The Marx Brothers as Social Critics: Satire and Comic Nihilism in Their Films

by Martin A. Gardner

The Marx Brothers' films are packed with slapstick and obvious jokes, gags, puns, pratfalls, and mimicry. But beneath the laughs is a serious and biting condemnation of American culture. This book examines historical events, political practices, economic conditions, manners and customs, literary subjects, and popular entertainment as satirized in the films and considers the ways in which the films were relevant in their era and remain so today.

Genres: Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Oliver Ho]

This one took a while to get through. It was interesting overall, but also a bit of trudge. It attempts to be an exhaustive study of the social criticism embodied by almost every single joke i every Marx Brothers movie. There were a lot of interesting historical, literary and pop cultural details, linking the movies to other things happening at the time. But there were long parts that were written dryly, academically, or where the writer seemed to be stretching the details to make his point. Overall, it's interesting, but might be better to dip into after watching a particular Marx Brothers movie. The kindle version doesn't have a linked index, though, so I can't flip to parts about a specific movie.