Comedy, while going for laughs, will sometimes unfairly be taken less seriously than dramas.
This is partly because dramas can be judged more whether or not they’ll hold up in the present. But since humor can evolve, it’s a little tougher to say the same for comedies. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was once a top-grossing comedy for instance.
This is why a lot of the comedies are on the list are older ones that proved they can stand the test of time. These are the ones that people can find funny in any era.
And one of the best examples of this is one of the oldest. As classic as chicken soup, but with a duck instead.
Here we are with 1933’s Duck Soup, written by Bert Kalmar and directed by Leo McCarey.
So the Marx brothers are awesome and have some of the best comedy ever. But always in these posts, I try to find the message of the movies. But does Duck Soup, which is a slew of bits formed into a movie have one?
It turns out it does. Kind of.
Since it’s a satire, the message is birthed by what it’s satirizing. All in all, the message is “politics is silly.”
Freedonia picks the worst possible person, in Firefly, to lead it. He half takes the job way too seriously and half makes a joke out of everything. He’s often foiled by two people even more unqualified than he is (Pinky and Chicolino), which leads into a war. Well a war of throwing food at each other, but it makes fun of the things that we take the most seriously today.
When asked if the movie is making fun of the current events happening in Germany, Groucho denies it. Yes, you could definitely layer what is happening onto the movie, but the most awesome thing about great satires is that it hits such universal truths that you can apply almost any time to this movie, and it works.
And I’m sure you can do that today. It’s these universal truths, like how all people have the potential to be greedy and how politics is made up of a bunch of games, hold up at anytime.
The Marx Brothers started on Vaudeville, and that is a genre of perfected comedy. Much of what they did on stage was brought specifically to this film.
Something we don’t look at as much today is treating comedic timing, bits, and wordplay to an artform. The Marx Brothers were impeccable in these aspects, and they bring this impeccability to the stage.
The mirror scene is a scene which has been parodied so many times in so many pieces of media. Part of it is because it does what it does perfectly.
I’ve written about this scene before in my article, The LOL Formula. It’s a bit that heightens perfectly and brings the audience along for the absurd ride of enjoying it for the perfection that it is.
And that’s what this movie does throughout. As mentioned before, one can look at it as a plot connected by comedic bits, but they are comedy bits made perfect.
And that’s something most comedy movies are missing today. Not to be the old man yelling at clouds, but goddamnit, some clouds are just asking for it. And many movies prioritize “cool” over “comedic perfection.”
There’s nothing about Groucho, Harpo or Chico that are trying to be cool (ok, maybe something about Zeppo is). They just are giving it their all. And contrary to popular belief, there is something cool about trying.
They refine their comedy skills to a place where it just works and resonates.
They refine the universality of their satire to a place where it just works and resonates.
Of course, it could still work today. We could have a new equivalent of the Marx Brothers come out and change the face of comedy.
Maybe not today, but until then, we do have another Marx Brothers movie on the list to cover.