Those Two Guys

Remember them! Or don't, they don't matter much.

Sam: Ed, Larry-- this is Lisa Sherborne from Vanity Fair.
Lisa: Which one's Ed, which one's Larry?
Ed and Larry (simultaneously): Doesn't matter.

—The West Wing

Two characters, usually in a school setting, to be the mundane Greek Chorus. They may or may not be snarky and unlike the Greek Chorus, they don't break the fourth wall very often (if at all). 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, harems, etc.

Some pairs become involved in the plot less and less as the series progresses, especially if the plot becomes more serious. Given what usually happens to people involved in the plot, it's probably for the best. However, it's not uncommon for Those Two Guys to also become popular and even iconic characters in the series.

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, Tomboy and Girly Girl, Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, Statler and Waldorf and The Dividual. This trope may sometimes overlap with Red Oni, Blue Oni trope (though that trope isn't always exclusive to the Those Two Guys trope). 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.

Examples of Those Two Guys include:

Anime and Manga

  • Kyon's two friends Taniguchi and Kunikida from Suzumiya Haruhi. One's tall and lecherous, the other's baby-faced 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.
    • Kunikida does have some fan following, as evidenced by his unofficial Hare Hare Yukai version, the genderbent version of which is utterly adorable.
      • 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 anime—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".
      • Lampshade Hanging: Koizumi eventually ends up as the lead in the school play. The production? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
  • Sword Knight and Blade Knight in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, complete with a Lower Deck Episode.
  • 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 tend to appear in pairs, though, fitting the trope most of the time. Nabiki also has her two anonymous 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 Ky?suke.
  • Keigo and Mizuiro from Bleach. At one point it looked like a subversion was 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 one arc... but no sign of this appeared, other than Those Two Guys saying hi to the big bad briefly.
    • Keigo is a strange case, as while he isn't directly involved with Ichigo or the Soul Society, he is actually able to see spirits and has interacted with certain Soul Reapers.
    • 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 Hueco Mundo 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.
      • We also have the other two girls in Orihime, Chizuru and Tatsuki's group of friends, Mahana and Michiru.
    • Don't forget Kiyone and Sentaro, Captain Ukitake's co-lieutenants. Loyal, enthusiastic (Kiyone fangirls 'her' captain), not entirely competent.
  • Umanosuke Tsuchida and Kazuhiko Amagasaki from Tenchi Muyo!!
  • Chie and Aoi from My-HiME are female examples.
  • Jubei-chan has two sets of these, of both sexes—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.
  • Kouta and Haruhiko from Nyan Koi. The latter is an otaku who regularly lampshades the harem elements going on around Junpei.
  • Touji and Kensuke from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Deconstructed (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. And because Tokyo 3 gets evacuated and they have to move away.
    • Along with Class Representative Hikari, they're often the comic relief trio in spin-offs, sequels, fan fiction, etc.
  • 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.
      • Ayano now has an image song..But so does basically everyone else.
    • 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.
  • Each of the Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth has her own backup duo, from 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.
    • Subverted in ViVid. Rio and Corona start the series looking like Vivio's versions of Suzuka and Arisa, but then we find out that they're both mages, and pretty damn good ones too.
  • Colin and Mary in Soukou no Strain looked completely set up for this role... until they died in the first episode.
  • Honda/Tristan and Otogi/Duke in Yu-Gi-Oh! fit this role later on in the series. In the original manga, Jounouchi/Joey 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 Inspector 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.
  • 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 Inuyasha, 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 Koga 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 Koga 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 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 classmates Yumiko and Kuri. They stick around for some episodes of the first series and then disappear.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho; Kuwabara's gang. Keiko also has two friends who hang out with her in the first story arc.
  • 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 romaji letters showing which one's which on their foreheads. 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 grave site 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.
  • 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 and Tucker Calpis who were deliberately designed to resemble Abbott and Costello. Tamao, Ken and 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 Risa—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 the first season, it's mostly because Aika and Chiharu hadn't yet even been introduced officially.
    • Chiharu has gotten a much improved role more recently and Aika has been given foreshadowing for becoming much more important, the trio don't even seem to be interested in gaining any more focus.
  • Tuk and Mok in Kemono no Souja Erin qualify, although they do get A Day in the Limelight episode in episode 25.
  • 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.
    • Yamazaki and Chiharu, a male and female pair, fit into the more standard Those Two Guys roles, although they're much more memorable than most, specifically amongst Sakura and Syaoran's group of friends.
    • Yuki and Toya could qualify to a certain degree. They subvert it later, though, when it turns out that both of them (Yuki, or should I say Yue, in particular) are very involved in the plot indeed.
  • 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.
    • Additionally, Homura and Koharu, the two village elders, seem to be pretty inseparable. Although they work together as the only two members of the Konoha Council, which demands that they spend time together, they are never seen apart from one another. However, it is later revealed that they, along with Danzo, orchestrated the Uchiha Clan massacre.
  • 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. On one hand you have the basketball volunteers who are only there to hit on the Cute Sports Club Manager and play it as a straight as can be (their only relevant scene was in the third chapter). On the other hand you have Ishimaru, whom which the series and the characters never fail to acknowledge as "boring and insignificant", to the point that those qualities actually make him memorable and important to the team (everyone forgets to block him).
    • Also, Muro and Miyake from the soccer team 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 and Maria do remain as Those Two Guys in the 2003 anime.
  • 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.
  • Kitamoto and Nishimura from Natsume Yuujinchou.
  • That One Girl Ayu from Best Student Council 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.
  • Harvar and Ox from Soul Eater, although this is a subversion in that the manga actually increases their roles alongside other pair Kim and Jackie, which formed a subplot for the recent arc. Though none of them possess the unusual qualities of Maka's team, they are more than capable meisters and Weapons, earning the two-star rank alongside the that group.
    • Now they're all part of Spartoi and playing some role in tracking down Noah and Medusa. Cue rather awesome moment with Kirikou using four Weapons at once.
  • One Piece has these in spades! On the Marines' side, it's usually Smoker and Tashigi or Hina with Django and Fullbody but most notably Coby and Helmeppo.** The Impel Down/Whitebeard War sagas gave us the Newkamas, several of which appear as distinctive background characters, such as a guy dressed as a reindeer and another wearing a bunny cowl.
    • Played straight with Yosaku and Johnny also probably the earliest example of this trope in the series. They're two of Zoro's old bounty hunting friends, and the most they accomplish is by lending Zoro their swords for his fight with Hatchan.
  • Mahoromatic has Kawahara and Hamadi who, in the first season, exist mostly to procure and share porn with Suguru. In the second season, Hamadi goes beyond simple Two-Guys-hood when he develops a crush on Minawa. Kawahara still mostly stays in the background. In the manga epilogue, Hamadi is shown to have married Minawa while Kawahara is with Miyuki.
  • Subverted in Durarara!!, where it turns out Those Two Otaku are just as involved in the Mob Wars as everyone else is. Also, they're Torture Technicians
  • The two unnamed guys from Tokyo in Initial D who drive a Nissan Silvia S15. The fat guy who drives the car uses a technique called "SUPER ULTRA LATE BRAKING!!!" which only ends up screwing over his chance of victory.
  • Bucky and Pauley Cracker from Kimba the White Lion.
  • The ADs of The Weatherman Is My Lover qualify as this, and even get a brief Omake to themselves.
  • The three girls that hang around Izumi Himuro in Princess Nine. After Izumi joins the team they just vanish from the series. Names were given in the credits, but were never spoken.
  • Masaru and Saiki in Tenshi ni Narumon.
  • Daigo's high school friends in Virgin Love, who show up to comment briefly on how Daigo's relationship with Kaoru is going, and then immediately get brushed off by Kaoru.
  • In Baccano!! we've got:

