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Who’s on First?

Posted September 2, 2009 @ 2:59 pm In Five,Numbers | No Comments

“Who’s on First?” is a comedy routine that was performed most famously by the comedy duo, Abbott and Costello [1], starting in the late 1930′s.  Its absurdist humor rests on the players of a baseball team having last names that are common words or phrases in English:  the first baseman is “Who”; the second baseman is “What”; the third baseman is “I Don’t Know”; etc.

In the United States, “Who’s on First?” has become an iconic piece of humor with dozens of variations created over the past several decades.  Not only was it named the Best Comedy Routine of the Century [2] by Time Magazine [3] in 1999, but it also has been embraced by the Baseball Hall of Fame [4].


Links

Related on eAlmanac
Abbott and Costello
Nine Players to a Side in Baseball

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on Who's on First?
Video of the Abbott and Costello Who on First? routine



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URLs in this post:

[1] Abbott and Costello: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_and_Costello

[2] Best Comedy Routine of the Century: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,36533,00.html

[3] Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/

[4] Baseball Hall of Fame: http://www.baseballhall.org

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