I’m going to say the “Who’s one first?” routine; I’ve never seen it, but it is perhaps the most referenced comedy skit I’ve ever encountered. It seems to border on a sort of absorbed cultural knowledge: I don’t know anyone my age who has seen it but they know what it is and it’s generally sitting in their brain for a good laugh.
Film, radio, television, or theatre apply.
I’m gonna go with “Slooooowly I Turned . . .”
Now that I think of it, there’s also the silent “mirror routine,” that’s been done by Max Linder, the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball, and doubtless countless others.
Here’s the whole skit.
http://www.totse.com/en/ego/no_laughing_matter/who.html
Niagara Falls sketch? I show my ignorance, but I’ve never heard of it. I’m guessing it’d be “Who’s on First?” as well. I’ve never seen it, but it makes me giggle just to read it.
By “the mirror routine,” are you talking about someone putting half their body out from behind a mirror so that it looks like they’re dancing in midair?
Daniel
As far as iconic comedic images, there’s pie-in-the-face; slip-on-the-banana-peel; and poke-in-the-eye. But if you want a whole sketch, I’d go with “Who’s on First.”
Just to throw in another contender, how about Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp eating his shoe?
Or his dancing dinner rolls bit, that Johnny Depp did in Benny & Joon?
Yes, “Who’s on First” has to be the most famous (and arguably ths best), closely followed by the Dead Parrot, but Niagara Falls? I’m sure I should remember it, but I’m drawing a blank. “Slooooowly I Turned . . .” sounds even more familiar, but I can’t remember anything beyond that phrase.
The “mirror routine,” I assume, is the old standard where one of the team plays the other’s reflection in what isn’t really a mirror. I have no idea who did it first, but lots of people have picked it up.
I’ve got to go with “Who’s on First,” too. Mind you, it’s not the best of all time, by any means, (although it was good) but I do think it’s the most famous.
The parrot sketch is funnier.
My first thought was “Niagara Falls”, but that’s probably second to “Who’s on first”.
JMO
Another vote for “Who’s on First”, which is the first one that came to mind, but don’t underestimate the worldwide popularity of the Dead Parrot sketch.
What’s the dead parrot sketch?
Was it a parrot?
I always thought it was an EX-parakeet.
I’ll agree with Who’s on First.
I’ll also put into the ring (for “amongst” the most famous, though not as THE most famous) the William Shatner “Get a Life” skit on Saturday Night Live. I’m pretty certain that that skit invented the phrase “Get a Life”, but if not invented, it certainly popularized it greatly. That’s got to count for something.
Oh, and likewise the Monty Python “Spam” skit. Not necessarily the most famous as a comedy skit, but considering that it’s universally accepted as the origin of the word “Spam” for mass e-mail solicitation, that bumps it up a good number of notches from wherever it was before.
A famous, and utterly brilliant sketch by the comedy group Monty Python - it’s in… Uhh… Episode 8 (Full Frontal Nudity) of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, if memory calls - it would be a great episode even if it didn’t have the dead parrot sketch in it. Do rent or buy the DVD if you can find it - the sketch has made me laugh 'til tears several times.
It was a pun!
I’d just like to add that I have never found the lame “Who’s on first?” crap even remotely humorous.
If you’ve never heard “Who’s on First” performed by Abbott & Costello, just read it on paper, you have no idea of how the voice and timing combine to make it transcendent. It has to be listened to, so it can build and build and build. As performed at its peak, it’s probably the best sustained skit of all.
But most famous? For worldwide fame - meaning repetition - I’d have to go with something by the Marx Brothers - the mirror scene or the stateroom scene - SNL or Monty Python.
Although Jack Benny’s response to a robber asking “Your money or your life” - an endless silence followed finally by “I’m thinking, I’m thinking” - is equally iconic.
It’s no substitute for seeing it performed, but here’s the text of the Dead Parrot sketch.
Who (of those who saw it) could forget Margaret Thatcher incorporating it into one of her speeches? And of course John Cleese gave a version of it as a eulogy at Graham Chapman’s funeral. It’s a nifty bit of writing.
The Dead Parrot by far is the funniest ever, but the OP wanted most famous. And since Monty Python is somewhat obscure to the unwashed masses, by default A&C would win out.