Miria: Hey, Isaac!
Isaac: Yeah, Miria?
Miria: I found this page about Those Two Guys! Do we know anyone like that?
Isaac: Hmm? Can't say that I do!

  • Yuka Hanazawa and Ryouko Asuka from Beelzebub function as this originally. Though Yuka has gone on to become more prominent, leaving her former TTG spot to a never before mentioned, purple haired Red Tail.
  • Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda from Kuroko no Basuke, the three Seirin freshman who are almost always seen together, and rarely do much besides cheer for the team from the sidelines.
  • Kirby Right Back At Ya has a few of these. The most notables ones are Tiff and Tuff as well as King Dedede and Escargoon. There's also Meta Knight's assistants Sword Knight and Blade Knight.
  • Suzuki and Saito, Mashiro's two friends, in Bakuman｡. They fade remarkably quickly even for this trope, and only show up again at a reunion.

Comic Books

  • 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.
    • This is because they're the characters most associated with the Keith Giffen era of the Justice League which occurred shortly after the characters were introduced to mainstream DC Continuity and which brought them to prominence. The light-hearted nature of that series became associated with those two guys.
  • 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.
  • Frank has the Jerry Chickens, a group of chicken like creatures whose bodies are based on different geometric shapes.
  • Metropolis police officers Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin from Superman probably qualify.
  • Officers Thomson and Thompson from Tintin, of the "they look exactly the same" variety—except that one of them has a slightly curly mustache, while the other one's mustache is straight.
  • Journalist Ben Urich and editor Robbie Robertson in Spider-Man comics and spin-offs mostly serve as recurring employees for the Daily Bugle. The pair has occasionally graced the limelight as individuals such as when Urich realized Matt Murdock is Daredevil and was convinced not to publish it. Robertson is noted for being one of the earliest black characters in the main cast of a major comic.

