Meaning of straight man | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.
   idiomatic
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see straight, man; for example, a heterosexual man.

Equivalents

Examples

“For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.”

“Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.”

“She was the straight man, he was the comedian, and their audience was “standing room only” when they stepped up to the microphone.”

“The committee consisted of two lesbians and a straight man.”

CEFR level