FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: HaroldBlvd on September 08, 2010, 12:22:21 AM
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I was comparing Tom's need to move on or take a break to what John Lennon once said about the Beatles never going back together because he didn't want to be like the Marx Brothers in their later years just being trotted out for one unfunny picture after another. Sometimes it good to know when to walk away.
Here's a picture of me from Halloween.
(http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs086.snc3/15333_181187118400_560743400_2859760_1484648_n.jpg)
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what are you roasting cornish game hens?
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Corns, vat den?
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I was a little let down when Tom revealed that he was just kidding about the Marx Brothers - I thought I'd finally found someone reputable to back me up when I say that "Duck Soup" isn't all that great. Like, it's not terrible, but I much prefer "Animal Crackers".
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I had no idea that was you, Harold! Great call and thanks for sticking to your guns. Everything they did with Paramount was great. And after that "A Day at the Races" had its moments too.
They really are the only old-timey comedy that can still make me laugh.
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I'm more of a W.C. Fields man myself.
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I was just watching ZOTZ and Margaret Dumont was in a couple of scenes!
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This coffee gag from Horse Feathers is my favourite joke in any film,ever
Coffee & Swordfish (Marx Brothers) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWJO860qi1k#)
Short but sweet
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Harpo was brilliant. Has anyone read his autobiography?? It's inspirational and ridiculously hilarious. I would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of reading.
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Harpo was brilliant. Has anyone read his autobiography?? It's inspirational and ridiculously hilarious. I would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of reading.
Is that "Harpo Speaks?" I haven't read it, but from what I know of the Marx Brothers, he was the most level-headed of them all. While Chico was busy gambling everything away and Groucho was busy divorcing everything in sight, Harpo was raising a family and being an all-around solid dude.
I'm unapologetic fan of the Marx Brothers. Their films loomed large in my youth. Unlike Laurel & Hardy, Aboott & Costello, and many others who were on TV constantly, Marx Brothers films were only on once in a blue moon, usually on a weekend afternoon. It was such a rare event that I would get excited about it the day before. It could be 80 degrees and sunny out, but I would forgo that just to see Groucho insult Margaret Dumont only to follow it up by getting on one knee and saying to her "Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you? I LOVE you."
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I'm unapologetic fan of the Marx Brothers.
Me too - Starting from being a kid all the way to now. Never liked L&H. Liked A&C as a kid, but that may have been b/c of the cartoon and not the movies.
I think it is Harpo Speaks, a book I've been meaning to check out for years. It's on my "if I find it at a used bookstore then I'll buy it" list i have in my head. I like to think of Harpo as the Charlie Watts of the Marx Brothers. Also, Chico had a bad case of satyriasis in addition to the gambling. What a winner.
I keep hearing, in that same way that band snobs will tell you some band you like used to be way better back whenever, that the Ritz Brothers were way funnier than the Marx Bros. I don't think there were any movies available on video at the time I heard this, or they may have been hard to track down. Can anyone confirm (whether they were even funny let alone funnier than the Marx Bros)?
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Well, in The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, Andrew Sarris writes, "Look at Wheeler and Woolsey or the Ritz Brothers. They look even worse in retrospect than they did at the time." One man's opinion, but I think it's the only mention I've ever heard of the Ritz Brothers. I have a feeling those people who are telling you that are Irwin Chusid-ing you.
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Well, in The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, Andrew Sarris writes, "Look at Wheeler and Woolsey or the Ritz Brothers. They look even worse in retrospect than they did at the time." One man's opinion, but I think it's the only mention I've ever heard of the Ritz Brothers. I have a feeling those people who are telling you that are Irwin Chusid-ing you.
And I've never been a big fan of Andrew Sarris, so you see the problem! I have this heavily opinionated, hard to confirm opinion given by people who love to say polarizing shit.
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Well, there are several Ritz Brothers clips on YouTube. The ones I dipped into looked pretty feckless, but you could compile a lot of laugh-free moments from Marx Brothers movies too. Look for the one where Bela Lugosi does a kickass judo flip on one of 'em.
