Episode 75 - Duck Soup (Woo Hoo! 75 episodes)

  MIDDLE AGE MOVIE REVIEWS
EPISODE 75 - Duck Soup
(Woo Hoo 75 Episodes)






Hot Dog!  75 episodes of regular reviewing. What better way to mark the milestone than to review the 75th film on the list of 1001 movies to watch before you die.   So the guys have come together to discuss the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup.  Directed by Leo McCarey, starring all four Marx Brothers.  
The guys talk about the first time they viewed this film and wouldn't you know it they all agree that this is the first time. So here they go looking at it with modern fresh eyes. The guys talk about the similarities with the classic Looney Toons and 40's cartoons. 

Matt channels a 1930's film reel to give us the synopsis like a war correspondent on a news report. Joey holds his tongue over some of the film, but does point out the political satire that really hasn't aged in this film or within society. 

Tim talks a little about the infamous mirror gag in the film and how each of the Marx Brothers had to know everyone's lines and performances in the movie. 


Find out this and more in this episode of Middle Age Movie Reviews.  



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Death Clock - Death Clock 2,800 hours of movies
Is it worth taking the time to tick off your Death Clock?  



1 hour and 09 min


Tim:  YES one and done

        Tim's Remaining Death Clock (2,718 hours and 29 Min)    
        Matt:  NO


       Matt's Remaining Death Clock (2,701 hours and 19 Min) 
        Joey: NO

                 Joey's Remaining Death Clock (2,726 hours and 54 Min)




                 Rick: YES but only as a maybe
                    Rick's Remaining Death Clock (2,767 hours and 25 Min)





 





 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Electronic Media Collective podcast network. Yeah,
it's a mouthful. For more great shows like the one
you're about to enjoy, visit Electronicmedia Collective dot com and
now our feature presentation.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, Welcome to the Middle Aged Movies Podcast. Four guys saying,
calling on listeners, Calling on listeners. This is ma'am, This
is the Middle Aged Movie is coming to you through
the courtesy of the web.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Where the mess. Folks.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
We're in a mess. Rush to Freedonia. Four men and
one woman are trapped in a building. Send help at once.
If you can't send help, send three more women.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
My name is Tim.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
My podcasting partners are Minister Matt Joey.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
And does your master Rick coming at you?

Speaker 3 (00:54):
All right?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Joey, why don't you tell us what we're watching in
the movie house tonight?

Speaker 6 (00:58):
Tonight we are watching the ninth thirty three movie Duck Soup,
number seventy five, from the Book of one thousand and
one Movies You Should Watch Before You Die, Written by
Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Arthur Sheikman, directed by Leo
McCarey and starring Raucho, Marx, Harpomrx Chico Marx and Zuppo Marx.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Well, thanks Joey. Okay, gents, here we are at episode
seventy five of our podcast, and we're looking at the
seventy fifth film from this book of one thousand and
one movies you should watch before you die, So, Joey,
before you step away from that microphone, when was the
first time you watched this film Duck Soup tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:41):
I think I've seen parts of it here, there, and
everywhere throughout my life, but I can't remember sitting through
the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well, you know, for me, a lot of the Marx
Brothers movies tend to run parallel with the Three Stooges,
and they all kind of like run together in a
mass memory for me. So, like you, I too, watched
this the first time going into this film, How about you, Tim,
Is this the first time watched for you? Or have
you seen this before? No?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Actually, not only is this my first time watched, but
this is my first Marx Brothers movie. I've watched Lauren Hardy,
I've watched Abot Costello, I have watched the Three Stooges,
a lot of comedians from that era, but I've never
watched anything with the Marx brothers at all. In fact,
I think my only association with them is probably Alan
All this reenactment of Graucho Marx in Mash.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
Yeah, I can totally see that, because I mean, he
did a great job in Mash to channel Grautchual Marx
as Hawkeye. How about you, Rick, when was the first
time you watched this movie?

Speaker 5 (02:34):
So the first time that I've seen this one was yesterday. Actually,
I think, much like Joey, I'm pretty confident that I've
probably seen some of the bits and pieces here and there,
because a few things looked kind of familiar, like the
Peanuts stand. I mean, it's possible that maybe some of

(02:54):
those scenes are a bit ubiquitous in other films or
TV shows. And it seems like there's a number of
gags that you'd see in other films, especially in things
like Looney Tunes and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Nice four sets of eyes fresh to this film, And
you know you did mention something there, Rick that I
definitely want to follow up on. You know, a lot
of the jokes did seem very much like Looney Tunes
to me as well. In fact, I'm pretty sure that
there's been times in the classic Looney Tunes that you've
seen impersonations of Groucho Marx as well as Harpo Yep.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I believe the big one is bugs Bunny tends to
channel Groucho a lot, and this means war line that
comes from this movie is one of the ones I
de fittively remember hearing in a Looney Tunes show and
now associate that it comes from the Marx brothers in
this movie in particular.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah right, yeah, Okay, Tim, Well, as our commander in
chief of Fredonia, what would you like to hear for
a synopsis?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, Matthew, tonight, I would like you to read the
synopsis as an excited radio news reporter breaking a major
news story in nineteen three three.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Okay, let's see if I can do my best here.
We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin. A
report from the United Press states that for Donia, which
has been teetering on the verge of financial ruin, has
ousted its current leader at the behest of a wealthy socialite,
Miss Teesdale, who agreed to provide the small country a
twenty million dollars bailout, instigated the change of the leadership

(04:22):
in Fredonia by forcing the Cabinet to appoint rufus T
Firefly as the new leader. This move by Miss Teesdale
has increased tension between Fredonia and neighboring Sylvania, as the
well documented love affair between the widowed Miss Teesdale and
Sylvania's ambassador Trentino seems to have ended with her endorsement
of the current interest rufus T Firefly. International gossip columns

(04:43):
are a blaze with the latest love triangle as the
fate of Fredonia and Sylvania hang in the balance, slowly
inching their way towards war.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Very nicely done, a very nicely done.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Trying to go for the clone wars kind of sound.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, I can hear it. Hey, where's the
applause at what happened?

Speaker 4 (05:04):
I will add it in post.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yay, the crowd's going wild out there, you get it?