Fan Works

  • 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".
  • In the Wrestling fanfiction TWE: The Next Generation, "Rapid" Ricky Helix and Marcus Cross are just there to make Generation Now more threating. While Dax Din, Claymore Raters, Rena Myers, Nicholas Churchill and Zephyr Jones are more important to the whole story arch.
  • In Glee fanfiction focusing on Blaine and/or Dalton, Wes and David (frequently called Wevid in-universe) often play this part.
  • David Squall (Splashdown) and Edward Surge (Thunderhead) in Rise of the Galeforces.
  • Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi in the first chapters of Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, before they're killed off. Naruto and Sasuke return as villains while Kakashi is a mostly useless sidekick to Ronan.

Films -- Animation

Films -- Live Action

  • A rather perfect example in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
  • 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). Both pairs end up in Barbossa's crew at the end of the third movie.
    • Neither pair was in the fourth, which was a disappointment.
  • Manos: The Hands 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: Prince 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 universe would have ended.
  • Mean Girls has the the other two Plastics Karen and Gretchen who devotedly follow around first Regina and later Cady.
  • Hannah Montana: The Movie has Rico and Oliver as two regular school guys helping out at Lily's party and not having any importance to the plot. In the TV series, it's not quite like that as Oliver in particular does have some central roles.
  • Star Wars: R2-D2 and C-3PO.
    • Later (non-canon) 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 The Hidden Fortress.
  • And two more characters based off them, the two brownies (no, they are little people, not chocolate) Franjeen and Rool in Willow.
  • Mariah Carey's woeful "star vehicle" Glitter has Louise and Roxanne.
  • 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.
    • They have their very own adventure in Charters and Caldicott by Stella Bingham. The pair are still obsessed by cricket and go from lunch at their club to Caldicott's flat to settle a point in dispute with his "Wisden" -- a Cricket reference work. They discover the body of a young woman on Caldicott's bedroom floor. Her purse identifies her as the daughter of an old friend. But then another young woman appears claiming to be the real daughter and that her father has been murdered - then it starts getting complicated.
  • 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 (Peter 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.)
  • The independent 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.
  • Andy and Andy from Hot Fuzz.
  • The two unnamed hearse drivers from Bubba Ho-Tep.
  • Despite going on to the spin off movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, John Cho's role in American Pie was Milf Guy #2, one of Those Two Guys with Milf Guy #1 (Justin Isfeld).
  • The newspaper hounds from Max Keeble's Big Move.
  • Mia's maids in the second The Princess Diaries movie. One of the few funny bits in the movie is when Lilly lampshades this by calling them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And then Lenny and Squiggy.
  • Jenny's friends Hattie and Tina in An Education. They hang on every detail of her unfolding love story, but either they dump her or she dumps them about midway through the plot, and they're never seen again.
  • Marty and Todd in Kick-Ass.
  • Darryll and Omar in The Return of Swamp Thing.
  • The two random chanting monks in Laurence Olivier's Richard The Third. They're even credited at the end as 'Two Monks.'
  • The Barrys in Club Paradise.
  • Soderbergh's Movie Kafka has the two childishly stupid assistants, two twin brothers who keep fighting constantly and are cause of some of the best. comically kafkaesk scenes of the film, like when they try to open the writing desk in Kafkas office or play around with the typewriters. It is later revealed that they have been Evil All Along.
  • The two hillbillies that are seen watching the practices and the games in The Waterboy.
  • The two police officers in Friday After Next.
  • Harry and Animal from Stalag 17; at one point they're referred to as the "Barrack Clowns".
  • Privates Grogan and Baker in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
  • From It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Dingy Bell and Benjy Benjamin. Also, the two gas station attendants, Ray and Irwin.
  • Domino and Little Dipper in 102 Dalmatians
  • Val and Earl from Tremors manage to be this trope despite also being the unlikely heroes of the film.
  • Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat in the later Muppet films.

