Abbott and Costello?

I didn't know they were famous during the period (and in the 'worldl' of the Saiyuki guys... O_O, Or was Spectre Anime taking a few translatory (?!!!?) liberties?

'Abbot and Costello' is the nearest equivalent to the Japanese-style 'Manzai' comedy routine. IIRC, in I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs', the translators also used a reference to 'Abbot and Costello' as an explanation for a Manzai comedy exchange between two characters (In English, it turned into a rendition of 'Who's On First'.

Dare wa firsto in iru? Iie dare wa second desu? Nani? Ah ha ha ha. Whew. *wipes brow*

Ah, thanks! It just came out of left field (why? ^_^) when it popped up there.

*nod* While the American visuals are a fat guy & a skinny guy, both routines essentially boil down to one member mentioning something stupid and gets corrected by the realtively smarter guy.

It loses something in the translation, doesn't it.

Yes they should do it in Engrish which would be 10 times as funny.

Does 'Manzai' comedy have relation to 'Boke-tsukkomi' comedy? I've seen the latter come up several times, esp. in Azumanga, and sometimes thought Abbot & Costello sounded like a Boke-Tsukkomi team.

Piin-pon!

'Tsukkomi' corresponds to 'Straight Man' while 'Boke' is the 'Comic'.