Throughout most of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, he has had a comic sidekick, and these roles have been cast with actors with a very specific kind of career: They usually come from TV; are well-known but not incredibly popular; and haven’t earned the kind of respect that would indicate that they could possibly upstage Arnold. But resume aside, when it comes to how these sidekicks will appear on screen, there are two dominant characteristics that define the Schwarzenpal: They must be small, and they must be loud.
The loudmouth’s job is to say all the silly and/or streetwise lines, allowing for Schwarzenegger to just sit back and shout an occasional “Shut up!” or “Yeah!” This injects humor and lets Arnold do a slow burn. And when it comes to size, if you put a small actor next to Schwarzenegger, it not only makes him look even bigger, but also it helps the audience laugh at the absurdity that is man. In honor of Johnny Knoxville’s surely loud performance in The Last Stand, we simplified this history by putting all of his comic sidekicks in a handy Venn diagram.