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.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, Legolas and Gimli are very much Those Two Guys, especially in relation to Aragorn. Merry and Pippin also qualify.
    • Though less in The Return of the King, where they are separated and get bigger roles as knights of Rohan and Gondor respectively.
  • Samneric in Lord of the Flies.
  • 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 and Nobby.
  • Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson in Sherlock Holmes. Good enough coppers in their own way but naturally can't compare with the Great Detective.
    • Only in the debut novel, A Study in Scarlet, though. They never appear together after that, with Gregson largely fading into the background, while Lestrade attains enough prominence to get his own trope.
  • 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.
  • The Wheel of Time, having even more characters than Harry Potter, has remarkably few (given that everybody who shows up ever being significant), but Verin and Alanna could qualify for a bit. Until Verin's revelation that she has been The Mole among the Black Ajah and her Heroic Sacrifice that lets her spill the beans to Egwene. Those two Accepted who always march Elayne and Egwene around when they are in trouble might also qualify.
    • Talmanes and Nalasean
    • Bain and Chiad
  • 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 Punch Clock Villains 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.)
    • While it would be an exaggeration to call those two main characters, they do get more characterization and some plot-relevant moments later in the book; Wamba even manages to free his master Cedric from his jail cell in their enemies' castle virtually all by himself, by the simple expedient of a clever disguise.
  • 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.
  • Charlie and Fanwell, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's two apprentices, in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels.
  • Of Mice and Men has a set as the main characters. In any other book, George and Lennie would be Those Two Guys, and Slim would be The Hero.
  • Don Quixote: Pedro Pérez, the curate, and Maese Nicholas, the barber. Better known as "the curate and the barber", two guys from the same town as Don Quixote, who are fond of chivalry books, like Don Quixote. Unlike Don Quixote, they are completely ordinary (sane), and... well, you would not find any other personality trait in them. Their personalities are exactly the same and their names are too simple to stand out ("Pedro Pérez" is the Spanish equivalent to "John Smith"). In the first part, they have a significant involvement with the plot, but in the second part, they only appear in the beginning and in the end of the novel (with only a mention of the curate in one intermediate chapter).
  • Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin in The Phantom of the Opera.
    • This trope continues into the stage show with these two (in which their names are changed to Andre and Firmin). There isn't even consistency in casting; sometimes Andre is the short one, sometimes it's Firmin. Often an actor will play both roles during their run with the show, being cast as one essentially means you can play the other just as well.
      • Apparently the only person who can tell them apart is the Opera Ghost who addresses their notes accordingly.
  • The buffoonish and arrogant homicide detectives Monoghan and Monroe in 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain.
  • Elaina ni Leonor and Kara ni Lain are Those Two Action Girls in Harald.
  • In a way, Tomo and Walberg of George R. R. Martin's Thousand Worlds, a pair of adventurers who visited many planets. They are almost always mentioned together when someone brings them up, and they are Memetic Badasses in-universe. Unfortunately they have yet to actually appear in a story.
  • Bella's friends Mike, Jessica, Angela, and Eric in Twilight. Also the members of the wolfpack who aren't Jacob, Sam, Leah, and Seth.
  • The main characters of The Other Guys are what happens when Those Two Guys manage to become the heroes after the actual heroes die.

Live Action TV

  • Bulk and Skull, the school bullies in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
    • Unlike most sets of Those Two Guys, they remained constant characters in every season of the continuous plotline, cameoed in the first season after the continuous plotline, and even cameoed in the 10th anniversary Reunion Show.
    • Their spiritual successors are Cassidy and Devin in Power Rangers Dino Thunder, an aspiring reporter and her cameraman.
    • Along with Lother's nieces Marah and Kapri on Power Rangers Ninja Storm. (Cassidy and Marah are even played by the same actress).
    • Bulk himself returns in Power Rangers Samurai in this role for the first time in more than a decade, though Skull's son takes his father's place in the onscreen duo.
  • Frank and Cyril, from Slings and Arrows.
  • Craig and Eric from Drake and Josh—a Running Gag is Drake always getting their names mixed up.

Craig: I'm Craig!
Drake: Pfft, it matters...

