known as the Witches of the Creek.
  • Disney Fairies: Bobble and Clank from the Tinker Bell movie.
  • DuckTales (2017): Scrooge (skinny and good) and his arch-nemesis Flintheart Glomgold (fat and evil).
  • Family Guy has main characters Peter (fat) and Lois (skinny), as well as the two vaudeville performers Vern (skinny) and Johnny (fat).
  • Filmation's Ghostbusters: Jake (skinny) and Eddie (fat). Then again, Eddie and Futura may also count, if one is so inclined.
  • The Flintstones: Fred and Wilma tend to fall into this at times.
    • Same can be said about Fred and Barney, although Barney's thinness is hard to notice due to Hanna-Barbera's animation style is clear in-universe that Fred is overweight and Barney isn't. This is much clearer in the The Flintstones film adaptation as John Goodman plays Fred and Rick Moranis plays Barney making it much more obvious.
  • Good Vibes: Mondo and Woody.
  • Goof Troop:
    • The fathers, Pete and Goofy. Pete (who is fat) is the idea man and the cynic, while Goofy (who is skinny) is the goofy optimist who is just along for the ride, and neither one qualifies as an actual Straight Man (though Pete is closer).
    • The sons, Max and PJ. Max (who is skinny) is the idea man and the optimist, while PJ (who is fat) is a pessimistic critic of Max's plans and The Drag-Along, and they have a mutual Straight Man and Wise Guy partnership where PJ is, as a pattern, more likely to be the straight man than Max is.
    • Spud and Wally. Though they are minor enough that their roles are unclear, it seems to follow the show's "fat guy is straight(er) man" pattern.
  • Gravity Falls: Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland.
  • Grojband: Kon and his gender opposite Konnie (fat) and Kin and his gender opposite Kim (skinny).
  • The Hair Bear Bunch: Botch and Mr. Peevly.
  • Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: Gives us the latter characters, one fat one (Mungo) and two skinny ones (Hector and Wordsworth). It's unclear where Riff-Raff fits in, since he's just short.
  • Inspector Gadget and Chief Quimby.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Uncle and Tohru.
  • Jeannie and Babu.
  • Kablam: Prometheus and Bob; Bob is the former, Prometheus is the latter.
  • Kaeloo: Gives us the twins Pretty and Eugly, the former of whom is slim (and implied to have an eating disorder) and the latter of whom is obese.
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: In the party scene from Walt Disney's cartoon, Brom Bones wants to invoke this trope when he repeatedly attempts to get tall, skinny Ichabod Crane to dance with a short, fat girl instead of with Katrina.
  • The Littles: Has Grandpa Little note , and Cousin Dinky, who also act as Those Two Guys.
  • Looney Tunes had plenty of pairings like these.
    • Both the cat and mouse incarnations of "Babbitt and Catsello", which were animated analogues to the previously mentioned Abbott and Costello.
    • Jose (fat) and Manuel (skinny), the crows from Two Crows From Tacos (although they're depicted as cats in Mexicali Shmoes). Neither of them are very bright, though unusually for the trope, the fat one is the smarter of the two.
    • In Porky Pig's earliest cartoons, he was paired up with a character named Beans the Cat. In this case, Porky is the fat and Beans is the skinny. Later on, after Beans disappeared, Daffy Duck replaces him as the skinny (though this case is more downplayed, as Porky had slimmed down by a decent amount by the late-30s, looking more chubby than outright obese).
    • Cat-Tails for Two gives us George (skinny) and Benny (fat), combining this trope with Big Guy, Little Guy. In Hoppy-Go-Lucky a year earlier, Benny is instead paired with Sylvester, who fills George's role.
  • Megas XLR: Coop and Jamie.
  • Moral Orel: Florence and Dottie, two unlikely roommates.
  • Mr. Bogus: Jake and Butch, the two burglars.
  • The Mr. Men Show: Mr. Nosy and Mr. Small.
  • The New Adventures of Mighty Mousenote : The Filmation series paired Mighty Mouse's skinny-as-a-rail nemesis Oil Can Harry with a dim-witted and tubby thug named Swifty.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Snips and Snails, as well as Mrs. [Cup] Cake and Mr. [Carrot] Cake.
  • Nickelodeon has many examples, usually of the "both are silly" variety. In chronological order:
  • The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show: Penny Pillar and Wiggy Rockstone.
  • Oggy and the Cockroaches: Dee Dee (fat) and Marky (skinny). Sometimes, their roles can be switched, in episodes like "Ugly, Dirty And Good", "Wake Up, My Lovely!" and "The Big Bad Wolf", the former is the Straight Man who comes up with a plan and Marky is the clumsy goofball or the follower. However, in others like "Fly For Fun" and "Mission ApollOggy", it's the polar opposite.
  • Phineas and Ferb: Buford and Baljeet.
  • Popeye: Popeye and Bluto (especially in the 1960s TV shorts, where he was called "Brutus").
  • The Proud Family: Oscar and Felix.
  • Pound Puppies (1980s): The pilot episode featured a pair of thugs known as Flack (thin) and Tubbs (fat).
  • ReBoot: Pretty much every one binome and zero binome pairing, the most notable example being Captain Gavin "The Crimson Binome" Capacitor (a skinny one binome) and his first mate Mr. Christopher (a rotund zero binome).
  • Recess: Gives you any combination of Mikey and T.J. with Vince and Gus.
  • Robotomy: The main characters Thrasher (skinny) and Blastus (fat).
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • Sheep in the Big City has a "fat guy and skinny guy" pairing in the antagonists, General Specific (short and fat) and Private Public (tall and skinny).
  • The Simpsons: Chubby dope Homer and slender peacekeeper Marge.
  • South Park: Jimbo and Ned.
  • Spliced: Entrée (fat) and Peri (skinny).
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Squidward and Mr. Krabs, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (at least in their advanced age).
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Marco's friends Ferguson (fat) and Alfonzo (skinny).
  • Star Wars Rebels: Has the villainous duo Aresko (skinny) and Grint (fat).
  • Steven Universe:
    • Steven is short and fat while his Muggle Best Friend Connie is skinny and slightly taller.
    • Amethyst has a similar build to Steven, while Pearl is much taller and extremely skinny. Adding Garnet makes them a Big, Thin, Short Trio.
      • Pearl was also the slender one to the much more generously built Rose Quartz
    • The Big Donut is run by the short and heavyset Sadie and the tall and lanky Lars.
  • The Strange Chores: The tall, lanky wannabe popular kid Charlie is best friends with the short, tubby social media geek Pierce.
  • SWAT Kats: Has four such pairs: T-Bone and Razor, Mac and Molly Mange, Burke and Murray, and Mayor Manx and Callie Briggs.
  • Teen Titans: Thunder and Lightning from the episode "Forces of Nature". This is a rare case where the Fat one, Thunder, is smarter and more sensible than the his foolish and Thin brother Lightning.
  • Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales: Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley.
  • Timon & Pumbaa: The eponymous stars (Timon the meerkat is the skinny one, and Pumbaa the warthog is the fat one).
  • Toad Patrol: Has this in a pair of villainous weasels, Ollie and Snout.
  • Total Drama: Katie and Sadie.
    • Antagonistic example seen in perennial rivals Heather and Leshawana. While both are fiercely competitive and determined, Heather is tall, skinny, and a stereotypical mean girl, while Leshawna is shorter, curvy, and much warmer emotionally.
    • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race has returning players Owen and Noah, and cop duo MacArthur and Sanders.
  • Toxic Crusaders: Had this trope with Dr. Killemoff's goons Bonehead (skinny) and Psycho (fat).
  • 2 Stupid Dogs: Both of the title characters.
  • VeggieTales: Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.
  • The Venture Brothers: Mauve Shirts 21 and 24.
  • Victor & Hugo: The titular characters.
  • Victor and Valentino: The titular half-brothers. Valentino (the one wearing reddish-orange clothes) is fat while Victor (the one wearing blue clothes) is skinny.
  • Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day: Had a part where Pooh dreamed about being haunted by heffalumps (fat, elephant-like creatures) and woozles (skinny, weasel-like creatures).
  • The Wuzzles: Hoppopotamus and Butterbear, the two main girls.
    • Butterbear isn't really skinny (she is a bear, after all), just short.

