Who's On First?

In February 1938, Abbott and Costello joined the cast of the The Kate Smith Hour radio program, and the sketch was first performed for a national radio audience that March.[1]The routine may have been further polished before this broadcast by burlesque producer John Grant, who became the team's writer, and Will Glickman, a staff writer on the radio show.[2] Glickman may have added the nicknames of then-contemporary baseball players like Dizzy and Daffy Dean to set up the routine's premise. This version, with extensive wordplay based on the fact that most of a fictional baseball team's players had "strange nicknames" that seemed to be questions, became known as "Who's on First?" By 1944, Abbott and Costello had the routine copyrighted.

Abbott and Costello performed "Who's on First?" numerous times in their careers, rarely performing it the same way twice. Once, they did the routine at President Roosevelt's request. The routine was featured in the team's 1940 film debut, One Night in the Tropics. The duo reprised the bit in their 1945 film The Naughty Nineties, and it is that version which is considered their finest recorded rendition. They also performed the routine numerous times on radio and television (notably in The Abbott and Costello Show episode "The Actor's Home").

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Abbot & Costello
• Who's On First?
• Classic Television
• Abbot
• Costello
• Passport Video
• KOCH

[ExuroProEternus]

this is back when comedy was actually creative.

[vccstudents]

A few years ago The Who performed at halftime of the Super Bowl. One of my seventh grade students didn't understand and asked me, "Who was the band that performed the halftime show?"

I responded, "That's right."

He says, "Who's right?"

I went, "That's the band's name!" He then says, "What's the band's name?"

I said, "No, Who's the band's name."

The kid didn't get it, but the rest of my class was DYING OF LAUGHTER!

[wildfiresspindal2190]

22 people threw the ball to naturally

(saw that on another video and had to rewrite it)

[silence3694]

@vccstudents That's a skit from Animaniacs. That's amazing that that happened in real life! ha ha ha

[Ocarinababe]

22 dont understand this xD

[emis62]

@therainofawsome they dont know whos on first...

[Tronman63]

@jewhoops Yeah, his name is I. Forgot

[CaptainAwesomeprodts]

This here is pure brilliance :)

[nv88]

@xStoryOfYourLifex Look it up on youtube its quite good definitely something to pull on one of your unsuspecting friends ^_^

[jets4dasuperbowl]

Still hasn't gotten old