  • Officers Michael Francis Murphy and Tony Bellows from the live action The Flash series.
  • and Black Scorpion had Slugger and Specs.
  • The West Wing‍'‍s Ed and Larry. Or Larry and Ed. They're in every meeting, advise the President on every issue and no one knows who the hell they are.
    • Lampshaded a couple of times when they are given the wrong folders, and when someone asks if they always walk around together
    • Lampshaded another time when the pair are introduced to a new character and when they ask "which one is Ed and which is Larry?", Ed, Larry and Josh all respond "it doesn't matter"
  • In My Parents Are Aliens they had Frankie and Pete for seven years. There was also a kid called Mikey for the first three episodes,and occasionally a kid called Dave. Frankie and Pete found out everything in Series 7 Episode 20 but then they had their memories erased. We were then subjected to the terrible Series 8.
  • Ray and Chris in Life On Mars, with Ray particularly embodying the values we've thankfully left behind.
  • Primeval has Tom and Duncan; Conner's geeky college friends who aren't in on the secret. Tom later contracts The Virus from a dodo and dies, and when Duncan finally reappears again in season 4, he has become a paranoid and reclusive Conspiracy Theorist.
  • The Wire‍'‍s Herc and Carver occasionally fill this role.
    • As do Bodie and Poot, up until Bodie's death at the end of the fourth season.
    • Of course, being The Wire, they are all an important part of the plot, in some way or another.
  • Lost had Steve and Scott until one of them died (no-one can remember which).
    • Not entirely accurate, as they very rarely appeared and had few lines. More accurate would be, say, Charlie and Hurley in the first two seasons or so, whose stories were largely separate from the core mysteries of the show and would sometimes be shown asking, "What's going on?" to the main characters and commenting sarcastically on, "There goes Jack and Kate off into the jungle again, up to who knows what?" A retconned example would be Nikki and Paolo, who were apparently there all along observing events until they got involved in the main story and promptly died in the third season (due to fan dissatisfaction with these characters showing up from nowhere and them being expected to give a damn).
  • Gilmore Girls (first three seasons): Madeline and Louise. Later on replaced by Lucy and Olivia.
  • Gossip Girl has an extended version with Blair's entourage: an Asian-American nerd, a (possibly Hispanic for some extent) Queen Bee wannabe, an African-American beautiful girl and ... well, the other one. For season three, it's done with Jenny's courtship.
    • Isabel and Kati, particularly in the first season.
  • Matt Rutherford (the black guy) and Mike Chang (the Asian guy) from Glee.
    • Only in the first season, though.
  • Subverted in 30 Rock, with Grizz and Dotcom being anything but ordinary. They are, however, as close as "those two guys" can be for a man like Tracy.
  • Ed and Harry from Supernatural's Ghostfacers. They acquire a team later, but in their first appearance it's just them.
    • Hilariously, they seem to consider Sam and Dean an example of this trope.
  • The Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes was fond of having two minor characters in his serials whose main purpose was hanging around in the background being funny and commenting on the story, to the point that Whovians refer to Those Two Guys as the "Holmesian Double Act".
    • Except the Holmesian Double Act is very rarely minor characters. The iconic "double act" are Jago and Lightfoot from Talons of Weng-Chiang. Jago owns the theatre where Weng-Chiang is hidden and his agent plies his trade, and Lightfoot is a police pathologist and the Doctor's de facto landlord for the story. Both important to the plot to the point that they are more important then the Doctor until the finale.
    • The trope gets parodied mercilessly in the revived series episode A Good Man Goes To War, with the introduction of the 'fat, thin, gay, married, Anglican marines.' Who don't just have no names, but don't even need them.
    • And the Doctor Who serial "Warriors Gate" (not one of the Robert Holmes ones) has Royce and Aldo.
  • The gate guards from Kings seem poised to fulfill this role.
  • Huey and Gardino on Due South.
    • In the third season, it's Huey and Dewey.
  • Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley.
  • Reginald and Mr. Hall from The Singing Detective.
  • Jeffrey and Lester from Chuck. These two may also be considered a Beta Couple to Heterosexual Life Partners Chuck and Morgan. They have a rock duo called Jeffster, which is (unsurprisingly) terrible.
    • Terribly awesome. Also, while they can be Those Two Guys in some episodes, they seem different from a lot of examples on this page in a lot of ways. First of all, they aren't indistinguishable from each other. Second, they aren't clueless about the show's Masquerade: it's revealed near the end of Season 2 that they know more about the Power Trio than anyone else, although they have still guessed wrong in a big way.