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Sound like a viper's missing at him.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Boo boo, I was saying, booharnsh all right.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
So uh we open up with the country of Fredonia.
A wealthy socialite, Miss Teesdale, played by the lovely Margaret Dumont,
agrees to give the small country a some of twenty
million dollars in order to save it from bankruptcy provided
that rufus Tea Firefly is appointed the new leader. During

(05:49):
the inaugural ceremony, Firefly courts the widow, Miss Teesdale, and
insults her friend Trentino, the scoundrelly ambassador of the neighboring
country of Sylvania. Fly then sings out that if Fredonia
thinks that their country is bad off, now just wait
till he gets through with it. All right, guys, So
the intro is I guess you'd say a classic Marx

(06:10):
Brothers movie. I've seen a lot of parallels with this
intro and the only other Marx Brothers movie I've seen,
which was A Day at the Races where the socialite
ends up coming in and requesting that Groucho Marx's character
take control of everything. Would you guys think of this
nineteen thirties intro?

Speaker 6 (06:27):
I didn't know what to think. Kind of just threw
us into a situation. The introduction of Firefly. I don't know,
just it didn't do it for me.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, you know, I do have to agree with you.
It's like you're thrown into this. It's like you're expected
to know that there's some kind of relationship between Teesdale
and firefly right off the bat, or at least I got.
That's the impression that I got going into this movie.
And it does feel very like, let's just three in
the middle of something and not really explain any of
the plot right off the bat. What about you, Tim,
what'd you think of this intro to a Marx Brothers movie.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
I don't think it's so much of an intro to
a Marx Brothers movie as it is to just movies
as a whole for that time period. I mean this
very much shows that they're writing movies as if they're
in vaudeville or theater. The performance starts, you get right
in there, very short presentation of what's happening, and you

(07:19):
get straight into the story. And I think that's even
more emphasized because we get a quick introduction to what's happening,
a flash.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Of the newspaper.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Then we're shown that they're about to inaugurate the new
leader and he shows up and they go straight into
a singing number, which I wasn't expecting. I wasn't expecting
us to have musical numbers, and I don't know why
I didn't expect this, because it's a very early film,
but almost all those early films still had basically show
tunes in them, and this was no exception. Again, I

(07:48):
think this is a golden example of things that we
talked about with early films being very much still written
and produced as if it was going to be in
a theater or a vaudevie setting.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, you definitely hit it with the whole Vaudeville things.
I mean, because the Marx Brothers they come from a
vaudeville background. You could see the significant influence in the
thought process in this movie. What about you, Rick, what'd
you think of this vaudeville interpretation of two countries in
the middle of the nineteen thirties.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
I thought it was interesting the way that it opened up,
And I do have a thing for the way that
people used to speak back in the thirties. I actually
really do love it, especially the haughty, aristocratic kind of
tones that are used. I really really love that stuff,

(08:37):
Especially when I see people in the more modern era
have characters that speak like this. I love it. I
absolutely love it. And honestly, when I was watching all
this stuff roll out, it just reminded me of the
nineteen thirty nine version of Wizard of Oz, Like I
was just like, Oh my goodness, man, we're muschkin Land

(08:58):
over here. The way that they're saying this stuff. I
was like, yes, this is kind of cool, you know.
And I also haven't seen any Groucho Marks films up
until this point. I thought it was interesting. Imagine it
probably is a thing that he does. But there were
a handful of occasions when he actually broke the fourth wall.

(09:20):
He doesn't go like really in depth, but you see
him look into the camera and like making a joke
just for you. Yeah, no one else gets it, just
you the audience.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
I think that still stems back again to the wild
build days. Just like when he was on stage, he's
kind of talking to the audience members, making it feel
like he's talking to you specifically.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
So I think you hit it perfectly.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yes. The one thing that I kind of felt like
a little often in watching this it might be because
I'm viewing it from today's standards, because again, we're gonna
go into the whole this movie the snapshot of that time,
but now that movies more have plot and care development
and character introductions, I feel like we're just slapped in

(10:03):
the face with Groucho and it's like right off the bat,
he's like slapping us with jokes left and right. From
my point of view, that kind of like throws me
off a little bit. But now that you know, we've
talked about it, and I kind of see that. Okay, Yeah,
it's definitely from that Vauville background.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I think it's somewhat of a comedian playing inside the
role of a play. I kind of analyze that a
little bit. Groucho is just rapid fire joke. Do dook
duk duk duk dok? Yeah, And as I looked at it,
I thought, here's the line they wrote, Here's another line
they wrote, Here's another line they wrote. And I think
he's just jamming stuff in between. Sometimes the jokes almost

(10:41):
don't lend to what the dialogue saying. They work, but
in the strangest way possible. And I think that's just
a comedian trying to fit in as many jokes to
fit inside the parameter of the written script.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah. What about you, Joey, what was your thoughts on
the introduction of Firefly? What do you think of Groucho Marx?

Speaker 6 (11:00):
Uh, It's what might have been innovative at that time
has become like some kind of untimey cliche. Now, there's obviously,
like throughout the film that you see its influence on animation,
like playing soldier's helmets like a xylophone and stuff like
that that's straight out of a cartoon. And I'd say some

(11:20):
of that I retain an appreciation for it because it's
like I'm seeing this live action version of, you know,
a cartoon essentially, But other parts it's just, oh, this
would work better in a cartoon, And I'm taken out
of the movie completely, partly because the other characters they're
not reacting to him. It's almost like that's invisible to them,
and I don't like that. I like it better when

(11:41):
we see a version of this in movies like The
Naked Gun, where Frank Drevin is playing it straight and
he's saying ridiculous things, and sometimes it's a play on words,
or he's saying something out of stupidity. He's not intentionally
telling jokes, and then people are reacting to that. Here
where it's like, unless it's like a physical comedy joke,
we don't even really get a reaction. They're kind of
talking around it. I don't know, I find it all annoying.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
Gotcha I think you've got what I felt going into
this movie was the fact that he's a cartoon character
acting in a real environment. So I get you on that,
but we at least have an interesting plot in the
fact that Tarento, the Sylvanian Ambassador, is scheming with a
seductress Latina singer Vera Marcala, telling her to keep Firefly

(12:28):
out of the way while he tries to win Miss
Teesdale's hand in marriage. Torentino also hires a hot dog
and peanut vender Chicolini and Fireflies goofy but mute chauffeur Pinky.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
To spy on Firefly.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
However, both Chicolini and Pinky deal with an unfriendly lemonade
vendor who thinks that Chicolin's peanuts stand is taking away
his business. Honestly, I think this is where you kind
of see more of the humor of Harpo Marx and
you get more of his cartoony physical Joe as well.
So what did you guys think of the introduction of

(13:03):
Chico and Harpo here? I'll go to you first, Rick,
what was your thoughts on Chico and Harpo?

