The funniest Zeppo line:
Reflected upon this morning after Meade proofread the previous post — with the line "in his impoverished mind, he couldn't get any farther than that" — and engaged me in a long debate about the further/farther distinction.
May 28, 2014
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16 comments:
On that issue, the science is settled and the debate is over.
AA: "— and engaged me in a long debate about the further/farther distinction."
Good times. Good times.
I'd go with his line in "Animal Crackers" where after Groucho finishes dictating his long letter to Hungedunger, Hungedunger, Hungedunger, Hungedunger and McCormick and asks Zeppo to read it back, he come back with "Now you said a lot of things here I didn't think were important, so I just left them out."
Only time he ever comedically stood up to his brother on film
"Only time he ever comedically stood up to his brother on film…"
He's funnier saying the straight line in the clip I embedded than Groucho is reacting to it.
Watch Zeppo's face… he does subtle things in his assigned role, and the other brothers could not do what he did, so they were assigned the exaggerations.
I am an adamant defender of Zeppo and have been for 40+ years!
If it's a measurable distance, I use farther. If it's more indefinite, I use further. Don't know if that's correct.
If Zeppo is saying his son is such a disappointment he needs to father further to replace him, then it wouldn't be taking things farther to say furthermore Zeppo should father more?
Zeppo's role in the movies was to announce the arrival of the other brothers.
Oh, Zeppo is not the father! I realized this a few moments after commenting, but I was under the impression wit needs to be timely, so I had hurried. If Zeppo were the father, it would make it more father and less farther (from sense) for Zeppo to say he should furthermore father more.
If you can measure the distance, you use the one. If not, you use the other.
That's how I remember it.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Attrib. to Groucho.
I am an adamant defender of Zeppo and have been for 40+ years!
5/28/14, 9:27 AM
Nothing Zeppo ever did on film was as embarrassing as what Barbara did to him, dumping him to run off with Frank Sinatra.
I read somewhere that Zeppo was actually the funniest of the brothers, but wasn't as interested in performing.
Also, I saw pictures of all of them out of costume and they were practically clones.
If Zeppo were the father, it would make it more father and less farther (from sense)
Notice how it was best in the above for me to say "less farther" rather than "less far". If I had said "less far" there would be the possibility that my meaning could be misinterpreted to mean that it would be more sensible for Zeppo to say something ridiculous rather than to not saying anything at all. But "more farther" makes it clear that we are comparing how crazy Zeppo would be saying something with how crazy Groucho would be in saying it. And in fact you can be less farther without being less far. Indeed, if Zeppo travels from Oakland to San Francisco he is not less far from New York City than he was formerly, but more far, while he is less farther from New York if simultaneously Groucho moves from Pittsburg to Kansas City. "Less fur" would also be contraindicated because "fur" is only used when animal coats are involved.
Many of us learned these grammar distinctions forty or fifty years ago and we treated them almost as law. The sad news is that almost all modern guides now include some weaselly phrase like this:
... in most cases, it's fine to use “further” and “farther” interchangeably ...
I think the authors find this in the emanations and penumbras of the definitions.
Well, anything for a Marx Bros. reference!
"As a boy he was constantly involved in fights, which unlike Harpo or Groucho, he would win. He had a reputation for being quite the hooligan. It's always been Marx legend that Zeppo was placed into the act so that Minnie could keep him out of trouble....
"He hated not being allowed to be a comedian on stage. According to his brothers he was the funniest of them all. Groucho is quoted as saying "When I had my appendix out, Zeppo took over for me. He was so good that it made me get better quicker". After Zeppo left the act, each film would have a Zeppo-like actor in it and none of them were as good at it as he was....
"In recent years, a surge of adamant Zeppo supporters have risen to challenge the notion that he did not develop a comic persona in his films. James Agee considered Zeppo 'a peerlessly cheesy improvement on the traditional straight man.'"
-- http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/zeppo.htm
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