  • Babylon 5 has a few characters like this, although not consistently. In the Season 2 finale, Vir and Lennier are shown discussing their respective bosses' antics, secret agendas, clandestine meetings and unexpected character changes and commiserating over them; it's implied this is a weekly ritual. We also get two maintenance workers in a Season 5 episode with no clue what is going on as the station comes under attack by an unknown alien race. There's also Franklin and Marcus who are actually pretty important to the story, but still fulfilling a secondary story function to the main characters and sometimes comment on the events of the main story. Marus and Ivanova also occasionally veer into this territory, although Your Mileage May Vary as their characters are very distinct, and Marcus's feelings for Ivanova complicate things.
  • In the new Battlestar Galactica, Dualla and Gaeta are occasionally shown talking about what is going on, but by the last two seasons that role has been taken up by Racetrack and Skulls, who frequently fly vital and extremely hazardous Raptor scouting missions without any idea what the overall mission objective is, and complain about it.
  • An interesting take on the idea is in HBO's Rome, where Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo may be two of the main characters, but they are also arguably playing a Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern role where their stories, although important to them, are but a minor side-show compared to the unfolding civil war between Caesar and Pompey, which they observe and sometimes affect. This angle is arguably lost in the second season, when their stories are largely separated from the bigger, more important characters, at least until the finale when they side with their patrons (Mark Antony and Octavian, respectively) once again.
  • Ryan and Esposito from Castle fit very well, along with being possible darkhorses.
  • Amy's friends Madison and Lauren on The Secret Life of the American Teenager along with Ben's friends Alice and Henry.
  • Life with Derek has Sam and Ralph, depending on the episode.
  • Brian and Kurt from the British TV series Teachers fit this trope almost exactly. Brian is the tall jock P.E teacher and Kurt is the short IT teacher. They could also be labeled as Heterosexual Life Partners.
  • Whichever two lab rats happen to feature in any particular episode of CSI (particularly Archie or Mandy)...their personalities are just, y'know, those two lab techs. Yet they've almost all been around, just conversing in the background for the majority of the show. Every dozen or so episodes they get thrown a bone and have an actual episode featuring them. So much so that Hodges and Wendy have been upgraded to main cast members.
  • Korean dramas like to feature those three guys, usually with names and a generic personality frameset: the gossipy one, the play-by-the-rules one, and the Butt Monkey.
  • Degrassi the Next Generation always seems to have a pair that last a few years, which usually means they'll be nerdy and/or wannabe players. JT and Toby were it for Seasons 1-6 until JT was killed, then Danny and Derek for Seasons 6-7 until Danny outgrew Derek and matured, and now recently Connor and Wesley have settled into Degrassi‍'‍s Those Two Guys mantle, which had people shuffling in and out of that spot since Season 8.
  • Leverage has FBI agents Taggart and McSweeten.
  • Horatio Hornblower has Styles and Matthews, at least by the second series, both of whom have been under Horatio's command since the first episode and are the most prominent lower-deck characters.
  • On Stargate Universe, Brody and Volker wound up becoming this.
  • In Sons of Guns, several scenes with Joe and Charlie on technical projects wind up working out this way.
  • In the Hannah Montana episode "He Could Be the One" Jackson and Rico appear as singing narrators who a variety of different styles of music. They are later joined by Jackson's girlfriend Siena in "I Will Always Remember You" (Who can actually sing). This made some wonder if Rico knew if Miley was Hannah.
  • Kenan and Kel on All That; they even have Statler and Waldorf imitations. They got their own spinoff.
  • Drake and Josh on The Amanda Show They did too.
  • Laura Hall and Linda Taylor on Whose Line Is It Anyway? They are musicians who almost never speak but are still part of the main cast. Sometimes a third female musician joins them.
  • Hiro and Ando were this in season 1 of Heroes whenever Hiro wasn't contributing to the plot.
    • Season 2 had the twins Maya and Alejandro until the latter was killed by Sylar.
  • Red Dwarf is arguably a show where Those Two Guys become the main characters. Who else would the camera follow after everybody else dies?
  • Sports Night has Chris and Will, and sometimes Dave. In the second season, as the supporting cast receded to the background somewhat, Kim and Elliot became this trope as well for a while.
  • Ernie and Bert in Sesame Street.
  • Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show.
  • In the 2018 Korean series Memories of the Alhambra, Park Seon-Ho and Choi Yang-ju back at J One in Korea, who also act as Mission Control for main character Yoo Jin-woo from time to time.
  • Subverted by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (like so many other tropes), which set up Willow and Xander as its Those Two Guys, then promptly turned around and made them major members of the ensemble.

