First Time Watching | Abbott And Costello - Who's On First | Reaction 

Bud Abbot was the perfect straight man foil to Lou Costello. The timing of both is impeccable.

I have seen this skit DOZENS of times, and it never fails to put a big smile on my face.

I was born in the fifties. My Daddy never left the house without a high shine on his shoes and perfectly ironed clothes to work in a mill. That was how people presented themselves back in the day.

The speed and timing is what makes it so iconic. They took something pretty silly, when you think about it, and sold it brilliantly.

Abbott & Costello were both phenominal but you're right that Lou Costello captured most everyone's attention because he was so animated and hilarious.

I've watched this routine for 60 years and it is still funny.

The reason this is still hysterical is because comedic genius is timeless. And this routine is sheer genius, period.

The 13x7=28 sketch is brilliant.

Their comedic timing was perfect. This is one of THE greatest Comedy routines EVER. 📻🙂

Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein Loved that movie as a kid

Did you notice this was done in one take? No cuts, no edits. Abbot & Costello were film stars. They did 36 movies together. There weren’t TV shows being aired in the early 40s. In 1947 the World Series was broadcast on TV. That prompted people who didn’t have a tv (which was most people) to go out and buy one. It was after that wave of tv purchases that regular shows started being developed. They were waiting to see if tv would catch on.

The enduring popularity of the "Who's on First?" sketch created a similarly enduring association between Abbott and Costello and baseball, contributing to the mistaken belief that the comedians have been the only people with no professional connection to the sport to be honored with induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. “That’s a solid gold record that actually plays and will go to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.” Abbott added, “And we’re very, very proud and happy that you’ve accepted this.” Speaking for the Hall of Fame, Kerr said, “Lou and Bud, I’m very happy to accept this on behalf of the millions who have seen and heard this. And I’m especially glad to have it so that the future generations may enjoy this as much as we have.” Even though he was a middle-aged man of 46 when the show began, Lou Costello did most of his own stunts on the show. An athlete in his youth, he was actually a stuntman in Hollywood for a time back in the silent era before he teamed up with partner Bud Abbott, and was renowned for taking spectacular pratfalls in his films and on stage. Stuntmen were used for the more potentially dangerous stunts--being knocked through walls, getting hit by cars, etc.--but most of the falls you see Costello take were actually done by him. For example, in the episode The Tax Return (1954), there's a scene in which two crooks break into Bud & Lou's apartment, and a rather knock-down, drag-out brawl erupts. Although it looks like a stuntman is doubling for Lou in the fight scene, at one point the "stuntman" turns around and it is very clear that it actually is Costello doing the fighting. The Abbott and Costello Show is an American television sitcom starring the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Their TV show::::The program premiered in syndication in the fall of 1952 and ran two seasons to the spring of 1954.

They did have their own television show for 2 seasons called "The Abbott and Costello Show" and it was very funny.

They certainly had their own show. The Abbott and Costello show. I just bought the whole series. It's amazing.

A version of this routine plays on a loop at the BaseBall Hall Of Fame.......

Can you just imagine how much work they did to get that exactly right.

In the movie Rainman with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruz, the autistic brother (Hoffman) repeats the "Who's on first" routine whenever he gets upset, thinking it's a riddle and not understanding it's a joke. Good movie.

Great Reaction...... As you Read they were a duo for years and this is from their TV "Varety/Sketch" show...... Some other Skits... "7x13=28," "Loafing," "Dice Game," "Payphone Sketch,"....... This sketch was first Broadcast Nationally in 1938 on the Kate Smith Radio Show....

My grandfather used to arrest Lou Costello all the time for drunk and disorderly. At the end of his shift, my grandfather would bring him home with him to make sure he had dinner. My mother grew up with Lou Costello at her dinner table.

I have been watching this sketch for 50+ years and it never gets old.

THE GENIUS of this writing is that it is grammatically correct at all points and especially brilliant when they get to Naturally.

Lou Costello is the short, heavy set guy. What many people don't know is he was also an amatuer boxer. As a young competitor, Louis Cristillo fought in 12 matches under the alias “Lou King.” With 11 victories and one draw

“ Bagel Street” routine is another very funny routine by A&C. Another is the Mustard Routine, “13 times 7 equals 28”. “Loafing” and “Slowly I Turned”.

