Some dismiss the Marx brother’s form of comedy as ‘low brow’ (just some gags with little substance beneath the buffoonery). I prefer to think of them, however, as masters of the lampoon. Their movies, while not direct social commentaries, speak to the arbitrariness and stupidity of real life, to which we can all relate. I love the Marx brothers’ comedy style. In fact, I probably laugh the hardest I ever laugh when watching their movies. Although my favorite of their movies is “A night at the opera,” Duck Soup is certainly not a disappointment.

Duck Soup has a similar feel to movies like airplane which operate in the ludicrous. Events so random and ridiculous all strung together poke fun at how hectic our lives sometimes feel, because after all, we all have those days where it just feels like nothing is going right. In an ultimate exemplification of Robert Burn’s poem “To a mouse,” the brothers find themselves stuck with an overly simple plan to carry out in an incredibly convoluted situation, culminating in an unexpected and arbitrary end with no particular significance. This plot idea is oddly beautiful, speaking to the fact that life goes not to where we expect, but to a culmination guided by the hand of chance and kismet.

On top of their comedic skills, it often goes unnoticed that Zeppo and Harpo are actually very talented musicians. The usually get a little feature in each of the movies where the happen to stumble upon a harp or piano and begin playing. In each movie Harpo usually played some variation of a beautiful handle piece or older. He has the style and finesse of someone who had been well classically trained on the instrument. Zeppo, by contrast has significant virtuosity on the piano, and has a more “street performer” style when it comes to his instrument. Often times, in the movies, his music scene would come in some bar where his raucous playing style was brought out. He was best known for his musical jokes that he would input in his playing. Whether it was playing with atypical fingers, or quoting parodies of other songs, he demonstrated both technical mastery and comedic excellence in his playing.