Abbott and Costello routine

[Wilson Gray]

Thanks, Ben. I remember that there was a third group involved, but I
couldn't recall its name. I thought that the bit was pretty funny.
Apparently, I was pretty much alone in that opinion, since I heard the
sketch only once. Even in the '60's, only we thirty-ish folk were
familiar enough with A&C's original bit to appreciate the parody
involved.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:21 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Abbott and Costello routine
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 8:38 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I (literally) once heard a "rock" version of the classic A&C routine:
>>
>> A. Guess Who will be the opening act.
>>
>> B. Who?
>>
>> A. No, Who will be closing.
>>
>> B. You tell me. Who'll be opening the set?
>>
>> A. No. Guess Who.
>>
>> B. Who?
>>
>> A. I've told you, Who is the closing act. Guess Who will be opening.
>>
>> 'N' so own 'n' so fo'th.
>
> Wikipedia advises:
>
> ---
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_on_First%3F
> The 1960s comedy group The Credibility Gap recorded a variant in which a rock
> concert promoter (Harry Shearer) attempts to advertise a concert, headlined by
> The Who, The Guess Who, and Yes in the Los Angeles Times. When the advertising
> manager David L. Lander asks him why he does not simply write the ad copy down,
> Shearer closes the routine by saying, "If I could write, I wouldn't have had to
> steal this bit!"
> ---
>
> You can hear the routine on Shearer's website:
> http://www.harryshearer.com/projects/radio/#the_credibility_gap
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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