Speaker 5 (13:08):
I mean, I totally understand what Joey is saying, there
were times when I was just like, bro, enough of this.
You know, they just kept going on and on and
on with the same stupid joke, And honestly, there was
a point where I was just like, what the fuck
am I watching it? You know what I'm saying. But

(13:29):
there's a movie that came out probably what a decade ago,
a little more than a decade ago. You guys probably
all heard about it. Maybe you've seen it. It's called
Napoleon Dynamite. Yeah, when I watched it, I was like,
this is the stupidest fucking movie that I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
I felt the same way Rick I occur.

Speaker 5 (13:51):
And then I was trying to show my son that
first scene where he sticks that stupid army figure on
a rope out the back of the bus or something
and it's like dragging on the ground or whatever. And
this is right after I finished watching it. Okay, right
after I finished watching it, and I was like trying

(14:12):
to show my son, and I was like kind of
laughing about it. And I've never ever had this happen
in my entire life. But I ended up after that
scene watching the whole stupid movie again, this time laughing
my entire ass off. The first time, I thought it
was the dumbest thing ever. The second time I thought

(14:32):
it was the funniest thing ever. Didn't make any sense
at all, but it kind of reminded me of that.
So it kind of gives me thinking, maybe if I
was watching this one hundred years ago, that would have
been the funny thing, and these slapstick comedy skits played
over and over again would eventually kind of actually stick

(14:52):
and land.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Gotcha.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
So I almost wonder if I watched it again, would
I actually laugh to some of the stuff that was
happening in like, because I'm thinking about it, and I'm
thinking about how the dude kept getting kicked in the
butt and it kept burning his hat and it kept
slapping those peanuts out of his hands and stuff, and
I'm like, that is kind of funny. But when I
was watching it, I'm like, this is so dumb, right,

(15:16):
So I think I kind of get it. At first,
it really seemed very surface level, Like everything in this
whole film, it's not deep, the jokes that are supposed
to land immediately without really thinking about it.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Yeah, I didn't see that. This movie is definitely surface
level and maybe that's just because, as Tim had pointed out,
you know, everyone's used to seeing Vaudeville, and that's all
Baudville was just surface level stuff, you know, joke after joke,
not a whole lot of thought provoking storylines. So well,
what about you, Tim.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
I got a question kind of where you're at a
little bit with that. Let's go back. We brought up
the Three Stooges, and we brought up a little on Hardy.
How do you guys feel about them?

Speaker 5 (15:56):
Well?

Speaker 4 (15:56):
I like the Stooges. Maybe it's because I've seen them
so much that I know what I'm walking into. Three
guys that just get into a situation and they're constantly
battling with each other, and that's what the jokes about,
is them getting hurt slapstick literally.

Speaker 5 (16:08):
Yes, I thought those were surface level and don Mal's
but did you.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Like them or did you find them just to be
completely stupid?

Speaker 5 (16:16):
I'll be honest, man, I don't really got into it
too much.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Okay, all right, fair enough.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
So I asked that because I think we might not
be completely fair to these characters, because those movies are
just as dumb, and what the characters are doing are
at the same level, except when you put the Marx
brothers out there, now you've probably got a family of
completely add people at high octape. Each of them kind
of has their own stick in this movie for sure,

(16:42):
and it lines up with some of the people we know.
I mean, we've got Harpo Marx, he's silent, Bob who
was Charlie Chaplin. You've got Graucho who's just rapid firing
jokes all the time, and you got Chico who's kind
of a stereotype. We've had that before. But you know,
how is that different than they Aceventura? Except you know,
now you just got one guy instead of four of

(17:03):
them doing it. So we've got comedies that are still
kind of doing the same thing today that we love
and find super funny. He said, we got four of
them in this movie. I mean, these guys even back then,
they were a handful. The director of this movie initially
didn't want to do it, and there were even contract
rioters for Paramount that were really eager willing to want
to work with them, got hired, and within weeks just

(17:26):
disappeared because they were just like, we simply do not
have to stand I'm going to keep up with these guys,
because these guys are just rapid fire, you know, one
joke after another, always thinking, always creating, always moving forward. Again,
I think they were all probably a little add and
thank god they didn't have red Bull because can you
imagine what they'd be like on some major caffeine. But
these guys were really moving all the time and just

(17:48):
really keeping things interesting. So I think they brought a
lot of energy to it, especially to these early films,
and they were just trying to again do what you
in stage. You've got an hour show. We got a
jam as much fun into this as we can, So
I think you got to kind of take that into
consideration where now today we have again let's go back
to a sventure. We got a two hour PEC detective

(18:10):
movie where he's doing a lot of this, but it
spread out a little bit more with a much more
solidly written story. Right, But I still don't think it's
any different. I'm gonna put it right up there with
him coming out of that rhinos ass and a spenture too.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
That was the funniest thing I ever seen in my
entire life. Bro.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
I cry every time I see it. But it's just
a stupid and ignorant, and some of the faces he
makes and some of the jokes that he throws out.
It's no different than where Grouts's doing, except he's doing
one line Grouchers every three to four, right.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
Yeah, And just to reiterate what I said, while I
thought it was super dumb, I do have a lingering
suspicion that this is a not one time watch type
of thing. This is something I think that to fully appreciate,
I think it's something you gotta watch multiple times, because
like each time when those jokes land, I think it
just lands harder.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Interesting. How about you, Joe, You've been pretty quiet.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
It seems comparison to modern films. Well, technically they did
do this many decades later Brain Donors in nineteen ninety two.
We have John Taturo playing the Groucho Marx part Harpo's
Bob Nelson, who I've never seen in anything other than
Brain Donors. And then we've got Mel Smith kind of

(19:23):
playing I guess Chiko. I don't even say that because
I think this guy's British, but he's kind of doing
his own version of a Marx brother. So it's very
obviously doing their version of the Marx Brothers, and they
are actually literally recreating two movies loosely, A Night at
the Opera and The Day at the Races, two of

(19:44):
the first films the Marx Brothers made for MGM after
leaving Paramount. So that's my real first Marx Brothers movie.
It wasn't the Marx Brothers. It was Brain Donors, and
I do recall liking it, right, but I don't remember
anybody really going got go over that. The thing you
got to remember what the Stooges was. Most of those

(20:04):
were short, so to be fair, I like the Stooges better,
but a lot of those gimmicks. I think it works
better when the premise is thin and it doesn't go
very long. This goes pretty long, and it's not even
a feature length film by today's standards, right.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
So less it's more in your opinion on this, Oh yeah,
it works better.

