The Naughty Nineties Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Dexter Broadhurst and Sebastian Dinwiddie (played by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) in the film The Naughty Nineties, directed by Jean Yarbrough (1945).

Who performed "Who's on first"? Well, that's a lot easier to answer than who, exactly, is on first base. (Hint: it's Who.) Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were an American comedy duo whose most popular routine involved an assortment of confusing baseball player nicknames. In the skit, Costello tries to figure out who is on first base when the first baseman is actually called "Who." Complicating matters are the second baseman (What), the third baseman (I Don't Know), the centerfielder (Because), and so on.

Their most famous rendition of this routine, which they also performed on stage, on the radio, and for FDR, came in the 1945 film The Naughty Nineties, which sounds a lot dirtier than it really is.

Where you've heard it

You'll be sure to hear this if there is ever a humorous misunderstanding about the name of a person, place, thing… or perhaps on the TV show Dr. Who.

Additional Notable References: 

• The Animaniacs parodied the routine when Slappy the Squirrel went to Woodstock without knowing who the band The Who was.
• Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, and Jerry Seinfeld performed Who's on First: The Sequel on the Tonight Show
• We know who performed "Who's on First," but who wrote it? No, "Who" didn't write it, but a writer named Michael J. Musto claimed to have been paid $15 to write the classic routine.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Annoying? Yes, and never as good as the original (nice try, Jimmy), but this quote's not pretentious.