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.
  • The three guys from Aerosmith that aren't Steven Tyler or Joe Perry. They're even jokingly called the Less Interesting Three among the band and fanbase.
  • An interesting case: Steely Dan, in the early days, had as members Michael McDonald and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who went on to become known for being in The Doobie Brothers. The two central members, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who wrote pretty much everything, and ended up being the only members, became the Face of the Band, and only known for Steely Dan. People actually forget sometimes McDonald and Baxter were in it, too.
    • Far more egregious is Denny Dias who was the band leader before Becker and Fagen joined.
  • Megadeth is those two guys Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson, plus whoever else Mustaine has hired. There were a few years where Dave Ellefson wasn't in the band, but he's back again, so it counts.
  • The two guys from Rage Against the Machine who aren't Zack de la Rocha or Tom Morello. This did not change when they formed Audioslave with Morello and Chris Cornell.
  • We're just two guys who are having a good time, having a good time, having a good time...
    • It gets better. Their actual names are "Guy Number One" and "Guy Number Two".
  • The two guys in Black Eyed Peas who aren't Fergie and will.i.am.
    • Averted in that Taboo and apl.de.ap are still quite recognizable.
  • Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks when Genesis was a Phil Collins-fronted trio.

Newspaper Comics

  • 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 1980s, 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.

Tabletop Games

  • The Force adept duo San Herrera and Nia Reston appeared in various modules and supplemental articles of Star Wars d20's Living Force campaign as allied NPCs. They serve to demonstrate that the players are not the only Heroes of Cularin (the title applied to all player characters in the campaign). Despite several close calls with death, some that could even be caused by the players in non-canon failures, the two survived the increasing violence of the system till year five where they are killed and reanimated as zombies.

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 has them killed anyway.
    • These two go on to inspire and inform several Greek Chorus duos, most obviously Vladimir and Estragon (Waiting for Godot; but see below), more recently, Jay and Silent Bob (The Askewniverse films) and even more recently and obviously, Rosenberg and Goldstein of the Harold & Kumar films.
    • Timon and Pumbaa of The Lion King, who then get their own Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
  • 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 some actors refer to them as "the Salads".
  • Cleomenes and Dion in The Winter's Tale.
  • Romeo and Juliet has Benvolio and Mercutio. Slightly off, though; both are somewhat relevant to the story.
  • The smugglers in the opera Carmen are often played like this.
    • Also Carmen's two friends, Mercedes and Frasquita.
  • The Tempest features Trinculo and Stephano.
  • Most productions of Macbeth often turn Ross and Lennox (or Lennox and Angus, if Ross retains his considerably large role) into this, often merging said characters with the minor lords like Caithness, Menteith, and the unnamed lord (from III.vi) in the process.
  • Ping, Pang and Pong in the opera Turandot.
  • Colline and Schaunard in La Boheme.
  • The Love of the Nightingale has two soldiers who represent Tereus' men.
  • Sebastian and Bisque in the Restoration Comedy The Rover
  • Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot are ultimately a subversion of this trope, as they are the focus of the play since Godot, the titular character, never shows up.

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.
  • 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.
    • Lea and Isa play this role in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, showing up once in Ven's story and then vanishing soon after. Amusing, considering the expanded roles both of them play in the later games. Word of God says that this was due to fan demand.
  • 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 exceptions being Oscar from Fire Emblem 9, and Kent and Sain for Fire Emblem 7.) 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.
      • 9 also features Janaff and Ulki, the Hawk King's retainers.
    • 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 Résistance 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.
    • That's because they're references to Bud Abbot and Lou Costello.
  • 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 and Assistant Scott, a pair of Super Robot otaku 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.
  • Xzar and Montaron from Baldur's 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. Coincidentally, they also happen to have pressing business in Nashkel, so if you're not interested in picking up Khaleid and Jaheira, you will get the breadcrumb.
  • 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.
  • Asric and Jadaar in World of Warcraft.
  • Gabriella Daniels and Kenneth Donnelly in Mass Effect 2, though it's actually "Male and Female Crewmen". They play the trope extremely straight, though. Every time you're down in engineering to speak to Tali, the two have one of their endless banters, that include many of the games best jokes.
    • In Mass Effect 3 there are two privates that are always commenting about your missions.
  • Smart Guard and Dumb Guard are arguably this in the Thief series.
  • From the Brothers in Arms series you have Allen and Garnett. It's even mentioned that most people refer to their two names as all one word, and that they're never seen apart. They even die together.
  • Though their appearance is brief, Griggs and Sheckley from Half-Life 2 Episode Two definitely qualify. Better yet, one of them is Adam Baldwin.
  • The two guys both marked as "Gossip" in Dragon Age, who show up in every town and chat about rumors in the game, whatever quests you've already completed, and random stuff such as how one of them banged the other one's wife.

Visual Novels

  • In Fate/stay night, Shirou also only has one (Issei), while Rin, who narrates the prologue, has three (the track team).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Shizune and Misha of Katawa Shoujo become this in nearly every route but their own, frequently pestering Hisao to do work for the Student Council or commenting on his love life.
  • In Tsukihime, there is only "That One Guy" (Arihiko, who has this going on with Shiki, the main character, before Shiki becomes an Ordinary High School Student), though his role is exactly as in the trope.
    • 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.
  • Gakuto and Moro in Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! fit this role to a tee, though they occasionally do get some time to shine.
    • Gakuto in the Kawikami War during Momoyo's route takes on an entire enemy battalion by himself.