Speaker 6 (20:26):
There's a lot of people who really adore the Marx Brothers,
and I'm not one.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Of those people, gotcha, gotcha. I think the Marx Brothers
falls into that rule of three thing, where you know,
if you tell a joke three times, it's funny, and
I think that's what they were trying to go for
it probably would have landed better with shorter segments. So
but speaking of the story, let's go ahead take a
look where we're at with our character. So Firefly presides

(20:54):
over his cabinet. He refuses to discuss taxes or anything
else that has to do with the government. He reduces
workers hours by shortening their lunch breaks against the protest. Next,
Firefly hires Chicolini to be his secretary of war, believing
he will annoy the rest of the cabinet. Firefly and
his personal secretary, Bob Roland aka Zippo Marks, decide that

(21:16):
they want to start a war with Sylvania by causing
a personal feud with Trentino.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Which I thought that was an instine premise.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
You know, it's like chaos incarnate, and he decides that,
you know what, let's just throw a war in here.
So what do you think of the whole war premise, Rick.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
I guess as part of the story. I think it's
more about the process than the end result, you know
what I mean. Yeah, the whole thing about upstart follow
them a number of things, but it was you can't
call me an upstart. They take offense to the most
trivial things and they threw in the whole I'm gonna
take my glove and slap you because it's war right here. Okay,

(21:54):
you offended me, you know. And I think it's just
like a knob towards the rich class. I think in general,
I mean, Groucho was this seemingly more average show type
of character that is able to masquerade in and amongst
the aristocrats. Even though he was so dumb, he was

(22:17):
able to say these really quick witted things that only
the audience can get. And the rich folk is just
completely oblivious to these jokes that he says, some of
which are extremely unappropriate, but the still, you know, I mean,
that's I think the allure here, And it's less about

(22:37):
potential for war between Fredonia and Sylvania and just more
about the process of how it could potentially evolve into
that which does, and how the jokes can actually land
because of it.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, I definitely agree. It's definitely more about the jokes
and less about the whole war itself or or the
cause of it.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
I do like the very comical Tony's slapping a face
with the glove to incite a fence, what about you,
tim The whole.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
War premise is just weird.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
I don't know why anybody will want to catapult the
whole country into war for their own self amusement, but
I mean, sure, why not. It's as good a premise
as any I did enjoy. As Rick point on, it's
like these rich aristocrat people are oblivious, but I don't
think they're really oblivious to the things that he says.
He's in charge. He's the man, he's the president, the chancellor,

(23:27):
or whatever you want to call him.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
But he's in charge of the country.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
So they're not wanting to go up against him and
now that, but he has the backing of the one
person that's keeping the country afloat, which is missus Teesdale,
So they don't want to rock that boat. So they
let him be just as eccentric as he wants to
be because they have no other choice but to do so. Now,

(23:51):
on the other hand, we got Ambassador Trentino who also
wants to start a war, but he has purpose. It
makes sense because he wants to basically annex the country
and make it part of his country, So that makes
sense as far as the plot goes. Like I said,
it's very interesting premise.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yeah, Joey, what did you think of the premise of
this war unfolding.

Speaker 6 (24:15):
You're asking me, what did I think of the thin premise? Well,
we have to have a conflict, so I think I
don't have a whole lot to say about it. The
satires aged, well, sometimes we have leaders that make poor
choices and they're surrounded by yes people who aren't speaking up.
I think that's something that's been going on for a
long time, because this movie's very old. Yes, I do

(24:37):
kind of appreciate that part with Groucho. However, I never
really understand why the risk did that he be in
stated this ruler of Fredonia.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
I think she's infatuated with them.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
Okay, for reasons unknown.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
It is funny how satire has always been around in politics.
You know, this is nineteen thirty three, so this is
just before World War Two. So there's a lot of
sub text in this movie that you really don't pick
up on. And I think it's just funny to be
the background piece or the set piece for this movie.
And it does make one think about the way that
the world works. We're always running into something like this.

(25:12):
It does split up a mirror to the world and
make you kind of laugh at everything. Because it's such
a foscical, crazy idea that this guy of Graucho Marx
can run a small country like this all on the
whim of some financial backer named Missus Teesdale. And it
all comes down to just money for this character. And
like Tim said, Silvania, it definitely has a good idea

(25:33):
of taking over Fredonia, because I mean, who doesn't want
more land? As explained by Lex luthorp from Superman, it is.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
Edgy, though, you gotta think I mean they're making fun
of war.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
Yeah, I think there's a couple of.

Speaker 6 (25:45):
Things that the Stooges do. Bits were like they're in
the army. I don't think they are actually a war.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
I think there's a couple of shorts where Mo pretends
to be Adolf Hitler. Am I wrong in that?

Speaker 6 (25:55):
Yeah, you're right, there is mos as Adolf.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
So yeah, even the Stooges did it. It's a comedy trope,
I guess.

Speaker 6 (26:04):
But again there's no battles per se.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Right.

Speaker 6 (26:07):
I would say that this was probably pushed to the
envelope for innuendo and for you know, criticism of the government. Yeah,
I do appreciate the influence on cartoons. I appreciate it's
edgy dius. I guess they were the edge lords of
their time, but times change and sense of the humors change.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Right. The last thing that I really wanted to kind
of key in as what you said the innuendo stuff,
and I think the biggest innuendo in this entire movie
it made me pause for a few minutes and kind
of laugh, was the Harpo Marx portion of the movie
where he's riding around in a very Paul Rever esque
montage writing the word that Sylvania is attacking, and he
keeps going to these women's houses, and like you get

(26:50):
the impression that he's going to be sleeping with these women.
And I think the craziest one was when he walks
with his horse into the house and then you see
a shot of the woman's shoes, then Harpo's shoes and
in horseshoes, and I'm like, that is just crazy.

Speaker 6 (27:03):
Yeah, I don't think they were implying he's fucking the horse.
I think they literally took your idea of how naughty
it was, and then they cute seed it up a
bit that he's going night night with a horse.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Right, which is something you'd see in like a Bugs
bunny cartoon.

Speaker 6 (27:16):
Yes, although I think that would be a red and
stimpy cartoon. When we rear this, we're gonna have to
take this part out with the wiener and the melting marshmallow.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
Well back to the main storyline though. So Vera is
a guest at Miss Teesdale's house. That same evening, she
phones Tarento and tells him about her situation and that
Firefly is there with Fredonia's war plans for Sylvania. Tarento
sends Chicolini and Pinky to the house to steal the
war plans, and Chicolini locks Firefly in his bathroom and

(27:53):
dresses up like him with eyeglasses and a fake thick
grease paint mustache and eyebrows. Pinky also dresses up as
Firefly as well, and they both try to fool Miss
Teesdale into giving them the war plans. Firefly manages to
break out of his bathroom and attempts to find the
men impersonating him. In a famous sequence, Pinky breaks a

(28:13):
large mirror and mimics Firefly's movement in what is later
known as the Mirror sequence. Firefly is fooled for a
time into thinking that his lookalike is his reflection until
Chicolini shows up and Firefly captures him while Pinky flees. Now,
when Pinky breaks the mirror, I just happened to notice that, Hey,
they kind of sped the film up a little bit.

