Playing With / Those Two Guys

Basic Trope: Two characters whose only role in the story is to provide in-universe commentary on the story's events.

• Straight: Bob and Rob hang around near the main characters and react to the events of the plot.
• Exaggerated: Bob and Rob have no lives of their own, and follow the hero around everywhere to react in an exaggerated, Large Ham manner to mundane things like him brushing his teeth.
• Downplayed: Bob and Rob provide comic commentary, but occasionally have their own plotlines as well.
• Justified:
  • Bob and Rob are employed as sportscasters; the plot of the show is about a sports game.
  • Bob and Rob are handcuffed togheter and they can't find the key.
  • Bob and Rob are in the same body.
  • Bob and Rob are Conjoined Twins.
• Inverted:
  • The story is told from the perspective of Bob and Rob, who, despite not being involved in what would typically be considered the "more interesting"/main story, are shown to have adventures of their own, occasionally having brief run-ins with the other story's main characters.^note In other words, the premise of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
  • Bob and Rob are never seen togheter, usually interacting with anyone but each other.
• Subverted: Bob and Rob seem like amusing bystanders, but they're actually spies for the Big Bad and their observations about what's going on allow the villain to get the drop on the heroes.
• Double Subverted: Bob and Rob were Unwitting Pawns of the villain and when he shows up they have humorous observations on that as well.
• Parodied:
  • Bob fueled by loneliness creates his own friend Rob and vows to never leave his side.
  • Bob and Rob hate each other but are forced to be together.
• Zig Zagged: Sometimes Bob and Rob seen togheter and sometimes they are apart.
• Averted: Nobody in the work comments on the story's events.
• Enforced: Bob and Rob try to have an adventure of their own, but always show up at the same place the heroes do minutes too late, delegating them to either celebration of the heroes' victory, or slight comedic indignance at being shown up by the heroes yet again.
• Lampshaded: "Why are Bob and Rob always around to give their opinion whenever anything happens?"
• Invoked: Bob and Rob have an in-story humorous news show, so they follow the hero around to get material for it.
• Exploited: Charlie can only enter the dungeon if he's in a team of three so he invites Bob and Rob to the team.
• Defied:
  Bob: No! I refuse to be seen with you at all times just to give out information to the audience!
  Rob: Good! I didn't want to do that with a butt-clown like you anyway!
  • Hiro and Lance decide to physically split up Bob and Rob, refraining them from seeing each other again.
  • Hiro and Ichigo decide to get Bob and Rob into a feud so they stop messing up their heroic duties.
• Discussed: Rob: "Unlike those two guys you see on TV, we actually have a life outside of giving you advice".
• Conversed: "You ever notice how cartoons always have those two guys with a snarky comment about whatever happens on the show?"
• Deconstructed: Bob: "Come on, must we always explain everything to the audience? It's getting boring, like, nothing to do but that. How about we jump off a bridge and die so we can be free of this boredom?"
• Reconstructed: Rob: "But, Bob, this is so much fun. We can explore what's going on with people's lives and learn a lot from them. Maybe the audience can also learn from our observations."