Friday, December 3, 2010

Baseball Funnies: Who's on First?



Baseball has served as artistic inspiration in several media but has had perhaps its most significant impact on the world of comedy. Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First?" is arguably THE masterpiece of sketch comedy. We recently showed it to our daughter for the first time and, although I'm not sure how well she followed the whole joke, she genuinely enjoyed the basic wordplay at its heart. "I Don't Know - Third Base!" was a running gag at our house for a week afterward.

I can't tell you much about the routine's history beyond what you can learn from the Wikipedia entry. I love the fact that there was once a board game based on the sketch! I know I first learned about it from a friend in high school who went on to an acting career in New York.

2 comments:

  1. My brother and his friend did this for UIL competition when we were in high school! I've loved it since then.

    Nowhere near as solid as the classic, but worth a link.

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