It's hard to be funny alone. First, who's going to laugh at the jokes? But it's also just not natural; comedy is inherently competitive and interactive. And although the idea of comedy duos seems antiquated-from the black-and-whiteness of Laurel and Hardy tp the '60s snobbery of Elaine May and Mike Nichols-Ben Stiller, 38, and Owen Wilson, 35, have resuscitated the concept, playing off each other in a series of six simultaneously smart and stupid films, including The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander and Meet the Parents. Stiller, whose parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were a comedy team in the '60s and '70s, updates Lou Costello with an agitated everyman, while Wilson does the smartest dumb guy ever, thanks to a slacker knowingness.
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