You got it dead on. Bud Abbott was the straight man and Lou Costello the perfect comic foil. They co-starred in monster movies when I was a kid (born 1953). But they star in one of my favorite movies "The Time of their Lives" 1946. Lou plays a tinker who's branded a spy and dies cursed to never leave the property. Story picks up in 1946 and hilarious but very touching film. I have 2 sisters, one a year older + one a year younger. We loved watching this ages 8-13. It's so chaotic it's kinda has a Marx Bros. feel. Give it a try you'll be smiling. Keep up your insightful reactions.

Yo..good one.. Lou Costello=John Belushi..Great reference..yes..

Their timing together was perfection.

As somebody else commented, I've heard this many times and I can't help but laugh. Whoever (pun accepted) wrote this skit was a genius and they had the talent to just run with it. Thanks for playing this classic!

Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein is a cinematic masterpiece!

No matter how many times I see them - still funny. Loved watching their movies.

"Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" 1948

Abbott and Costello were absolute comic geniuses. The timing between the two of them was impeccable. I grew up during the 50s and they did have a TV show of their own. It was based out of an apartment building and had different characters that they would interact with. It was always funny. You are right, Lou Costello was kind of the star of the two. He was like a grownup child, while Abbott was the brains. But again, their timing and cleverness is timeless.

Yes they had their own show and they also did movies. When I worked for IBM, they used this comedy clip in orientation to demonstrate the importance of communication and the difference between hearing and listening.

The skit Niagara Falls by Abbott & Costello always cracks me up. Be sure to watch the version where Lou is thrown into a jail cell with a tattered old man (played by Sidney Fields, their landlord in their rooming house).

Yessir..I'm 69 yrs..they great.. Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein..lol

I didn't think I could possibly learn anything knew about Abbott and Costello. The taxes thing is news to me. I loved the reaction and the info you shared.

Lou Costello was a great guy, he lived in Hoboken NJ and gave all his money to an orphanage as he made it.

Keep in mind that when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first worked together, they started in burlesque. They had to make their presence felt with those kind of audiences, because they were there to see artists like Sally Rand, Ann Corio, or Gypsy Rose Lee. The fact that they went from burlesque, to radio, to motion pictures, and finally to television with their kind of slapstick humor is legendary to say the least.

Back in the 70's they would show Abbott and Costello movies on the weekends on television. 25 to thirty years after they were popular. They could be shown today and still be popular.

One of the reasons for the guy laughing so loud is that by this time most everyone had heard this skit from their radio show and TV show over the years. They always did it a little different from show to show and that shows how good they were as performers to be able to riff off of the central theme.

Abbott and Costello definitely did work on television. In the early-1950s, they were part of a team of rotating hosts of NBC’s “Colgate Comedy Hour” variety show (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis worked on shows based in New York City, while Bud Abbott and Lou Costello worked on shows based in Los Angeles, and early-20th Century comedian/singer Eddie Cantor helped to fill out the schedule when both other hosts were working on film projects or music/comedy tours). In 1951 to 1954, “The Abbott And Costello Show” was aired in syndication to a number of TV stations across the country. The scripts were setups to present their old Vaudeville stage routines, so that they would have copyrighted control over their entertainment content. They did all that, and still were making comedy films and radio show appearances. Abbott and Costello were clearly the hardest-working comedy teams of their era.

They were on the radio, in many movies and they had a TV show in the 50’s!!! As a kid they were my favorite comedy team!!!❤👌👍✌️😁

Many have tried, but no one EVER did it better.

There was an Abbott and Costello show. It started as a radio show and did eventually become a tv show. Many of the shows are still available in their entirety via iTunes and other cd purchases. Be aware, if it’s the authentic full show, it will include other acts, typically vocal acts, as well as a plethora of brief commercials and sponsors of which tobacco products are the primary advertisers, especially during the war.

It's genius material, but it's the timing that nails it. I still laugh every time.

I'm 69 y.o. ive watched this a million times and I still belly laugh

your not wrong about the dress , im from the UK, we wnet through 2 world wars, my grandfather was in world war 2, lucky enough to come home, This is how they dressed, he would not leave the house unless he had his shirt and tie on, which was the same for everyone from that era, whether they served or not, even as the got older into there 70s, still dressed the same, always slim figures, could still get into there war uniforms for special occassions, a different bread of gentlemen

You could say the Abbott & Costello of the 70's was Cheech & Chong. Their best work was in the movies Up In Smoke and the sequel Cheech & Chong's Next Movie.