    Real Life 
  • G. K. Chesterton saw St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi this way, since, though they never met, they would have been perfect foils for one another—the one big, slow, methodical and focused on his books, the other skinny, active, fiery and not prone to reading. He compared them to both Falstaff and Slender and Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
    • G. K. Chesterton was himself an example, with friend and fellow writer George Bernard Shaw as the Skinny. However, they were both known for their wit, making it an atypical example. Worth mentioning just for this conversation:
    Chesterton: To look at you, one would think there was a famine in the land!
    Shaw: To look at you, one would think you caused it!
  • Peggy Platt and Lisa Koch of Dos Fallopia, a Seattle-based comedic duo.
  • Also from Seattle is Duo Finelli, a Vaudevillian entertainment act consisting of Luz Gaxiola (fat) and Molly Shannon (skinny).
  • Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, longtime friends and business partners, have this dynamic in most of their collaborations. Even after Ricky lost a bit of weight in the 2010s, he still looks stout next to the beanpole Steve.
  • Real Life bank robbers Larry Phillips Jr and Emil Matasareanu fit this trope. Phillips was a calculating planner type, fitting the skinny description. While Matasareanu was a jovial, Big Fun type, fitting the fat description.
  • Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, famously. One was an expert designer and businessman known for his acerbic personality, the other is an expert engineer and programmer known for his warm and friendly public persona. Between the two of them, they made the personal computer revolution a reality.
  • In 224 AD, at a banquet for general Cao Zhen (who was known to be fat), Wu Zhi arranged a skit making fun of him and Zhu Shuo (who was skinny). Therefore, this is Older Than Feudalism.

 
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Jolly U

Jolly U seems like a harmless buffoonish glutton in contrast to his menacing partner-in-crime Rat... but he's sadistic and rotten to the core underneath it all.

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