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Well, there are several Ritz Brothers clips on YouTube. The ones I dipped into looked pretty feckless, but you could compile a lot of laugh-free moments from Marx Brothers movies too. Look for the one where Bela Lugosi does a kickass judo flip on one of 'em.
Yeah, I think I went and found a clip or two, but I really wanted to find a movie. I haven't looked into this in some time so the landscape might be different and there's like a Ritz Bros Blu Ray box set now.
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Is that "Harpo Speaks?"
Yes! Seriously, anyone who's a fan of the Marx Brothers... read this book. I'll leave the rest to this Amazon.com commenter:
"'Harpo Speaks' is deffinitely one of the best books I have ever read by anyone, anywhere, not just among books about the Marx Brothers, but among books on any subject. Even though it was several hundreds of pages long, I wanted several hundred more pages when I got to the end. It was so totally engrosing. Harpo seems to have an almost inexhaustable supply of hilarious true stories."
Ha I promise I don't make any profits off it if you buy it. This is just my favorite book of all time.
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I'm a big Marx Brothers fan too. I've never read Harpo Speaks but, like Auntie Christina, will pick it up if I ever see it used.
I guess I'm in the minority, but I like Laurel & Hardy too. I mainly like the shorts, but I like The Music Box too. I can see why people don't like their stuff, and I do often find Stan Laurel too broad. I think Oliver Hardy is a really terrific comedian, though. He's the reason I watch.
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I guess I'm in the minority, but I like Laurel & Hardy too.
Don't get me wrong...I like all those guys. I even like some Three Stooges (the ones with Shemp especially). I just meant that the Marx Brothers were more of a big deal to me because they weren't on channel 5,9, and 11 all day like the others. And although the others were funny, I just found the Marx Brothers funnier.
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i find it really rewarding to appreciate old comedy for what it is. sad for us that it takes getting over certain cliches to enjoy it. just like the early acoustic blues and pre-war folk of the same time. those movies and those songs have been played, referenced, and mined so heavily that its hard to scrape away all the shit you heard/saw before to get back to the original. ah but once you do...
maybe thats thinking too heavily about it...
is zach galifianakis funnier than harpo?
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i find it really rewarding to appreciate old comedy for what it is. sad for us that it takes getting over certain cliches to enjoy it. just like the early acoustic blues and pre-war folk of the same time. those movies and those songs have been played, referenced, and mined so heavily that its hard to scrape away all the shit you heard/saw before to get back to the original. ah but once you do...
maybe thats thinking too heavily about it...
Well, you also have to take into account the fact that Tom (or rather Tom's character - I don't know the man in real life, so I don't know where the man ends and the character starts) is pretty hard on these old comedies whenever they come up during the show, so it's not like you're going to have a lot of listeners piping up in their defense.
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One thing my folks like to reminisce about when it comes to my childhood was the fact that I was taken to see a Marx Brothers movie (A Day at the Races?) at some revival house when I was really young -- like, 4 or 5 -- and every single time Harpo came on screen, I would just crack up uncontrollably. I get the feeling that how one develops as a child is wholly contingent on whether they are either amused by Harpo Marx or terrified by him.
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I guess I'm in the minority, but I like Laurel & Hardy too.
Don't get me wrong...I like all those guys. I even like some Three Stooges (the ones with Shemp especially). I just meant that the Marx Brothers were more of a big deal to me because they weren't on channel 5,9, and 11 all day like the others. And although the others were funny, I just found the Marx Brothers funnier.
That's because the Marx Brothers WERE funnier
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I guess I'm in the minority, but I like Laurel & Hardy too.
Don't get me wrong...I like all those guys. I even like some Three Stooges (the ones with Shemp especially). I just meant that the Marx Brothers were more of a big deal to me because they weren't on channel 5,9, and 11 all day like the others. And although the others were funny, I just found the Marx Brothers funnier.
That's because the Marx Brothers WERE funnier
Geez, after the fact, that sounds like a completely unnecessary and inessential addition to the discussion. I feel all gross, like I should have added ", pet" to the end of it.
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That would have been very funny, pet.