Just jump to the 5:37 minute mark (a quick preparatory scene at this time leads into the best part at 5:51). The funniest bit of Harpo ever. No joke, funniest ever. If you don't believe me then you can see for yourself, but make sure you aren't drinking any liquids or have any broken ribs. Also, be wary if you are sharpening a knife or building a card house. You will laugh and convulse. I promise. If not, you are dead. I'm not threatening you, I'm just saying that only a dead person wouldn't laugh at this scene; then again, I think even a dead person would laugh at it, so if you don't laugh you probably aren't dead, you are just a turtle. If you don't know what that means, we are even, because I don't know either. But if I find out I'll be sure to give you a call. Enjoy the comedic genius of Harpo Marx.
You gotta get in the Marx mood because I think I have a card up my sleeve for a future posting that will be insightful and entertaining. Or it will be so obvious that you will read it and think "duh." That possibility doesn't deter me though. For better and for worse. That's right, and. Furthermore...I don't remember now. Oh right, I wanted to recycle a joke. First, a bit of background info. A little more than a year ago Muffin Man introduced me to the Marx Bros. It was right before I started dating a girl who was also a fan of the Marx Bros. Muffin Man sent me clips on YouTube and I was hooked. I watched Duck Soup with the girlfriend; that being the first full movie of the brothers that I saw. About that time I declared that I was in a new phase of comedy. You see, when I happen upon a comedian or certain style I usually adopt that style a bit in my repertoire. My first phase would be called Simpsonian. Then I followed that by becoming a Seinfeldian. Many years passed before I added being a Reganist (Brian Regan, lesser known, but well worth the time to get to know him). I was still in the Regan era when I was introduced to the Marx Brothers, at which time I became a Marxist. You see, it is funny because Marxism is a real thing, but in this case I don't mean it in the way that it is typically meant. So it's funny. Just to keep things clear, I am not a Marxist, nor do I like anything like that train of thought. I believe in God and freedom. If anyone tells you Marxism, communism or socialism is OK, and you believe in God, you better read the original works of the proponents of these three ism's. I haven't, but you should. I have read some of Marx's Manifesto, and I've read about them in text books. So really I don't know what I'm talking about. But Marx said this in the introduction to a book, or something, called A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has
either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But
man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of
man—state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an
inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world.
Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its
logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral
sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and
justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the
human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion
is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma
is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of
real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless
conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the
illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call
on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to
give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is,
therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is
the halo.
Remember he is no known (to me) relation to the Marx Brothers of comedic
glory and fame. Man, this post really got away from me. Perhaps I miss the days
of paper writing at college? Sometimes yes. Which reminds me, I need to send an e-mail to a certain favorite sociology professor of mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment