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Films of classic comic duo, Laurel and Hardy, will be shown at Royce this weekend.

If anyone mentions silent comedy, Charlie Chaplin will likely be the first name mentioned along with it. Maybe Buster Keaton. But there are other dominant figures in early film comedy, including a duo that developed a unique style, churned out over 100 films and made a successful transition into talking pictures: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Three of their classic silent films from 1928, “You’re Darn Tootin,” “Two Tars” and “Habeus Corpus” are being shown this Sunday at 2 p.m. in Royce Hall as part of the Film and Television Archive’s Kid Flicks Program. The program will showcase a variety of Laurel and Hardy’s specialized buddy comedy, along with two other shorts by Charlie Chase and Our Gang.

“(They’re) not the standard wisecracking straight man and goofball sidekick. They’re both kind of inept at life and so goofy stuff happened to them,” said Rob Stone, Associate Curator for Collections at the archive, and author of the filmography “Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy.”

A comparable duo in contemporary comedies is tough to find. Most modern duos (Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in “Dumb and Dumber” for one) certainly play up the “inept at life” part while adding a distinct air of competition.

“The big difference is that Laurel and Hardy really seemed to have real affection for each other, even if they got in spats from time to time,” Stone said. Stone cites David Spade and Chris Farley as one team that made a pretty good match. One’s fat, one’s thin and though they don’t have the same intense love-hate relationship found with many of the best known comedy teams like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis or Abbot and Costello, they still fit well together.

Unlike most comedy teams, Laurel and Hardy started out with fairly successful solo careers, in which they starred in over 300 films collectively. Stone suggests their lasting relationship can be partly attributed to them doing many things in the reverse order than other comedy teams. While teams like Martin and Lewis started on the road together and eventually broke off into solo careers after their success in Hollywood, Laurel and Hardy did the exact opposite.

“They basically stayed together till one of them died,” Stone said. “A lot of it had to do with the contract of the studio. They were kind of just thrown together, but later in their careers they chose to be together. They did less films as their careers wound down, but started doing stage tours and became traveling companions and their friendship grew.”

In terms of success and popular appeal, Laurel and Hardy were the best example of a long standing comedy act that made a successful transfer to sound. Though they are being shown as a part of the Kid Flicks program, their designation as children’s entertainment is a fairly modern phenomenon. Their appeal used to be viewed as more universal.

Many UCLA students aren’t quite sure which comedy group Laurel and Hardy are, and those that do recognize the name equate them with childhood television.

“I used to watch it when I was a kid. It used to make me laugh,” said first-year biology student Ananth Krishnan. “I used to like the thin guy and act like him and then they made the cartoons which were even better.”

Yet Stone explains that the films have a family oriented feel simply because most films made during that era were made for everyone.

“When they were making their movies in the ’20s and ’30s – movies were it. There weren’t G, R, X rated movies,” Stone said. “Movies had to be geared toward a mass audience.”

Of the films being shown Sunday, two of them are considered perhaps the best of Laurel and Hardy’s silent films – “You’re Darn Tootin,” in which they play dysfunctional members of a municipal band, and “Two Tars,” which depicts chaos caused by the duo in a traffic jam.

Since all five movies (including those by Chase and Our Gang) were produced by the legendary Hal Roach Studios around the same time period, each film has the same all-star cast behind the camera as well.

“Since they were all made for the same studio, which was the place for the late silent early sound era, many of the same people play supporting characters and did things like the titles,” Stone said. “It was sort of a family affair over there.”

Kid Flicks hopes this weekend at Royce Hall will be a family affair, but the screening will also be a great opportunity for anyone looking for some vintage silent comedy.

Admission: $30 general, $15 students and children 12 and under. For further ticket and program information for this event only, call (310) 825-2101.