double act

• double-act

double act (plural double acts)

1. A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or straight man.
   • 2002, Simon Louvish, Stan and Ollie, the Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy, page 173:

     It appears clear from Stan's Joe Rock films, where he is very much in control of his material, that he had no intention of becoming part of a double act.

   • 2005, Bob McCabe, The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker‎, page 110:

     Messrs Barker and Corbett were now seen as a pair. They were never a double act, never totally reliant on one another in the traditional sense of a double act, the kind that television loved so much.

   • 2008, Jonathan Bate & Eric Rasmussen (eds.), Hamlet, "Introduction", page vii (Modern Library Edition)

     Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a double act engaged to spy on Hamlet, with the result that he has "at each ear a hearer."

2. Two objects, senses, etc working as one.

• comedy duo