Original artwork, not a still
Who's on first.
— The Naughty Nineties ‧ 1945
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The whole routine is built on a single misunderstanding that never breaks: the question and the answer are the same word. It is why the line works with no setup, and why people still use it as shorthand for any conversation going in circles. The routine began long before this film, but the 1945 version is the one Americans have actually watched.
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In context
Spoilers for The Naughty NinetiesShow the scene
In The Naughty Nineties (1945), Abbott and Costello play members of a showboat company on the Mississippi in the 1890s, Bud Abbott as the lead actor Dexter Broadhurst and Lou Costello as roustabout Sebastian Dinwiddle. The film is best known for containing a filmed version of their 'Who's on First?' routine, in which Abbott lists baseball players whose names sound like questions, so that Costello's answers keep going wrong. A video of this version plays continuously at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: The Naughty NinetiesIntro and PlotReference checked
- Wikipedia: Who's on First?Intro and HistoryReference checked
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