who's on first

plural who's on firsts · alternative Who's on First · alternative who's-on-first

1. A situation in which confusion arises due to homophones and similar misunderstandings.

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

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

   5 more examples

   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.

   1965, Saturday Review

   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.

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

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

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

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

   (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.)

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