Never fails to get a laugh from me. And I’ve heard it dozens of times.

Wow what a great connection to John Belushi. This was before my time slightly but I grew up with it on Saturday mornings as a child where it was just running in syndication on black and white TV in the mid-60s. I thought it was hilarious as a kid.

Costello was the comic, Abbot was the straight man who fed him the setup. The same dynamic was used by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Lewis was the comic and Martin the straight man. This dynamic comes straight from the old vaudeville stage shows.

Bud and Lou performed the "Who's on First" routine hundreds of times. This particular clip is from their 1950s TV series.

These boys is GOLD ! Im 57 & I remember these

Great reaction.. These two are the ONLY non-baseball players in the. Baseball Hall of Fame.!!!

This is absolutely classic!! Miss these two!

Vaudeville (pronounced vod-ville) described a variety show with singers, comedians, magicians, dancers, etc. There would be an emcee to introduce the acts and make jokes in between performers. Vaudeville shows were generally family friendly. It sort of died out by the 50s.

Abbott and Costello Martin and Lewis George and Gracie Burns All comic acts ... they are all great.

This isnt even the best rendition of this skit, it is iconic and hilarious.

George Carlin mentioned Abbott Costello in one of his skits

P s..at the Baseball Hall of Fame.. Who's on First..is playing on the background speakers..24 hrs a day.

I remember watching this as a child and many times since. Loved it every time. It amazes me that they because they did it all in one take and as confusing and fast as it is, I have trouble comprehending they could do it so perfectly. You mentioned Jerry Lewis, he was a great physical comic and had a funny skit with a typewriter. Just him and a typewriter, if I remember right, not even any words.... But it was amazing.

I’ve enjoyed this since the 70’s and I still crack up! ❤

Just so you know, Bud Abbott is the taller man on the right, and Lou Costello is the shorter man on the left!! The comedic timing of these two guys was absolutely on point!! These are the only two people in the Baseball Hall Of Fame that had absolutely nothing to do with baseball itself!! This comedy bit loops over and over again at the Baseball Hall Of Fame!! Neither one of them ever actively played, coached or managed even one game of baseball!! They're in the Hall Of Fame simply because of this EPIC comedy routine!!!!! LMAO

I hope you enjoy them! I loved them from when I was a kid! And from the time they started doing comedy, they never did anything raunchy or nasty. Just pure silly fun.

Abbott and Costello were an example of the classic comedy pairing - the jokester and the straight man. You mentioned John Belushi, and he and Dan Ackroyd often had a similar dynamic. Other examples from the 1940s and 1950s include Jerry Lewis (funny) and Dean Martin (straight man) and George Burns (straight man) and his wife Grace Allen, who played the ditzy blonde.

Costello was the star. Bud Abbott was the “Straight Man” and Lou was the “Funny Man” . When booking a comedy team, it was normal for the “Straight Man” to get paid more. It was considered to be a more difficult job -setting up the jokes properly takes a certain skill set.

Lou is the funny man with the best strait man ever Abbot. I haven't heard this is years... I remember my Daddy having me watch it as a kid.. I didn't get it till later in life.. but when you get this clean comedy its great.. I grew up on Eddie Murphy lol.. a little bit different. But this is classic.. who could do this now.. first base.

19:22 I love old time baseball nicknames. My Favorites are "Oil Can," Boyd and "Mudcat," Grant. Both were pitchers. Mudcat Grant played for the Minnesota Twins.

18:48 Wow, Kate Smith?. I only know of that show because I'm a big fan of Hank Williams, and his only television performances were on that show 8-9 months before he passed away on New Years night in 1953. There were uploads of the whole show with Hank Williams that I watched.

They are in the baseball hall of fame for this.

Classic comedy, it doesn't get any better! Thanks for doing the reaction!

They had The Abbott and Costello Show, very funny.

Thjs is why I dont research on the net. They had their own tv sitcom, The Abbott & Costello Show, for 2 seasons. Both seasons have been restored and released on Bluray. Of course, they are most known for the classic movie Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, where they encounter all the original Universal monsters. A must...ask anyone.

