Kitsch phrasing? Repetitious? Slightly oddball?
Yeah, this would seem to be right up your alley. (The only thing better would be if it went somewhere and threw something, right?)
I find it just as funny as when I first heard it. Costello’s frustration is still a high point.
You probably don’t like the pellet with the poison, either.
Absolutely hilarious. Still is.
Third base!
Abbott and Costello first did the routine in 1938. It was derived from turn-of-the-century vaudeville bits. So your gratuitous slap at Boomers is unwarranted.
I was thinking the same thing. This thing was old when I was a kid. I sometimes think these youngins are going to start blaming boomers for the civil war.
And yes it was, and still is, funny.
When I was a kid I begged my parents to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The thing I remember most was finding the Who’s on First routine. It was the funniest thing I’d ever read.
I’ve heard it and seen it a million times since. The words are clever, but for real humor you have to find a great rendition, since the level of hilarity completely depends on Costello’s timing and tone of incredulity.
What’s amazing is that nobody is sure who wrote the sketch.
The first time you hear the routine, it’s because you never heard it before.
The last time you hear the routine, it’s because you *have *heard it before.
I’ve heard it many times, and I still laugh. Not as hard as I did the first time I heard it, but I still laugh.
My daughter attended a high school for the visual and performing arts. I went with her to the orientation session in the school’s auditorium, and it closed with two theatre students doing “Who’s on First?” I had my doubts that a bunch of fourteen-year-olds would appreciate the humor, but they all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Its origins go way back:
A similar version from Animaniacs, with The Band, along with The Who and Yes:
I think it’s hilarious. I used to have a poster with the entire routine on it (it was publicizing the book Who’s on First, and featured Al Hirschfeld caricatures of Abbott and Costello). They took similar vaudeville routines and refined them and extended them into a masterpiece of the form. It evolves from some very simple wordplay into a more complex routine, as Costello’s character at first thinks he’s starting to figure it out – he thinks the players name is “naturally” – but, of course, his logic is off, and his attempts to work everything out results in failure and more frustration, so he finally thinks “the hell with it” and unconsciously goes with the flow.
Time and repetition have surely made the bit stale for a lot of folks, but I find that when I listen to the full routine (as in the movie The Naughty Nineties – there are also shorter versions in other films, TV shows, and radio recordings) I find myself cracking up.
xxx
It’s so well known and repeated and parodied, at this point it’s beyond funny or not funny. It just is.
Once you know a joke, repetition is only tolerable when the performance is the thing to be appreciated. Palin and Cleese have performed the Parrot Sketch countless times to both uproarious laughter and embarrassing silence (remember that disastrous SNL performance?) The words are exactly the same, but the performances are not. Nobody has done Who’s on First better than Abbot and Costello, and, probably, nobody has done it worse.
It’s better than old Xmas carols we’ve heard a zillion times.
Yes, funny.
Calling it part of Boomerism, hilarious!
I think of it, and some of the Marx Brothers, as part of cultural literacy. It was part of broadly introducing Vaudeville bits to the general American public and became a form to emulate in broad popular culture. It is a referential touchpoint now more than anything else. That said the misunderstanding each other format of funny goes back for … forever? At least the Greek comedies and probably before as soon as language developed! One step above pokes in the eyes nyuck nyuck.
Embarrassed to admit that as a young boy I felt the same frustration as poor Mr. Costello for the first several exchanges. I mean the guy is asking simple straight forward questions, even giving examples to help the one giving answers. Why? WHY can’t the gentleman just give a straight answer (the great uncles on both sides of my family were semi-reformed confidence men who LOVED to make other men look stupid [even very young ones under four feet tall]). So when I learned I had been the butt of the joke (along with the frustrated Mr. Costello), I laughed at myself extensively. How clever to catch me and the rest of America so very flatfooted!!
I also believe this routine to be the inspiration for the funniest moment in the entire Airplane! Movie franchise:
Witness: “No, we lost Howie the next day”
Lawyer: “Over Macho Grande?”
Witness: “No…… I don’t think I’ll ever be over Macho Grande. (pause) Those wounds run . . pretty deep.”
The misdirection is perfect – just like paying Who’s/whose wife the first baseman’s salary.
It’s still quite funny even after seeing it a hundred times. It was hilarious the first time. My favorite version is the one from the first season of Kids in the Hall. “Oh! I see the problem here. You’re confused because their names all sound like questions!”
See post #19 