(28:35):
I thought that was kind of clever, but it also
kind of threw me out of it a bit. What
did you guys think of this mirror sequence? Now, I'll
go to you first.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Tim Now, this is a sequence I think is most
known from this movie. This is not the first time
we've seen this. It definitely ain't from an old law
of the lack, and it wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
As far as what I researched.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
It was actually another person who did it, and they
just kind of took it to their own. And this
isn't going to be the last time we're going to
see it. I mean, this mirror gag thing we're going
to see in movies for decades to come. But I
think the thing that sets this one apart is that normally,
when you see a mere sequence, you get twenty thirty
seconds of it. This mear sequence goes on. I timed

(29:16):
it for almost three full minutes. I mean, that's pretty impressive.
Yeh add to that it only took them two hours
to film the entire thing.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, I mean that's pretty impressive that they were able
to pull that off in that amount of time. That's
how locked these guys were with the things that they did.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah, I definitely agree.

Speaker 6 (29:36):
The bits are much more impressive. You were watching it
on a stage to see the timing is much more
impressive when it's live, like if you're watching Dinner Theater
or something like that. To watch it just recorded, it
takes a lot of the magic out of it because
you can do as many takes as you want if
you fuck up right. The gag inspired other things that

(29:56):
have nothing to do with comedy and Terminator too. You
got Linda Hamilton's sister operating on actual Arnold, and then
you get the dummy in the foreground with Lynda Hamilton
and they're pulling the chip out of the dummy's head.
And then most recently, I think I saw it was
one of the mission impossible movies. They were putting the
so called prosthetic face onto the other character. And then

(30:20):
really they have like Tom Cruise is on the opposite
side of the mirror and their doubles are the foreground
or on one side of the mirror and stuff. And
I think this inspired gags that weren't funny gags. They
were effects gags. But with the whole thick mirror thing.
We didn't know that we were watching the mirror gag,
but we.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
Were, well, shoot even and I love Lucy. There was
a one where he's in it. Yeah, and he and
Lucy do the mirror gag, which I thought was kind
of neat. How about you, Rick, would you think of
the mirror gag?

Speaker 5 (30:47):
Yeah? I thought this was probably one of the cooler parts,
probably the coolest part. Like what everyone else said, I
do remember seeing this multiple other occasions throughout TV and
cinema history, and I think that is impressive. Although I
will say that I was like, okay, you know when

(31:08):
they walked through the proverbial mirror to the other side,
it's like, come on, but it's part of a joke.
It's part of the joke. It makes it part of
the joke, right.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
I think I actually enjoyed that even more because normally
you don't get that. Normally, mirror gag ends when somebody
realizes it's not a real mirror and they grabbed the person,
and I thought it was clever that they did that
whole walking around thing and they kept it going because
they're like, okay, well that's normal, right, right.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
So I enjoyed that the most.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
Yeah, it's that over the top stuff that we appreciated
when we were younger watching Looney Tunes. It's like I
just ran off the cliff and now I'm standing in
mid air. I'm not falling until I look down and
realize I'm not on ground anymore. Right, That's one of
those things.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
So since this was the first time we all seen
this and we were kind of familiar with the mirror gag,
when you saw that Harpo was holding the black hat,
were you expecting him to put the black hat on
his head right off the bat instead of white one.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
No, I thought that that would break the joke. I
thought that that would be like, oh, he's gonna notice
it's not the same hat. But that didn't happen, So
that was part of the joke, I think. Yeah, and
by the way, they literally all looked very similar. Yes,
that was actually pretty cool. Actually, I did like that.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah. You know, for the longest time I knew that
Groucho painted on his mustache because you see like high
resolution photos or even just railar photos of him, it's like, yeah,
it's not a real mustache. And I thought it was
clever that the other Marx brothers did the same thing
for the sequence before we move on down the road. Joey,
any final thoughts on the mere sequence before we move up?

Speaker 6 (32:47):
I think that the fact that they all nailed the
groucho look, I think that may have inspired Andy Kaufman
to come up with the Tony Clifton character. One of
the reasons why he did it was because he could
actually get his writing partner too, also dressed up like
Tony cliff then, and this is pre internet. They would
book Tony clift in at different clubs and make double

(33:07):
the money, right. Couldn't do that today because people feel
like they got cheated. But they were still doing the
same bits and they wrote them together or whatever. I
think a lot of people have borrowed from the Marx
Brothers in ways that you know, they just reinterpreted. It's like, Hey,
that gag could be something else, right.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
You know. Joey even that when I was watching this,
I was like, oh my god, some of this stuff
reminded me also of the gags and jokes that we
saw in how many different mel Brooks films. It seemed like,
based on what I watch and see in those movies,
that a lot of the stuff that's in there at

(33:45):
just some level inspired by these type of jokes. So
I agree with you, Joey.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Wow, another agreement. What about you, Tim? What were you
gonna say?

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh, I'll just go back to bringing up one of
Joey's points where he's talking about them getting Groucho's looked down.
I think that's because they were their own little comedy trope.
Each of those guys knew how to act as the
other ones, especially Zeppel. He would fill in for any
of them before he joined the group. Anytime one of

(34:14):
them had a problem, got sick or something, he would
jump in. He could be horrible, he could be Chicko,
he could be Groucho and he's perfect dead. In fact,
at one point, Groucho had an appendicitis, was out and
they were doing I think it was a vaudeville act,
and Zeppel came in and he did so well. Grouse
was like, I could have just completely not finished the show.
I could have just let him finish it. For me,

(34:35):
you know, the run, because he was doing such a
good job. The only reason I came back is because
they won't let me sit in the audience to smoke.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Hisgar That was kind of an excuse. So those guys
knew how to fill in for each other.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
Good point. Good point. So, speaking of Chico, we go
back to the story here and Chicolini goes on trial,
but of course, you know it's chaotic proceedings. It all
comes to a halt when Miss Teesdale tells fire Orfly
that Toronto is on his way to the courthouse to
make one final effort to avoid war. Firefly agrees to
apologize to Toronto for insulting him, but has second thoughts

(35:07):
when he considers that Toronto may refuse to shake his
hand of friendship. When Tronto enters, Firefly immediately slaps him.
Instead of suffering a possible rejection and being insulted, Toronto
storms out, declaring war. Firefly, Chicolino, Pinky, and Bob Roland
all singing in chorus of an impending war again. I
was not expecting this movie to be a musical, and

(35:28):
every time we have like a musical number, my brain
just shuts off. You guys, got any thoughts on the
musical numbers in this vaudevilleian performance.

