I grew up seeing the 3 stooges played on Saturday evening late night movies. They'd whine, and make weird sounds, and punch either other with increasingly dangerous objects. I never even cracked a smile. Never got it. Jim Carey carried on their legacy. Although I got a chuckle or two from bits of Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura did nothing for me.
Luckily, I discoverd the Marx Brothers. This was humor. Not brainless slapstick (although they have that too) but clever, thinking mans, make you laugh again and again, old-time humor. This was humor as science. They actually would take their movies on the road and perform them on stage before setting it to film to see where the best laughs were and how to improve them. Groucho's insults, Chico's scams, Harpo's pantomines, and Zeppo's... well Zeppo. They still can't be beat. If you watch the movies now you'll find yourself saying, "Seen it all before." That's because they did it first and have been imitated ever since.
Today TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is playing 11 of the Marx Brothers movies back to back from 8:30am-2:30am with the best one's, Night at the Opera and Duck Soup, in prime time. I've cleared my TIVO I suggest you do the same. Hopefully, when you're done the title of my blog will make sense.
1 comment:
What I think is weird is how all of the Marx Bros were named after seals.
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