who's on first

English

Alternative forms

• Who's on First
• who's-on-first

Etymology

From "Who's on First?", a comic routine from 1930s vaudeville made famous by Abbott and Costello, in which two people discussing a baseball team become confused by names such as "Who" and "What".

Noun

who's on first (plural who's on firsts)

1. A situation in which confusion arises due to homophones and similar misunderstandings.
   • 1965, Saturday Review:

     This pride of sponsorship, rather than pride of rating, seems to have been lost in the welter of decimal points and who's-on-firsts.

   • 2009 October 11, Caroline Hax, “Dad's views threaten family peace”, in Times Union:

     With that, you'll know she knows how you feel — which relieves you of the supposed-tos, the what-ifs, the what's-my-moves and the who's-on-firsts, and frees you just to see how it all turns out.

   • 2010, Antonia Everett, Cruel Beauty: Confessions of a Dominatrix, John Mendelsohn, →ISBN:

     “Goddess, Mistress. I'm sorry, Mistress.” I felt a who's-on-first moment coming on.

   • 2013, Martha P. Nochimson, David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire, University of Texas Press, →ISBN:

     But Rose interprets the remark as a statement that the girl is having a party herself, which leads to a “Who's on first?” comedy of errors.

   • 2013, Simon Pont, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, Kogan Page Publishers, →ISBN, page 64:

     This 'who's on first' conversation continued, both of us getting more and more frustrated than the other, until it hit me.

   • 2015, Steven Moore, William Gaddis: Expanded Edition, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 150:

     (The Japanese car model is a Sosumi, as we learn in a Who's on First? comic exchange; Gribble recently dealt with a case involving an Isuyu.)