I first knew Groucho as the old Man who sang "Show Me a Rose" on TV. I'd seen the Wayne and Schuster tribute earlier but I didn't make the connection right away.
Re: Firing Line. I think Buckley represented, for many people of that era, intelligentsia, and Groucho (it seems to me) often wanted to cast himself as being part of that world. So it's not surprising to me that he would want to present himself on this program as calm, measured, rational. Love this episode of the podcast, you guys!
Of course I did a quick rabbit hole jump for "Man of her Choice" and will dig a little more soon. I think it would have sparked an interesting conversation in the Dan Rowan section: Cavet (I think) started a sentence beginning with "Chico was --" and was cut off. The moment never came back, but I bet he was going to observe that Chico was also the straight man to Harpo. If so, we ourselves can observe how versatile a straight man Chico was! And arguably, Groucho was straight man to Chico sometimes.
As put so well by the esteemed hosts of this podcast, Groucho's appearance on Firing Line might be the closest thing those of us who never had the fortune of knowing him personally will ever get to seeing the pensive, somber man he was reported to be when not performing for an audience. And I must concur with Noah on the point raised of how jarring it is to hear Groucho, a personality usually so verbally sardonic and irreverent to any staid formalities or conventions, earnestly offer his sincere opinion on such serious topics as the purpose of comedy, wounded soldiers, the Holocaust, the political correctness of racial/ethnic humor, racial injustice, FDR's breaking of the precedent on term limits.... Really fleshes out the man and makes him into something more endearingly human than the wise-cracking, cigar-chomping pop culture icon most know him as.
Groucho as a talk show guest reminds me of what Norm Macdonald was in the 90s and 2000s! 😀
I first knew Groucho as the old Man who sang "Show Me a Rose" on TV. I'd seen the Wayne and Schuster tribute earlier but I didn't make the connection right away.
Re: Firing Line. I think Buckley represented, for many people of that era, intelligentsia, and Groucho (it seems to me) often wanted to cast himself as being part of that world. So it's not surprising to me that he would want to present himself on this program as calm, measured, rational. Love this episode of the podcast, you guys!
(I wonder if this is an unfair assessment, since I haven't watched the Firing Line episode in its entirety.)
Of course I did a quick rabbit hole jump for "Man of her Choice" and will dig a little more soon.
I think it would have sparked an interesting conversation in the Dan Rowan section: Cavet (I think) started a sentence beginning with "Chico was --" and was cut off. The moment never came back, but I bet he was going to observe that Chico was also the straight man to Harpo. If so, we ourselves can observe how versatile a straight man Chico was! And arguably, Groucho was straight man to Chico sometimes.
As put so well by the esteemed hosts of this podcast, Groucho's appearance on Firing Line might be the closest thing those of us who never had the fortune of knowing him personally will ever get to seeing the pensive, somber man he was reported to be when not performing for an audience. And I must concur with Noah on the point raised of how jarring it is to hear Groucho, a personality usually so verbally sardonic and irreverent to any staid formalities or conventions, earnestly offer his sincere opinion on such serious topics as the purpose of comedy, wounded soldiers, the Holocaust, the political correctness of racial/ethnic humor, racial injustice, FDR's breaking of the precedent on term limits.... Really fleshes out the man and makes him into something more endearingly human than the wise-cracking, cigar-chomping pop culture icon most know him as.
Did Groucho own a DeSoto?