Talk:Who's on First?

RUSH HOUR 2, TOO?
I can remember a similar sequence than the one already cited on the page that occurred in the second Rush Hour film. It occurs when Jackie Chan's character is on Ricky Tan's boat, and, thinking Chris Tucker's character is dead, confronts one of the henchmen. Chris Tucker comes by asking "WHO died, Lee?" Jackie Chan, stunned, says: "YOU!" Tucker responds confused, "Dective Yu?", and a very confusing snippet of dialogue occurs that ends with an allusion to a line in the first Rush Hour film. --- JS, 75.40.135.250 21:35, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Brief History of Oil
In Robert Newman's "History of Oil", Robert references the skit during a section discussing oil and food. "Who" and "When", are Chinese political leaders Hu Jintao (Who) and Wen Jiabao (When). --Mdwyer (talk) 20:03, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

 http://video.aol.com/video-detail/whose-on-first/77914036 ' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.245.156.250 (talk) 09:37, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

WHO IS on 1st???
People, please stop changing "Who's" to "Whose" throughout this article. It's correctly a contraction for "Who is", not a possesive pronoun. I don't know if it's a running joke, but he's on third, and I don't give a darn. Zeng8r (talk) 12:37, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Script of joke
Script needs to be edited, as it states that Tomorrow is the "out field"ers name, but tomorrow is the pitchers name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.195.127.202 (talk) 02:24, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Tomorrow is the pitcher, but I can't remember who the outfielder is. I am listing names with their positions.

Walex &#38; 03. A Life together. (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:21, 27 February 2012 (UTC).


 * I see that somebody edited the script a bit. That kind of thing could go on forever, as A & C did many slight variations of this routine. I personally have audio of 3 different versions, all similar but different in a few places.


 * That's why I think that the script should be cut out of the article altogether. There is no single definitive "Who's on 1st" script, so listing one here is misleading and, really, factually incorrect. If somebody wants to read or hear this routine, several of the external links have script and/or audio copies of various versions.


 * What say others? Zeng8r (talk) 00:59, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

After watching more editing of the script for a while, I went ahead and removed it for the reasons listed above. It's not like quoting from a movie script; this routine was usually performed live, almost always with slight but noticable improvisational touches. Zeng8r (talk) 01:42, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

It was originally from a movie. They do stand-up sometimes. They do it over so many times that the script changes. However I think the t should be noted.

Walex &#38; 03. A Life together. (talk) 21:19, 27 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Vaudeville was "stand-up" before there was stand-up. They performed this skit live on stage hundreds (if not thousands) of times before putting it on film. They also did it on the radio on several occasions. As for the outfielders, Why is in left, Because is in center. The right fielder is never mentioned. Zeng8r (talk) 11:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

In Popular Culture
In a 2007 episode of 1 vs. 100 a question was "In the Abbott and Costello skit Who's on First, what is the name of the second baseman?"
 * A. Who
 * B. What
 * C. I don't know

Please tell me this is a joke. Asking about the sketch as a question for a quiz show constitutes In Popular Culture?... does that mean we should add every queston to articles (i.e. Gravity: In Popular Culture - 1 vs. 100, 50/50, 20 other shows, 50 board games & more asked who discovered gravity). Gaz (talk?) 10:45, 8 August 2008 (UTC)


 * The "in popular culture" section is out of control, imo, with lots of stuff in there that's only loosely related to the sketch. I'm going to be bold and start trimming the fat some time next week but would greatly appreciate input from others. Thanks in advance... Zeng8r (talk) 23:12, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I removed a recently-added example that was probably inspired by this sketch but didn't explicitly use "who" or "what", etc. As discussed here, that section used to be severely overgrown but was pruned back to include only direct references to the skit in major media. Thanks for understanding... Zeng8r (talk) 02:12, 9 August 2009 (UTC)


