First the copyright infringement case over use of Abbott and Costello's “Who's on First” routine in a Broadway play was dismissed by a New York federal judge. Then it rounded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but was tagged out again.

Now, in its third at bat, lawyers representing the heirs of vaudeville comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are swinging for review at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The petition for writ of certiorari filed by TCA Television Corp., Hi Neighbor and Diana Abbott Colton claims that the Second Circuit was wrong to uphold the dismissal of the case against the creators of the play “Hand to God.”“Hand to God,” authored by Robert Askins, is the story of Jason, a shy and repressed boy. Accompanied by a satanic sock puppet named Tyrone, Jason performs segments of the routine, slightly over a minute in all, to impress a girl in his very religious hometown. When Jason fibs that he made up the routine himself, the evil Tyrone calls him out on the lie.