The Golden Age of Radio isn’t identified for that includes too many soiled jokes, in all probability as a result of Jack Benny by no means dropped any F-bombs and Flash Gordon resisted the urge to recite obscene limericks about residents of Nantucket. However one iconic comic made an impressively obscene quip throughout a well-liked recreation present – in line with legend, no less than.
The story goes that the good Groucho Marx, throughout a 1947 episode of the radio model of his well-liked quiz program You Wager Your Life, interviewed a feminine contestant with numerous youngsters (the precise quantity varies relying on the telling). When Groucho requested how she got here to have so many kids, she responded, “I really like my husband.” To which Groucho fired again: “I really like my cigar, however I take it out as soon as and some time.”
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A number of sources counsel that the anecdote is real, together with Groucho: The Life and Occasions of Julius Henry Marx, which notes that the present’s director, Robert Dwan, thought that the road was “too bawdy and excised it.” And the stage play Groucho: A Life in Revue, co-written by Groucho’s son Arthur Marx, contains a model of the joke.
As Snopes identified, the story is recounted within the guide The Secret Phrase Is Groucho, which was credited to the comic, however ghostwritten by collaborator Hector Arce. Within the guide “Groucho” remembers how he made the joke whereas chatting with a girl named “Mrs. Story.” Though, on this telling, the punchline was, “I really like my cigar too, however I take it out of my mouth every so often,” which sort of ruins your entire level of the joke.
This declare was later backed by Steve Stoliar in his terrific guide Raised Eyebrows, which chronicles the time he spent as Groucho’s private secretary within the Nineteen Seventies. Stoliar recalled that You Wager Your Life’s head author Bernie Smith particularly instructed him that the joke was made whereas Groucho was talking with an indication painter named Mr. Story and his spouse, and that they hailed from Bakersfield, California.
The total episode was ultimately tracked down — though it aired in 1950, not ‘47. And it accommodates no ribald humor, which aligns with claims that the offending joke was minimize from the published.
So it undoubtedly occurred, proper?
Yeah, not so quick.
There are a number of main issues with this story. For starters, Groucho himself denied ever making the joke throughout an interview with Roger Ebert. “I get credit score on a regular basis for issues I by no means stated,” Marx instructed the critic in 1972. And Groucho was by no means one to go up the chance to take credit score for his outdated one-liners.
And Dwan, who supposedly minimize the joke out of the published, additionally had no reminiscence of the incident, however was later satisfied by Bernie Smith that it was true. In order that’s two cases during which Smith was the first supply for this anecdote. And it appears solely potential that Smith might have been the supply for the story in The Secret Phrase Is Groucho too, contemplating that he was interviewed for the guide. Probably ghostwriter Arce realized of the joke from Smith, then rewrote the story to learn as if Groucho himself was describing the occasion.
So the place did the joke really come from?
Smith was considered one of a number of writers who labored for You Wager Your Life, prepping Groucho’s obvious ad-libs primarily based on pre-interviews with contestants. Because the hosts of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast theorized, the joke very simply might have been one thing that was kicked across the writers’ room previous to the recording, however then finally scrapped. That might clarify why Smith remembered the joke being instructed to Mr. and Mrs. Story, however no one else appeared to.
Additionally, if it had really been recorded then minimize out, there would nonetheless doubtless be proof of it, as a result of You Wager Your Life commonly saved any offensive content material that didn’t make the published and edited it collectively to entertain the sponsors.
However there are not any recordings of the cigar joke wherever, aside from an apparent pretend that was included on a novelty blooper album.
Lengthy story brief: It positive looks like Groucho by no means really instructed the cigar joke, regardless of what this retro deepfake would have you ever imagine.
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