alphonse and gaston

\\ˈalˌfänz...ˈgastən, ˈau̇ˌf-, -än(t)s-, -aast-\ noun (plural alphonses and gastons)

Usage: usually capitalized 1st A&G

Etymology: after Alphonse and Gaston, characters displaying excessive politeness and often uttering the phrases “after you, my dear Gaston” and “after you, my dear Alphonse” that appeared in the comic strip Alphonse and Gaston by Frederick B. Opper died 1937 American illustrator and cartoonist

: a pair of persons exhibiting an excessive usually exaggerated politeness or deference to each other especially about not taking precedence

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marked by a ritualistic courtliness in which two often competing participants graciously but stubbornly defer to each other: a kind of Alphonse and Gaston act in which each man insisted the other go through the doorway first.

Also, Alphonse-and-Gaston.

[after the title characters of a cartoon strip by American cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper (1857-1937), which first appeared in 1905]