Speaker 6 (35:37):
I was impressed with the choreography.

Speaker 5 (35:39):
Like I said, man, it just totally reminded me of
like watching Wizard of Oz. I was like, oh, we're
a munchkin lad, you know.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
For me, it just broke down to two things.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
One, I love that he talks himself into being pissed
and then slaps Trentino when he comes in. Sure, i'll
do it, you know, I don't want to cause problems.
I'll do what's best of the people.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
But what happens if he doesn't accept my hand and
he just.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Talks itself into like this guy's definitely gonna just reject me.
He's gonna barrass me in front of everybody. And that
guy comes to the door and whack with the glove.
It was just hilarious. It really didn't make me laugh.
I enjoyed the whole premise of that. And then the
musical number again completely unexpected, kind of out of nowhere.
But I appreciated the changing of the styles. The music

(36:22):
definitely changes styles two or three times throughout that number,
and I really appreciated that they were able to incorporate
so many different styles of music in one number.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Gotcha, Rick just brought something up that got me thinking.
You know, you're right, there are some influences that mel
Brooks took from, if not the Marx Brothers, from this
movie itself, because here we got blazing saddles. You know,
they'll bust out into a song number for no reason
in the story, like let's have a nice work song
like Camptown Race, or towards the end of the movie

(36:54):
when they had the big blowout and all the cowboys
are fighting and they run through that musical number. It's
just funny how there are some similarities between mel Brooks
and the marsh Brothers.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
I think the thing that makes it more acceptable in
the mel Brooks films is that here they just break
out in the spontaneous song.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
And I'm with you, Matt. That's the part that I
don't like musicals because.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don't know anybody in my entire lifetime that is
just randomly broken out in the song. I've never been
hanging out with any of you guys. And you know,
what do you think of this? You're like, well, I
think that it was wrong. Just it's never happened it's
so unrealistic. But with mel Brooks, he does it in
the way it's like, you know, come on, sing us
a song, you know, when he's they're kind of prodding
those guys on that railroad car, or at the end

(37:37):
it's a song, but it's a production Yeah, they're practicing
a production number and they've got a song in that,
and then you know it transgresses into the giant brawl
in the film. So it's placed much better, and I
feel it's far more accessible to people such as ourselves
who are anti musical or just don't appreciate the musical

(37:58):
as an art form.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
Right, So I wanted to kind of like investigate my
own intuitive feelings as far as mel brook films and
connection with Groucho Marx. And apparently I was correct. Apparently
he has spoken out several times on how he was
influenced by the Marx Brothers and their films and their

(38:23):
performances and stuff like that, So it legitimately did influence
someone who probably most of the people listening to this
podcast would consider a fantastic producer, director, and filmmaker.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Well, don't forget an actor.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
All right, right, right? Could forget the Rabbi.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
Exactly, or the Lost Tribe.

Speaker 5 (38:52):
What was the name of mal Brooks's performance when he
was in the History of the World in Rome. Oh, yes,
like Maximus or something. Or he was telling those jokes
in front of the Senate.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yeah, the stand up philosopher.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
Stand up philosopher.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
Yes, yes, So you're a bullshitter.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
You bullshit last week? Did you try the bullshit last Yeah?
Very good.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Yeah, so, Joey. Any thoughts on mel Brooks being influenced
by Marx Brothers before we move along.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I'm sure he is, because I've never been that big
on mel Brooks.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Gotcha?

Speaker 5 (39:30):
Gotcha?

Speaker 4 (39:30):
All right?

Speaker 5 (39:31):
So? Uh.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
We now are at war with uh Fredonia and Sylvania,
and as Firefly receives news and orders from the front lines,
an enemy artillery shell destroys parts to the headquarters. He
then produces a Tommy machine gun but guns down his
own men. I had to say, I thought that sequence
was kind of funny to get new recruits. Pinky is

(39:54):
sent roaming the countryside in battlefields carrying a placard that
reads join the army and see the Navy. I don't
know about you, guys, but it felt like the whole
war sequence to get to the end of the movie.
It seemed like there was a lot of fast cuts,
like they realized that, oh, hey, we're running out of time,
and they just like hurried up, like cut things up,

(40:14):
and there were sequences that just didn't seem like they
really jive together that well. Am I delusional in that?
Did I have a bad copy of the film? Did
anyone else have that same feeling?

Speaker 5 (40:25):
I mean, yeah, I think that it just moved a
lot faster towards the end. It's very possible that maybe
they just felt that they didn't have very good jokes
for the war scenes, and it pretty much wrapped up
as soon as there was war. That was the end, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
I don't think it was disjointed so much as they
integrated a lot of stock footage. Now it's nineteen thirty three,
there's not a lot of stock footage, correct, So I
think they had to make it work with what stock
footage that they had, and coupled that with we need
to create this war scene without really having the ability

(41:04):
to have a massive war scene. We can have a
couple of guys with a couple of guns throw some
sandbags up, throwing some stock footage. So yeah, I can
see where you think that it was a little disjointed,
but I don't really think it was. I think it
was just this is what we have to work with,
and we're gonna make the best version of this is.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
That we can.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
Maybe we also get that joke that we started our
episode off with Grouch Show calling out for help. If
you can't send help, at least send two more women.
I did find that to be rather funny. And then,
of course, the other thing I found funny is that
when he calls for help, you see the stock footage
of all those thousands of people just kind of running
with like the fire station and then the police, and
then the marathon, and you know, it just kept one

(41:44):
upping itself. I thought that was kind of clever. What
about you, Rick, what'd you think of the end sequence there?

Speaker 5 (41:50):
Toward the end, it just seemed like it kind of
moved really fast, And by that time I think I
was kind of spent on the jokes at that point,
but I really don't have all more to say about it.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
Gotcha, well, you know, you're right, the whole thing just
kind of slams jokes at you. You get kind of
tired of it and of course, you know, we see
the end of the movie when they're pinned down. It's
basically the Marx brothers and Miss Teesdale and they're surrounded
by Sylvania, and it's Trentino who comes in and they
managed to lock him up in between the door and
then throw food at him. And I think it's just

(42:24):
a weirdly budvilliant way of ending the film. And I
thought that, Okay, well it's finally over. You know, I
watched an hour nine minutes of this film and it
just ends abruptly.

