I haven’t heard it since I was about 8, at which time it was hilarious. I don’t know how I’d feel if I heard it for the first time today. I do remember that my best friend’s mom sold Amway products, and they did a version of this that was positively awful. It had none of the exasperation that made the original so delicious; these idiots were absurdly polite to each other, and you could even hear in their voices that they were smiling. It was disgusting.
Most things. I’ve got kids 6 and 4. We still laugh at the same things. I hope that never changes.
I’m just wondering where the hell people are hearing this bit constantly. I think I’ve heard/seen it at most a dozen or so times in my life. That’s about once every almost four years for me. References to the bit, sure. That I’ll hear a bit more often. But the sketch itself? Rarely.
Absolutely! I’ve always thought it’s funny!
I thought it was mildly funny the first time I saw Abbott and Costello do it in an old movie. Sorry I do not know which movie it was. The second time around, it was no longer funny.
But it’s kind of entered the language as a “who’s on first” situation.
Examples:
Mo: It has a certain je ne sais quoi. Do you know what that means?
Larry: I don’t know what.
Mo: Well I’ll tell you, it’s that unknown quality, you can only say it in French.
Or:
Karen: So I turn left up here?
Becky: Right.
Karen: So I turn right?
Neither one of those is quite as strained as “Who’s On First” IMO because like, maybe there was a baseball player named Hu back in the day but I’m guessing there was never, ever, a baseball player called I Don’t Know.
Kermit: Bear left.
Fozzie: Right, frog.
I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
Here’s a sketch from Jimmy Fallon’s show that puts a twist and then a subversion on the old bit. I thought it was clever.
“Hu’s on first?”
BANG!
“He’s DEAD, Jim!”
It’s somewhat along the lines of the Kids in the Hall subversion. Did you see that link upthread? Nicely done in both cases (though I kind of prefer the Kids in the Hall version). Like the first comment from five years ago with the most upvotes on the Fallon sketch says: “This Joke is 75 years old and still funny as hell.”
One of the funniest comedy routines ever.
But the Whos on First routine came a decade before the color bar was broken, Americans were about to throw Japanese into concentration camps, and nobody ever imagined that anybody named Hu would ever play in the Big Leagues, and then it took over 50 years. “Back in the day” was not a single slice of time that embraces a single amorphous past.
I agree it goes on too long, but the issue for me is that, to have it extend that long, the confused character has to go way overboard. There’s also the point where he starts saying the answer at the same time as the other guy, which falls flat for me.
I also think the delivery doesn’t work as well for me in the modern era. It’s that fast talking patter that just doesn’t really sound like two people talking. I actually found that, when I heard a shorter version with more modern characters (from TV) doing it, it worked better for me. I don’t know on third was as far as it got, IIRC. When I watch the original, I get annoyed before the end now.
I intellectually get why it was so funny in its day, and why people continue to find it funny. But I always tended to find it more interesting instead. It’s funnier to me in reference than in actually watching or listening to the original. And, even then, my tolerance for how long it can last gets shorter. But that’s more because I’ve heard it.
It really does have diminishing returns. I am surprised they could pull of repeating it so often.
Pretty comprehensive post. I agree on all counts. I liked it when I was a kid 40-some years ago, but now it’s only funny/useful as an occasional reference, when a situation occurs that bears a passing similarity to it. “I dunno…third base!”, and that’s about it.
Hell, it was OLD 40-some years ago! It was first performed in 1938. I think it still has some comedy value to someone who hasn’t seen/heard it before, if you watch one of the better performances, but it’s kind of gone beyond funny and become a piece of culture. Everyone’s heard the routine, or at least heard it referenced/parodied. I think most of Seinfeld is heading that way soon, too, if it’s not already there.
Some of these posts bring up similar jokes. One I like is:
Q: What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?
A: I don’t know and I don’t care.
There is a bit of “meta” quality to these kind of things. And like Abed, I loves me some meta.
Funny you should say that.
I don’t know what to say…
Yeah right. groan
Probably the best comedy routine ever.
As a non-American I’d seen plenty of references to Who’s On First (e.g. Rainman) without actually being exposed to the routine itself and, most importantly, without ever learning what the big joke was. (Abbot and Costello never really broke into Scotland, which I understand was a lifelong regret.) It was obviously a major if dated cultural touchpoint but I didn’t know much beyond that.
Then I saw it live, and it was hilarious.
I was in a comedy club in Aukland and one act was a sketch troupe (GARY, Kiwi comedy fans) who were going to do a musical number. But the equipment failed. So one turned to the other and said, “Well, we’ve got to do something. How about ‘Who’s On First’?”. And they snapped into it, and it was just brilliant. The whole place was in stitches.
After that I became a bit of a WOF evangelist, but I could never persuade people. The quality of recording/YouTube video I could find was pretty poor, which didn’t help but there were a couple of other issues. The beginning is off-putting, with the introductory joke about Dizzy Dean (?) which of course is completely outdated and meaningless now. But the main problem is the vaudeville style of delivery which works well once you’re tuned into it but is quite hard to tune into - especially as most recordings are live to an appreciative audience who know the sketch and are laughing practically ahead of the gags. Most people I tried to show it to just respond with bafflement.
But it’s really funny the first time you see it, especially if you see it performed live, with the clarity and audience-responsive timing that brings.
Still a classic bit of comedy, still extremely funny.
Like cmkeller and others have said, it’s all in the delivery, so a great deal depends on which recording you’re watching.
“Who’s on first?”
“The Aristocrats!”