While recent blockbusters have given credence to the word "bromance," the special kind of affection between two platonic (brotonic?) male friends has been around for millennia. Here is The Scene's salute to true bro-love.
10) Matt Damon and Ben Affleck You know what they say about winning an Oscar with your best guy friend: Bromance is in the air. Damon and Affleck are perhaps the most iconic Hollywood bro-couple. They grew up in Boston together, standing by each other through the trials and tribulations of show business and coming to co-write "Good Will Hunting." Now, they go on double-dates with their famous wives and own his and his SUVs. Theirs is the story of friendship deeper than fame, of being able to count on having your best friend smiling broadly and attractively beside you.
9) Penn and Teller Have you ever been so close to your friend that you can finish each other's sentences? How about so close that you are completely willing to give up speaking in favor of letting your favorite bro take over the task for you? What's more, sharing secrets deepens the intimacy of all relationships, and Penn and Teller share the biggest secret of all: magic.
8) Cassius and Brutus Just goes to show you that bromances are not a modern phenomenon. These classical Roman senators and the architects of the assassination of Julius Caesar fought together on the battlefield as well as the Senate floor. Perhaps the precursors to John McCain and Joe Lieberman, these political pals gained immortality through the constant retellings of their story and the compelling lessons people take from their downfall. According to Dante, these days they're just chilling out, shooting the breeze down in deepest level of hell.
7) Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre "[They're] laid back with [their] mind on [their] money and [their] money on [their] mind."
6) Alexander Hamilton and George Washington Many erroneously refer to George Washington as the father of the United States. Really, it's the love child of Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Born in the West Indies, Alexander Hamilton moved to New York just in time to start killing redcoats. The two quickly hit it off and soon Hamilton was ghost-quilling everything the uneducated Washington wrote. After the war, Hamilton crafted the Constitution while lazy Washington sat back and watched. Then Washington took all the credit. It didn't matter; Hamilton loved him like a bro.
5) Tony Blair and George W. Bush It was hard to watch those press conferences, with their matching podiums and particular blends of reds, whites and blues without feeling the special kind of affection these men had for one another. The heads of state seemed close enough to finish each other's declarations of war but exuded the aura of a multi-national power couple. We can only gleam small snippets of their relation from the fits of stolen glances and shy smiles of their photo sessions, but we're willing to bet they had a secret handshake for national security measures.
4) Three Stooges Whichever combination of men you prefer (though Larry, Moe and Curly are obviously the best), the Stooges are our favorite slapstick bromance trio. As the old adage goes, we only hurt the ones we love. Why else would slaps and eye-pokes abound in the best shorts of the '40s? They sang together, they played together, they worked together and hell, they partied together. Other men like Shemp and Joe were tried on for size, but the chemistry between the favorite three was never matched by any other man.
3) A-Rod and Derek Jeter Between going out together and being there for each other, the New York Yankees teammates once had a ball together, but the sleepovers and dinner dates are no longer. The famous friendship struck out once A-Rod transferred to the Yankees. Sports media left no base unturned searching for the reason for the split, with speculations from competing egos to allegations that A-Rod had a boy crush on Jeter.
2) Simon and Garfunkel One of the best-selling American music acts of all time, Simon and Garfunkel were really only engaged in a bromance on the surface. Behind the music there were a lot of disagreements over the direction they wanted to go as a band, but their early work featured some of the most delicate and sensitive folk songs of the 1960s. Their call-and-response harmonies on songs like "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" show the artistic possibilities of great collaborations while betraying the dangers of musical codependency
1) Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg These two authors effectively defined what it meant to be a Beat, but their personal friendship was much more than that of respected colleagues. In Kerouac's magnum opus, "On the Road," the character Carlo Marx is a transparent fa?ade for Ginsberg, a bordering-on-mad poet who seemingly acts on a higher consciousness. Ginsberg's greatest poem, "Howl," was conversely inspired by the flowing prose and constant presence of Kerouac. This particular bromance managed to change the face of post-war literature in the wake of their strong friendship.