Speaker 5 (42:34):
You know what, I do have something to say. What
I have to say about the very end is that
the whole thing was a joke, A big joke, you
know what I'm saying. And I almost wonder if it
was intentionally made as such for the war to be
a joke, whether it be to influence the masses. You know,

(42:55):
it's not that big a deal. War's something that you
can make fun of. Maybe it was past time, a
decade down the road since the Great War, that you know,
they were ready to start making fun at it or whatever,
or I have no idea, but it's not my wrote
my notes. I was just like, dude, this whole thing
is like a joke. Yeah, I certainly don't consider war
a joke, but that's what it was portrayed as.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Gotcha, what about you? Timminy Menal thoughts on the end
of the movie.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yeah, I mean it's pretty simple. It's an absurd premise
and it's absurd ending.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
That's it. That pretty much sums it up.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And I think people are even trying to look for
messaging in here that's not there. Once even Groucher was asked, like,
what's the political significance of this film? And he's based, like,
what's significance? It's just for Jewish guys trying.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
To get a laugh. I mean, that's it, right.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
I don't think they were thinking too deep. It wasn't
a political message. It wasn't a message about war. It's
just a silly, stupid movie with an absurd premise that
we're just trying to make everybody laugh at, right.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
I mean it's called duck Soup, but outside of like
the opening picture, there's no ducks in it.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yeah, it's just a weird title that they decided to
give it, and this title is used over and over.
I think originally it was a Laura Hardy film that
they used it, and then they stole the title and
use it for this, and then later on there's an
actual Daft duck cartoon named duck Suit.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
Right.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
I looked it up.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I'm like, did it have some kind of special meeting?
And I guess at that time it meant something easy
to do. But again, I can't see how that has
any relation to this. They just I think, picked a
random title, just threw it on there and went with it.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Gotcha, what about you, Joey? Any final thoughts to the
end of the film.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
I liked when they turned on the woman for her singing.
If you notice, they could have really injured her, so
they were all aiming just off to the right, right,
I was rewatching it. I was like they had to
throw it for real, so like they were really trying
not to like brain her.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
Right, you know. I want to bring up one last
thing on miss Teesdale. I think it's rather interesting that
she's almost like another Marx brother because she shows up
in seven or eight of their movies, because she used
to work with them on Broadway and in vaudeville. So
I think it's rather neat that, you know, not only
that Marx brothers help each other out. But everybody that
they've worked with in the past, they just keep bringing

(45:04):
back into their movies. And it might be a thing
like Timidton before, where you know, they have a contract
with the studio and they only use these people. But
I think that you know, you see Miss Teesdale over
and over again.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I wonder if the Marx Brothers didn't have a little
bit more pull into like these are the people that
we like to work with, so bring them in because
they probably wanted people that can keep up with them.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
Right.

Speaker 6 (45:25):
Maybe that's the joke of duck soup. Let's do something easy.
Let's just recycle our vaudeville stuff we've been doing for years.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Could be go with what you know, if you formed
this Quadeville act and you have a lot of material,
you're going to keep putting it into, you know, the
movies that you're making. How many times do we see that?
Think about Tim Allen, a lot of his comedy ends
up in Home Improvement Seinfeld. How much of a stage
act ended up in Seinfeld in one way or another
throughout the series. So I think any great comedian is

(45:54):
going to take his good bits and try to incorporate
into whatever project he's in at the time.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, I agree with you there, all right, gentlemen, Well
that brings us to our death clock, hits their death clock,
hits their death clock.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
You know I'm gonna keep doing this, Tim, Oh, yes,
I'll hardly expect you to do it on several occasions
now when we're together.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
I expect you to just break out the song for
no reason, prove me wrong.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
All right? Well, is it worth taking one hour and
nine minutes off your death clock? I had to say,
I think this is the shortest movie we've watched so far.
I think it even comes in a lot less than
The Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein. So, Tim, is it
worth taking an hour nine minutes off your death clock?

Speaker 2 (46:38):
I think if you want to get into you know,
old cinema and the classic comedy teams such as Loen Hardy,
the Three Stooges, any of those old teams like that,
then yeah, you should probably watch this.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
I don't know if this is the best Marx Brothers film.
There may be.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Better ones, but you should at least watch one. I
don't know if I'm going to tell you to watch
it over and over and over.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Probably one is good.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
But just to say, yeah, I watch at least one
Marks Brothers film and got to experience what that was
all about.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
I think it's worth at least one watch.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
How about you, Joey, Is it worth taking an hour
nine minutes off your death clock to watch this Marx
Brothers film.

Speaker 6 (47:14):
No, if you're studying film history, you should watch this.
If you're simply just looking for something to watch, no,
I think a great deal of this has evolved into
better comedy, and people have borrowed from it, for sure,
just as the Marx Brothers borrowed from Vaudvillians before them,
and so it is some insight to the evolution of comedy,

(47:37):
and so it's important. But if you're just looking for
something fun, avoid it. Watch something better.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Gotcha? Well, I might actually agree with Joey. I'm gonna
say no, it's not worth taking an hour nine minutes
off your death clock. I think there are other more
fun Marx brother Esques movies, or even just going and
watching some classic loaning tunes is closer to what I
think an audience today would watch. So yeah, I'm going

(48:04):
with no. How about you, Rick? Where you at with
the death clock?

Speaker 5 (48:07):
Okay? So usually when I get done, I'll write my
initial final thoughts for the movie. Then what I wrote was,
I really don't know anyone that I know personally that
it's gonna like this thing like that is what I wrote.

Speaker 7 (48:22):
Okay, I was like, I don't know anyone who is
gonna be like, yes, I want to go watch this
period right, However, I think I might watch this thing
again myself.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Oh oh, okay, I gotcha.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
I think now that I've seen it and like thinking
about it and stuff, there are things in there that like,
more I think about, the more I'm like, yeah, man,
that kind of was a little bit funny, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
So you Napoleon dynamited yourself? Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 5 (48:51):
I mean, I don't think I did to myself. I
think it's just that type of comedy. It's an acquired taste.
I think because a lot of these jokes were just
really rapid fire, and some of them were slapstick type comedy,
you know what I'm saying, right, Yeah, and it's just
not something that in contemporary comedy that we really see.
It's like, yeah, man, you're not supposed hit people, you

(49:12):
know what I'm saying. But now that I'm thinking about
it kind of was funny. So if somebody was watching it,
or if I happen to see something on TV, I
probably would watch it. Actually again, so what I'm saying is,
probably don't watch it, but if you do watch it,
probably gonna watch it more than once. I don't know, man,
it's a weird spot to be and I think generally, no,

(49:34):
I don't know. I don't know. This is a weird
one for me, you know.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
I don't know how to put this down for you,
then guess no.

