Are these comedy duos or TV crimefighters?

Who cracked down and who cracked up?

 

Image: The Everett Collection

Famous comedy duos have been entertaining audiences since the vaudeville days. With the rise of television, couples often did comedy together, releasing records and performing on variety shows.

The other kind of popular TV duo? Crimefighters! Whether they were beat cops, detectives or special agents, two people keeping the peace were always better than one.

Here are some of our favorite duos from years past. Can you guess which ones told jokes and which ones chased down bad guys?

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  1. Abbott & Costello
  2. Starsky & Hutch
  3. Cagney & Lacey
  4. Laurel & Hardy
  5. Reed & Malloy
  6. Martin & Lewis
  7. Mulder & Scully
  8. Cheech & Chong
  9. Burns & Allen
  10. Poncherello & Baker
  11. Nichols & May
  12. Friday & Gannon
  13. Crockett & Tubbs
  14. Stiller & Meara
  15. McGarrett & Williams
  16. Allen & Rossi
  17. Coyle & Sharpe
  18. Simon & Simon
  19. Gallagher & Shean

Are these comedy duos or TV crimefighters?

Your Result...

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224 Comments

IndianaRockz 8 months ago
16/19, never heard of some of these.
ThomasPotter 8 months ago
They left the biggest comedy duo off of the list....Trump and Pence
RedSamRackham 25 months ago
* 18 of 19 ~> NEVER heard of Coyle & Sharpe! ☺
MC1707 RedSamRackham 16 months ago
Me too. Never heard of them either.
LynCarceo 25 months ago
17/19; missed 2 I never heard of.
Dario 26 months ago
18 out of 19. Got the Coyle & Sharpe question wrong. 😁😁😁😁😁
Lacey 30 months ago
18/19 Never heard of Coyle & Sharpe, which for me is unusual.
Dario Lacey 26 months ago
Me to. 🙂
MikefromJersey 32 months ago
18 for 19.
Stinky, Bingo da Chimp and Mike the Cop helped me.
If you are ever in Patterson check out the statue to native son Lou Costello.
Did you know in WW 2 Abbott & Costello raised BILLIONS(in today's $) of dollars
on War Bonds tours? Costello had passed on but in Abbott's last years the IRS
relentlessly(why?) hounded him for every cent he had, leaving him with almost
nothing.
Dario MikefromJersey 26 months ago
Both Bud and Lou grossly mishandled their money over the years, plus bad accounting practices by unscrupulous bookkeepers, that in 1953 the IRS did audits on them which lasted for years, even after Lou's death in 1959.
Where exactly is the statue? Do you have an address for it? my bucket list includes seeing the statues of Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis, and Stevie Ray Vaughn in Austin, Tx. Would love to add Lou to the list.
Paterson, NJ -
Cianci Park, corner of Cianci and Ellison Sts, look for sign "Lou Costello Memorial".
Close to the historic and beautiful - a must see! -The Great Falls.
Some of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in America in Patterson, wonderful shops
selling exotic spices/foods for all you Foodies out there.
Lou and Bud were offered the biggest contract for a show in history by the head of Colgate
on the condition he stop working Patterson in to the act as it was a working class city and
was historically the first big industrial hub after the Revolution.
Lou went all Jersey on the big shot exec and picked up the contract - worth millions -
and ripped it into shreds inches from the suit's face. Thru his whole life he never
forgot where he came from and supported many charities and his old church there.
MikefromJersey Dario 8 months ago
Yes I know they loved to gamble and play cards and their book keeper screwed them,
plus anyone they ever ran into in Hollywood knew they were good for a handout, they never
turned away from any charity either, be it doing a fund raiser or giving money.
That doesn't mean they were culpable for what their book keepers did behind their backs
or should be looked askance at for playing cards with the money they earned, these were good citizens who gave back to their community and their country at the time the world was in peril.
The IRS in California decided to make an example of them, it was shameful, they were good
citizens and loving family men.
Lets put it this way, a Missouri class battleship like the USS New Jersey cost $90
million to build. The money Bud and Lou raised for the War Bonds drive would have
bought around 14 of them! They did not deserve to be treated so badly, they earned
a break if anyone did. They "mishandled" money by gambling but it didn't affect
their families and they had earned it, I don't begrudge them that.
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