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.
  • The elderly couple in Fairy Foxes. Also, musical Fairy Foxes Yazzi and Jazzi.
  • Superman and Batman are this in the How It Should Have Ended videos. Most of their appearances are both of them sitting in a diner, sometimes with a third superhero.

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 amorous cat boys from Okashina Okashi.
  • Spongebath and Emeril from Achewood.
  • Sexy Losers had Touro's two nameless friends, known only as "Sarcastic Friend" and "Swearing Friend". The Swearing Friend was enough of an Ensemble Darkhorse that he started making slightly bigger appearances than just being Touro's foil.
  • "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.
  • The unnamed roaches in The Order of the Stick become "Those Two Dictyoptera" as they always appear in pairs to spur on commentary or to perform sight gags such as Flipping the Table.
  • Ben and Beth, Sam's two friends at school in Molten Blade
  • Clyde and Blinky from Sluggy Freelance.

The Captain: I am the handsome masculine lead! I have top billing! You guys are the ones whose pitiful deaths will send me on my path of vengeance.
Torg: Well, we're dimensional travelers with more interesting characterization! You are a shallow stereotype needing no development at all!
The Captain: What is this? A sci-fi thriller or some goofy buddy movie?
The Captain is devoured by the alien.
Torg: The defense rests!

  • Drowtales has Baliir and Kuso. They aren't normal by our standards, but by drow standards they're really ordinary guys. And they have the whole "contrasting" thing down to the letter.
  • Schlock Mercenary has Nick and Shep. At least until Shep leaves.
  • Smic and Hannah in Jayden and Crusader tend to be minor background characters... right up until the point they finish their massive death machine. Or make something explode.
  • Girly has two sets: Team Fast and Chuy's two brothers.
  • Tweaking the archetype a little Exiern has Neils and Bhors, two eight-foot tall members of the king's Praetorian Guard, as Those Two Guys.
  • Equius and Nepeta from Homestuck are not really all that important, but they're almost never seen without at least mentioning the other, if not speaking to each other and adventurin' together. They're also Platonic Life Partners and have engaged in many a Heartwarming Moment in times where the story gets pretty dark.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • 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 in the orange jacket who (a) isn't Homer, and (b) looks either really depressed (like "about-to-cry-over-his-miserable-life" depressed) or really drunk. They [Larry and Sam] were around in the early episodes, but were quickly replaced by Lenny and Carl, so don't feel bad if you've been introduced to The Simpsons via the newer episodes and have never heard of either Larry or Sam.
    • Eugene and Rusty (Springfield's "town perverts" from "Bart After Dark").
    • The cops Eddie (the cop who looks like an Off-Model Mr. Burns) and Lou (the black cop with the Popeye arms) as well.
    • Let's not forget Bart's school friends from the first two season, Richard and Lewis.
    • As well as Rod and Todd Flanders, both who are the sons of Ned Flanders.
  • Officers Smitty and URL in Futurama.
  • 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.
    • In DVD commentaries, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick point this trope out and confess that this is because whenever they're stuck or bored while writing they just make up two characters who are basically each other and goof around doing voices as them.
  • 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, and Snarl and Swoop.
    • 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.
    • Cleveland and Quagmire were this until Quagmire started getting his own episodes and Cleveland got his own show
  • Baljeet and Buford from Phineas and Ferb have become this quite quickly, with an interesting Friendly Enemy dynamic as well.
    • Major Monogram and Carl.
    • Sometimes, in episodes that focus on Candace, Perry or Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb themselves get demoted to this.
    • Two guys that remain minor from beginning to end on the show are the nameless husband and wife. They're in several episodes for the sole purpose of the same Running Gag. The wife will say, "I can't believe you bought a [fill-in-the-blank product] [fill-in-the-blank product rental/selling place] that didn't have any [fill-in-the-blank products]. What, did you think [fill-in-the-blank products] would just fall from the sky?" Then, the [fill-in-the-blank product] will indeed fall from the sky, usually landing on top of the wife.
  • Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie (had to look up their names) from Daria. They pretty much exist just to remind us that Quinn is attractive when she doesn't have a Boy Of The Week around to do it instead.
    • In fact, they're so Those Two Guys, Jamie is usually called something else, only to fruitlessly repeat that his name is Jamie.
    • Arguably the eponymous main character and her friend Jane form this pair, as many episodes just have them snarking at everyone else.
  • 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.

Edgar: Now there's something you don't see every day, Chauncey.
Chauncey: What's that, Edgar?
Edgar: A [unusual sight].
Chauncey: I don't know, Edgar. [punchline]

Statler: I can't believe we haven't watched this show before!
Waldorf: I don't want to believe we have!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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