Laurel and Hardy
4
3.2
- proper noun
- /ˈlɔːrəl ənd ˈhɑːrdi/
:
Laurel y Hardy
- We just want to know who's playing Laurel and Hardy, please.
- Laurel and Hardy shorts
Examples
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Laurel and Hardy, here in person.
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- I'm looking for a fair price for a Laurel and Hardy picture, and you know it.
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You loved Laurel and Hardy, but you never loved me.
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When Laurel and Hardy do it, you can expect complications.
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I guess people just don't want to see Laurel and Hardy pictures anymore.
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Comedy duo Laurel and Hardy were joined in London this week by their wives.
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They said, they just stay at home watching their new television sets, or they go and watch Laurel and Hardy reruns - at the local picture house.
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And I said, if you think that I'm gonna ask Laurel and Hardy to do some publicity stunts, then you, my friend, are sorely mistaken.
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The result is that W. C. Fields has become a mythic figure, and the public has confused the persona he created with the real man in a way that is not the case with the other great comedians of the era (Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, or the Marx Brothers).
Academic text (2002) -
The comedy films featuring Laurel and Hardy remain beloved classics to this day.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Laurel + and + Hardy
This is a lexicalized proper-name referring to a specific historical comedy duo; knowing the constituents 'Laurel' and 'Hardy' (proper names) and the conjunction 'and' does not let a learner infer that the phrase names a famous American slapstick duo. While 'X and Y' signals a pair, the professions and fame of these individuals are idiosyncratic facts rather than compositional meanings, so the overall sense is not derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Laurel and Hardy is the name of the two actors themselves, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, so the phrase comes from their last names. They made a famous comic pair by putting a thin, shy man (Laurel) next to a bigger, proud man (Hardy) who often argued and caused silly accidents, so the name now makes people think of their old 'slapstick' films.