In a typical manzai I’m pretty sure Tanaka was boke and Endo was tsukkomi but during the show it seems that Matsumoto is so overwhelmingly boke, alongside Yamazaki, that the show doesn’t really call for a third. Does anyone call Tanaka a tsukkomi while on Gaki or is there a third term where you’re neither boke nor straight man? Endo seems to be quite flexible too, his ho-ho-hoi and pteredon as well as his lusting for Hamada episodes show he can play an amazing boke but he also seems to fill the tsukkomi role with Hamada during the batsu games.
Then I have a question regarding License, who I have never seen be either Tsukommi nor Boke, they are more like spares for announcements and stuff, is there a term for their style?
I remember seeing one episode where they questioned whether Hamada was still a Tsukkomi. They said that over the years he became more and more of a Boke. They didn’t know if it was something on purpose, or because of age, as he got older and more senile. Or who knows, when they are in a “group”, they all end up going Boke, for the entertainment of the public. I’ve seen many Tsukkomi’s be “funnier” than their Boke’s partners… So I believe that these terms no longer apply to groups of comedians. The two can be Tsukkomi’s, or Boke’s.