Today’s Tribute Video

I think that for people my age and older, the Marx Brothers were an essential part of growing up. By the time I was aware of them, they had stopped making movies and were mostly slipping into retirement or death. However, Groucho went on, quipping on You Bet Your Life and a slew of talk shows.

CBS Sunday Morning profiled Groucho a few years ago on the anniversary of his death. My favourite Groucho line wasn’t from a movie, or from TV, but from a chance encounter in a restaurant. A priest came up to him and said, “Groucho, I’d just like to thank you for bringing so much joy into the world.” Without looking up from his meal, Groucho said, “And I’d like to thank you for taking so much joy out of it.”

In this time of enforced joy around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, those of us who follow a religious path might want to think of that.

3 Responses to “Today’s Tribute Video”

  1. tim1965 says:

    When I was in my doctoral program and temping to put food in my mouth, I worked for a brief period at Citibank’s Private Bank — a bank open only by invitation, and only to the very wealthy (usually lawyers). There was this straight guy Andy who worked there, low on the totem pole. His father was a high muckety-muck in Citibank’s national private banking business, and he got his job through daddy. Anyway, Andy was very handsome and very Italian and very athletic. He grew up exceptionally wealthy and somewhat isolated from the broader culture. He knew lots of “immediate” culture stuff, since — being wealthy — he often got invited to movie star parties and receptions for the latest musician and such. But he knew nothing about anything older than five years or so.

    It was pouring rain one day, and everyone was whining about going out into it as the workday ended. Me? I said, in my best Groucho impression, “Me, I’m getting out of this wet tuxedo and into a dry martini.” I even wiggled my eyebrows and twirled a nonexistent cigar in my fingers.

    Andy laughed so hard, he fell out of his chair. He’d never heard that before. He made me repeate the joke like six or seven times. He begged me to tell him other Marx Brothers jokes, and I even sang “Hello, I must be going” for him. He couldn’t believe he’d never heard of the Marx Brothers, and thought their humor was the funniest thing ever.

    Once, I recited most of the “Africa” speech from Animal Crackers (one of my favorite films), and Andy laughed so hard he snorted soda out his nose. “Then we tried to remove the tusks, but they were so firmly embedded we couldn’t budge ’em. Of course, in Alabama the tusks ‘re looser. But that’s entirely irrelephant to what I was talking about.” Andy howled at that one, and memorized it.

  2. chrishansenhome says:

    It’s always refreshing to encounter someone who has never heard your favourite witticisms…you have a new audience to enthrall.

    Did you sing “Lydia” to him?

  3. tim1965 says:

    LOL! No…