Tom teased me about the Marx Brothers....

[jakewho]

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.

[masterofsparks]

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.

[JonFromMaplewood]

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.

[jakewho]

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? 

[masterofsparks]

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.

[Stupornaut]

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.

[dave from knoxville]

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

[dave from knoxville]

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.

[Sarah]

That would have been very funny, pet.