Speaker 5 (49:42):
Maybe maybe. I think I'm at a maybe possibly. If
you ask me next week, I might say, yeah, I
don't know.

Speaker 6 (49:50):
If you abuse substances, I think you'll enjoy it a
lot better.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
You know what. I think you're right, Joey, I do.
I think you're right all right.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
I think it's just something fast about it, because it's
like nothing else.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
You've ever watched before.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
Yeah, you know, And.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Although I agree with you, it's a little bit of
let's store everything up against the wall and see what
sticks comedy. It's so rapid fire and there's so much
going on. Again, That's why I went back and watched
twice once to watch the movie for the plot wants
to watch just for the jokes. There's something a bit
fascinating about it, and you can't quite explain it.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
That's how I felt, too.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Okay, well, then here's what I'm gonna do.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
Something went wrong, something went wrong, something went wrong, something
went wrong.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
He can't come up with his death pod wrong.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Here's what I'm gonna do. Rick, I'm gonna put you down.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
As a yes maybe. Bro.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
It's an even split.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
It's two yeses and two no's, which makes the movie
a maybe. Alright, that's the best I can do for you.
All right, Well, gentlemen, that has been Duck Soup, episode
number seventy five, the seventy fifth movie in the thousand
and one Movies to Watch Before You Die book. So
here we are folks at our feedback. So we have

(51:05):
been getting some feedback. You know, people have been commenting
on our show on YouTube and Spotify, and we love
to hear from you. So please leave us some that feedback.
We love to hear it, we love to reply to it.
You can email our show at Manreview Podcast at gmail
dot com and we'll read your email right here on
the show and the guys will obviously reply to what

(51:27):
you say or what you think of our show. So
leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify or email our
show right here, and we'll comment as best we can
on it all. Well, with that being said, gentlemen, it
is now time to know what are you watching?

Speaker 5 (51:41):
Rick?

Speaker 4 (51:42):
What long drawn out titled anime are you watching this week?

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Man? I haven't watched really any anime this week. I
just act, you know, I don't know. Maybe you consider it, don't.
I think it's a cartoon, all right. But before I
get to that cartoon today, I did start Survivor forty nine.
That's gonna be a few months, like every Wednesday or
Thursday or something like that. I did finish Aliens, the

(52:10):
TV show, which, by the way, I got to put
it out there, it was a rock star of a
TV show all the way up until the very end.
It ended the season as if they didn't know whether
or not there would be another season. It was like
they could have done so much better. It wasn't terrible,

(52:31):
but it was one of those so open ended endings
that you could tell someone wasn't sure what the heck
was gonna happen next, because there was certainly no cliffhanger
at all. There was nothing to be like. It wasn't
like a TNG ending where you don't know what is
gonna happen to the crew next, you know. It was

(52:53):
nothing like that. They could have done better, but the
TV show as at all was super cool. Highly recommend
you guys check it out. This is what I've been
watching is well, I'm looking forward to Okay. Tim has
told me on numerous occasions that I gotta watch Lower Decks.
I have started watching Lower Decks and it is y

(53:14):
it is fantastic. I cannot wait to watch more of it.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
Yep, sweet, all right, Lower Decks. Nice? All right, Joey,
how about you? What are you watching these days?

Speaker 6 (53:40):
The Daily Show's back? So watching The Daily Show? And
uh do the controversy and challenges to freedom of speech.
I actually watched Jimmy Kimmel. I don't usually watch Jimmy Kimmel,
but I watched at least his opening monologue coming back,

(54:01):
and it was weird. So yeah, it's like it's a
comedy monologue and he almost cried three at least three times,
so oh wow, I don't know it was. I found
out a fun fact after like a ton of audience applause. Apparently,
at some point, like before Johnny Carson, Jack Parr got censored,

(54:24):
or at least according to this meme, or or at
least maybe they took it out of context, because again
I was like, just seeing it on the internet, maybe
just just it's just a joke he did, but after
the standing ovation, he made a joke about like, you know,
well let me start over, what was I gonna say
or something like that, and he stole it from Jack Parr.

(54:46):
So I thought that was clever. And I didn't know
that if it wasn't for the internet, and I'm sorry
if I misinterpreted it, and I don't remember exactly what
Jimmy said, but it's not even that funny, but it was.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
It was.

Speaker 6 (54:56):
It was Jack Parr thing old old Tonight show.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
So gotcha google it. I don't know. Okay, well how
about you, chim, what are you watching?

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Well, so for part of the week my internet was
still down until you know, all Elon got me my
new satellite dish, so I pulled out and dusted off
my Punisher Warzone disc and watched that. Forgot that I
actually kind of liked that, even though most people did not.
So thoroughly enjoyed watching that again, and then once got

(55:28):
my new satellite, temporarily roughed back in and got it,
you know, got it percolating. I pulled up Netflix's Wednesday
season two and started watching the first episode and a
half of that, and it's just as good as the
first one so far, the first season, So enjoying that
thoroughly nice.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
I have yet to sit down and watch it. We
were waiting for it all to come out, and then
we got busy, so it's it's on my to watch list.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
It does not disappoint and your daughter's gonna love it.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
All right. So yeah, So what I've been watching, as
you listeners know, next month is October. It is Halloween month.
So I've been gearing up towards watching some scary stuff.
And I've got I got some kids coming out of
our house on October fourth when we dropped the Frankenstein

(56:24):
Movies or our Frankenstein episode, and we're actually gonna watch
some some of the Universal movie monsters. So I'm looking
forward to sharing the love of the Universal Movies with
some of my kids friends and hopefully get that in
the pipe to watch and review coming up. So I'm
looking forward to that. And so I've been getting into

(56:46):
that mindset. And I was watching The wolf Man just
the other night. So yeah, looking forward to some monster
stuff this Halloween season.

Speaker 6 (56:54):
I give those kids ten minutes they're going to walk out.
Someone else to do.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Hey, kids, I got some I get some March others
for you.

Speaker 5 (57:01):
All right?

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Well him, I think that's about it. You want to
you want to take us home?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Thanks for listening to the Middle Age Review View Podcasts,
an View, Love Doc Soup.

Speaker 6 (57:13):
We hope you and joined this review or Pop.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Goes the Weasel, but if you did.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Please like, subscribe, leave us a comment, and maybe share
with your friends.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
Excellent ex.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
Sensation, follow us on Facebook, ex Blue Sky and Instagram.
Have a comment or a suggestion, then email the show
at Man Review Podcast at gmail dot com.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Thanks, stay good by everyone.

Speaker 6 (57:47):
I was gonna say something that rhymes with doc, but
I can't follow up with the beautiful singer

Speaker 5 (57:57):
H all right