 * There's an Animaniacs episode that takes place at Woodstock where Slappy and Skippy Squirrel do their version of the bit (Who's on Stage?). Slappy tries to find out who's on stage (The Who).  Skippy plays the straight man part and responds with "Who".  The bit goes on to include The Band and Yes.  Why is this not included?  [M.S.A.2.H.8.1.4.]  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.148.96.46 (talk) 03:52, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * See the post just above yours. To keep the info in that section as relevant as possible, only examples that use a close variation of "who, what, I don't know", etc. are included. This skit has been referenced so many times in so many mediums that a comprehensive list would be both humongous and unhelpful. The line has to be drawn somewhere, imo. Zeng8r (talk) 17:38, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I renamed the section to "Derivatives" to help delineate future additions. The history section shows that the sketch itself is derived from earlier burlesque sketches, so it makes sense to include decendants, too. The article is still relatively short, so I see no reason to chop since the examples make for entertaining reading when well written. 70.109.188.179 (talk) 17:49, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

The rock band version was also performed on an episode of the TV show "Eight Is Enough" with Dick van Patten and the youngest child, whose name escapes me. I do not have a reference for it however, but do remember watching it.Kgilbert78 (talk) 15:00, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Costello in for DiMaggio
"The skit serves as a climax for an Abbott and Costello radio broadcast which begins with Costello receiving a telegram from Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio explains that he is recovering from an operation on his foot and asks Costello to take over for him. One could infer that Costello is the unmentioned right fielder, and that the unnamed team is the New York Yankees[5]."

This seems unlikely as DiMaggio didn't play Right Field many times over the course of his career. He was the regular Center Fielder. But who knows. 65.79.173.135 (talk) 20:36, 5 May 2009 (UTC)Will in New Haven65.79.173.135 (talk) 20:36, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Any one have an idea?
I remember a version relatively recently that I saw on TV. The guy decided the bit was a little old fashioned and said that he wanted to "update it" for a modern audience. Then the bit was performed exactly like the original except the names were replaced by the names of modern baseball players. It made no sense of course, but I thought it was pretty funny. I haven't been able to find it again. Anyone have any idea?--91.11.120.165 (talk) 10:06, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Proposed merge of Who's on First? (board game) to here
The board game article has little to no content p  b  p  16:10, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Propositional attitude link
Why is there a link to "Propositional attitude" in the See Also section? I was going to remove this, but that would just leave the Baseball portal and I wasn't sure how that would work as the only item in the section. Pruwyben (talk) 21:28, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

Additional Routine
Once I heard another A&C routine called SOUNDMAN'S REVENGE (I believe). In it A&C were going to the RCA studio for the first time and Costello wanted to know the names of all the people at the studio so he could say Hi.

Same chaos ensues... but the names are Somebody, Anybody, Nobody, Everybody.... etc. You can see where that leads.

I have never been able to find this again... It would make a good additional reference to this type of routine if I could find a link to it.

Does anyone know of one? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Billvaxman (talk • contribs) 21:40, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

A rap version
There does exist a rap version which can be found on a compilation album called Def Beats 1 (Ten Non-Stop Full-Length 12" Mixes) on the Music Of Life label. It came out in 1987. I remember John Peel played it at least once. It's renamed Who's The Captain and it's by Microphone Prince featuring Count Busy 'D'. The original 12" came out on Still Rising records in '86 in the US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.153.17.185 (talk) 15:37, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Can someone insert the reference to the current movie "Arrival", please?
In the movie the 2 aliens are named Abbott and Costello with reference to the originals. The movies is mostly about language issues (with an alien race visiting earth) and time travel. 84.60.204.79 (talk) 16:30, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Who is on the Phone
Could someone help me add the Saturday Night Live sketch "Who is on the Phone"? The Mo-Ja&#39;al (talk) 22:21, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

COVID-19
I wish I could remember, but somewhere I saw Abbott and Costello arguing about the World Health Organization because of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  15:49, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

the right fielder is never identified
Abbott implicitly concurs that there is somebody on the field called Naturally, otherwise his rejoinder "You don't! You throw it to Who!" would not make any sense. Since we also have just this one unnamed position, the conclusion is clear, and it is not Nobody. 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:1D53:C2C1:473:FAA9 (talk) 13:36, 25 August 2022 (UTC)