14:29 You are correct. All was not peaches and cream for the duo and there was constant bickering, but they always reconciled to put on the performance. Lou wanted to change the name of the act to Costello and Abbott, but he knew that he couldn't work without Bud Abbott.

They did have their own show. They’re all on YT.

His multiplication of 28😂❤😅

It will be played on the Opening Day of the baseball season. Vaudeville is any variety show that was performed live.

Their characters were on vintage Warner Brothers Cartoons from the 1940’s.

Yeah, I'm 32 I also LOVE the class and style of the 40's and 50's. Even appliances had their own style then. And don't get me started on the classiness of women, their dresses, hair, and makeup. Even early in the 1900's to like 1920's, everyone had style and class. You can find old footage of the streets of NY pre-1920 and every man was wearing suits and hats, and the women had their own ststyle. I'd love to bring back a 3 piece suit and hat.

Lou had to have Buds calm steady persona to playoff of with his wild silly antics,that was what made them such a great team. The fact they were able to make it from radio to TV just goes to show how professional and talented they were. Before radio the started in Vaudeville.

Loved these guys when I was a kid. Their silly movies were so much fun. Bud set them up and Lou knocked them down.

There's a similar bit in the movie "Airplane II: The Sequel," where someone in a courtroom is giving testimony and using the names Buddy, Howie, and Andy. You really should see it.

They never made a mistake .. best duo ever😊

For a good example of The Abbott & Costello show, check out the nearly 9 minute video clip "Field's Employment Agency".

8:00 I'm kinda a classic movie buff and I just started noticing handkerchiefs. The style for a handkerchief in a suit pocket from the 60's onward is a white square handkerchief with the top showing about a 1/4 of an inch.

Abbot has been called the best straight man in the business. There is only one instance I have seen where the straight man can perform on his own. That person was Bob Newhart. It is worthwhile listening to any Newhart's stand up routines.

It was reported that Lou was the comic genius of the team, and apparently wrote most of their routines; this was just about their longest scripted routine, and it didn't matter how many times they repeated it they never made a mistake.

You should see some if their movies - especially their "horror movies."

They started in Vaudeville where they met, moved on to Radio and very soon to movies, then TV .

Lou Costello was hysterically funny but he needed Bud Abbot as the straight man. As a child I would have fits of laughter watching them. What’s nice is every generation gets this and you can introduce children to these older skits and enjoy as a family ☮️ My parents were born in the 1915-16 That generation was so elegant, it wasn’t because of money because there was none, it’s just every hair in place ,clothes pressed and fitted . The photos are amazing

It’s pronounced as Vaud vill with the e in the middle silent. In america it was popular from the mid 1890’s until the 1930’s. It was a traveling group of entertainment acts that went from town to town putting on shows. They had something for everyone but traditionally the later it got in the day the less family friendly the shows got. In the evening and into the night the shows would play to mostly male audiences and were sometimes pretty wild. However it was a pretty much anything goes environment so even the early shows could get a little wild. Some of the vaudeville performers transitioned to other mediums as times changed but most of the acts didn’t transition well from sitting in front of a live audience to radio or movies.

This skit is in the baseball hall of fame

This routine is so great it sits in The Baseball Hall of fame in Cooperstown NY

They did have their own tv show. It was a weekly series called The Abbott and Costello show. I still have the DVDs for it. Just Google their show. That thing is hilarious!

They had a radio show and made movies in the 1940's and they had a TV show in the 195o's

I'm with you when it comes to non raunchy comedy. It's a relief to listen and enjoy without feeling scuzzy

Omg, yes!!!!! Can’t wait to watch this!!!!!

Yes, they had their own tv show.

I wasn’t born then but remember my dad told me about these 2 🤣! Also notice no swearing, or anything bad just plain fun

They had a long running radio show and a TV show as well as movies. Their radio show started in 1940 as a replacement show. In 1947 they also did a half hour children's show on radio along with their show and then in 1951 they started their TV show. Lou Costello's youth center was a very generous offering to the community and carried on after his death.

Comic teams usually had a “straight man” and the “fall guy”. One was more debonair who sort of set up the jokes while the other guy did the punchline. Look up “Martin and Lewis” (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) who came after Abbott and Costello - late 40s, 50s. There were others like Rowan and Martin in the 60s.