Comedy’s mirror routine over the years in TV and movies: From The Marx Brothers to The Muppets, with Bugs and Lucy in between

Kermit the Frog employs the ol’ mirror routine gag — spoiler alert! — in a scene during the new Muppets Most Wanted movie, in cinemas nationwide today.

How old is the ol’ mirror routine?

Thanks to Andrew Bouvé over at Slate for putting together this supercut. And even this excludes several other TV and film productions that have made use of one funny person mirroring another funny person’s movements for comedic effect. Roll the clip!

In order of appearance:

  • Floorwalker (Charlie Chaplin), 1916
  • Duck Soup (Marx Brothers), 1933
  • I Love Lucy (episode: “Lucy and Harpo,” Season 4), 1955
  • Lonesome Ghosts (Mickey Mouse), 1937
  • Hare Tonic (Bugs Bunny), 1945
  • Gilligan’s Island (episode: “Gilligan vs. Gilligan,” Season 3), 1966
  • The Pink Panther, 1963
  • Sleeper, 1973
  • Girls Just Want To Have Fun, 1985
  • Big Business, 1988
  • Johnny Stecchino, 1991
  • Airheads, 1994
  • The X-Files (episode: Dreamland, season 6), 1998
  • Garfield 2: Tale of Two Kitties, 2006
  • Muppets Most Wanted, 2014

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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