Ray said:
You're too young to remember this one, but many years ago, Bud Abbott and his partner Lou Costello did a similarly hilarious bit called, "Who's on First?" about baseball.
Well, like many classic bits of Americana, if you follow film and TV, you can't avoid being aware of this bit. It would be like never having heard "Make my day." The dialogue has been referenced and used so many times. But actually I never before saw the original. Here's were YouTube proves itself invaluable once again, here it is.
Update, thanks to Steve: Who's on Stage. Quite clever, band names are confusing. "The Band doesn't play until later, right now we're listeing to Who."
8 comments:
Having grown up with one each of my "mental feet" on each side of the Atlantic, I often wonder how hard is it for Eauropeans to understand this one. Does it have to be prefaced with an explanation of baseball terms, or is this something that is naturally understood due to the pervasiveness of American culture?
Ians99
Well, I've never watched a baseball game (or any other sports game all the way through), but I know just enough about it to get it.
I think the humor though does depend on getting all the terms. Though perhaps if one knows *nothing* about it, one may be too puzzled to enjoy it much, I don't know.
Dave Barry once wrote about "why do men care so strongly about sports?" Beats me, I could never see it.
I guess trying to follow a baseball related scene is not too different from Airplanes cockpit radio dialogs with Roger, Oveur, Victor and Clarence all muddying the issue. You don't have to know much about radio or flying to get it.
Baseball is kinda like "rounders", so the base thing is kinda understood, but some of the terms muddy it up.
Roger Murdock: Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Victor Basta: Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur: What?
Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Roger, over!
Roger Murdock: What?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who?
Also the Shel Silverstein poem
"The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt"
from the book "A Light in the Attic" (1981)
Then there's Who's On Stage, from the classic cartoon series Animaniacs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39xNlnmNLf4
Eolake denigrated...
"Dave Barry once wrote about "why do men care so strongly about sports?" Beats me, I could never see it."
Well, sure, d'uh! That's because you're a woman.
A lesbian in a man's body. ;-)
Alex,
That dialogue sounds familiar (and I don't mean the technical terms!), but I can't place it exactly. And for once you forgot to mention it.
Exactlywatt was it?Hot Shots, perhaps? Flying High?
Alex Said
from Airplanes cockpit radio dialogs.
This probabably should read
from "Airplane"'s cockpit radio dialogues
If you meant
"why do men care so strongly about sports?".
I can almost imagine Rowan Atkinson in "Hot Shots! Part Deux" saying such a thing. Though his only quote at IMDb was
Dexter: You don't understand. I can't walk... they've tied my shoelaces together.
Topper Harley: A knot. Bastards!
Where Dexter is Atkinsons character, and young Mr Sheen played Topper Harley.
Talking of which. Isn't Stallone to old to be in a new Rambo movie?
Talking of which. Isn't Stallone to old to be in a new Rambo movie?
Yes, but he was too old to play Rocky again, but that didn't stop him.
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