Kareme and Quincy Young From HBO Max's 'South Side' Appear to Be Twins — Are They?

In July 2019, South Side premiered on Comedy Central and became an instant hit. You could describe it as an Office-type show — set in a rent-to-own store in Chicago — that is among many things, a love letter to the city. It's also a commentary on gentrification, police brutality, and activism. Believe it or not, this is a comedy, and boy is it ever. Two stars of the show really stick out, Kareme and Quincy Young, who look so much alike, they could be twins. So, are Kareme and Quincy Young actually twins?

Twins are so exciting and mysterious, and if we're talking about The Shining, terrifying at times. They can develop their own language, which is called idioglossia, and try as you might, you'll never get it. Also, identical twins have different fingerprints, which means maybe we should drop the identical part. This is why whenever we stumble across twins in the wild, it's exciting. But twins on TV? We were not prepared.

It's true, Kareme Young and Quincy Young are twins, and Kareme is the older brother, with two minutes on Quincy. In an August 2019 interview for the Comedy Central South Side Aftershow, the brothers were asked what happens when they fight; does it ever escalate? Kareme had this to say: "With twins there is always that competition." Quincy countered, "I don't even know if he knows he came out before me, before somebody told him."

The interview only gets better, with co-host Langston Kerman (Insecure) desperately needing to know who committed to being bald first. Quincy was the first to take a razor to his head, and it happened when a friend saw him walking one day. He called Quincy over and whispered, "Bro, you gotta let that s--t go." Kareme was evidently waiting to see how Quincy's head looked bald, before joining him in solidarity.

Simon (Sultan Salahuddin) works at a rent-to-own store in the South Side of Chicago with his best friend Kareme (Kareme Young). The two are monitored by their boss, Quincy (Quincy Young), who certainly has his hands full because the employees are constantly coming up with wacky ideas to try and further themselves financially. Take, for example, black-market Viagra or street-corner popcorn.

Sultan Salahuddin is one of the creators of the show, along with his brother (not twin), Bashir Salahuddin, and Diallo Riddle. Bashir and Diallo, who are also on South Side, met as undergrads at Harvard. Later, they would work together on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Almost the entire cast is from Chicago, where the show is both set and shot. The city itself is an integral part of South Side.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Bashir likened watching Seinfeld and getting brought into the lives of people who live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to giving folks a glimpse into this side of Chicago. "One of my favorite shows is Seinfeld and I’d never had a marble rye,” Bashir said. "And yet those episodes and moments felt like they were giving me a sneak peak into Upper East Side New York life and it felt fitting and it felt special.”

Bashir also told the Chicago Tribune that he wanted South Side to be a kind of respite for Black people. "Black people’s lives are already poignant, so when you come home after a harda-- poignant day at work, you don’t necessarily need to watch a poignant thing on TV. I’m sure many choose to — I choose too. But we also think there should be something that’s just joyous and happy and light," he said. South Side is certainly all of those things.

Season 2 of South Side premieres on HBO Max on Nov. 11.