A Hundred Years On – Are the Marx Brothers Still Relevant?

In 1925, had you mentioned the names Groucho, Chico, Harpo or Zeppo to pretty much anyone off the street, you would have been met with at least some recognition – provided that person was not a monastic cave dweller. A hundred years ago, the words ‘The Marx Brothers’ were practically synonyms for the word comedy, due to the group’s roaring success on vaudeville, Broadway, and the big screen. [1] Indeed, far beyond the 1920s or 30s, the brothers remained culturally relevant for years and even decades after all of them had died. Hugely popular modern comedy shows such as The Simpsons [2], Family Guy [3], and Gilmore Girls [4]have all drawn inspiration from and made reference to the Marx brothers. In the 1977 film Annie Hall, a joke originally told by Groucho Marx is featured in the opening scene [5]. I could go on.

But what about today, in Belfast, in 2025? The chances of finding a Gen-Zer on the street who would be able to name even one Marx brothers’ film are a lot slimmer – I know, I’ve tried. I recently invited my younger brother to watch their 1933 outing Duck Soup with me. He asked what it was about, and I said it was a really funny film from a comedy group in the 30s. He practically scoffed at me. ‘It’s from the nineteen thirties? How funny can it be?’ he said, and then he left, abandoning the answer to his own question.

But was he right? Can jokes made by the Marx brothers almost a hundred years ago still hold up enough to be funny to the youth of 2025? Have they finally lost the relevance they’ve maintained almost since their vaudeville debut?

To answer this question, I will again turn to Duck Soup, as it was the most popular of the Marx brothers’ ventures and widely regarded as the best [6]. Duck Soup is a political satire wherein a self-centred, incapable, mean, and unfortunately hilarious man by the name of Rufus T. Firefly is thrust into the presidency of the fictional country of Freedonia by corruption and money. Released shortly after Hitler came into power, the film was meant to be a mockery of the European political climate at the time, and it had its intended effect – it was banned by Mussolini in Italy for ‘mocking his regime’ [7].

But what about now? Well, when watched in 2025, the film becomes less of a satire and more of an eerily accurate prophecy about today’s political climate. Rufus T. Firefly’s self-centred, unserious and feckless approach to his job is quite reminiscent of a certain sitting US president. Firefly starts a war with the neighbouring country of Sylvania because he physically cannot stop himself from insulting their ambassador, Trentino, who is his political enemy. In one scene, when told Trentino has had a “change of heart,” Firefly quips; “a lot of good that’ll do him, he still has the same face!” Donald Trump suffers from the same compulsion, insulting his own political enemy, Carly Fiorina, in a very similar manner, saying, ‘Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?’ [8]

The similarities don’t stop there. Firefly fills his cabinet in a very unconventional manner — he literally pulls a peanut vendor (Chicolini) off the street and makes him secretary of war. While not just as egregious, Trump’s cabinet is filled with similarly underqualified candidates. For ambassador to Greece, Trump selected his son’s ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who The Guardian says is ‘known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen’ [9]. Trump’s ex-best friend, Elon Musk, was (briefly) appointed to run the Department of Government Efficiency, and was described as ‘second only to Trump’ despite having zero prior experience in politics [10]. And, of course, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health was the vaccine-denying, roadkill-collecting [11] Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whose wife recently cleared up that the parasitic worm her husband had a few years ago ate ‘just a little bit’ of his brain – ‘and died’, she clarified, very reassuringly [12]. Really, who needs satire?

Unfortunately, however, it is a lot less funny when it’s not happening on a black-and-white screen. At the point of the movie where Freedonia has been completely plunged into war, Firefly grabs a gun, shoots a few rounds at his own men, and then turns to a soldier beside him and says, ‘remind me to give myself the Firefly medal for this!’ This puts one in mind of the Trump administration’s recent outrage over Trump’s failure to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for his Gaza ceasefire, with White House director of Communications Steven Cheung sulkily accusing the Nobel Committee of placing ‘politics over peace’ [13]. The question must be asked – wasn’t Trump’s administration funding the genocide in Gaza? [14]

So yes, Duck Soup [15]and the Marx Brothers maintain their relevancy in today’s climate – maybe just in a slightly more unsettling way. It would actually really benefit today’s youth to watch Duck Soup, and to take note of the fact that, though Rufus T. Firefly is a comically incompetent and ridiculous leader, he is only capable of being so because the citizens of Freedonia go along with him. They shut up when he tells them to. They go to war (quite cheerfully) when he commands. There is a lesson, relevant in 1933 and relevant now, hidden under all those jokes – don’t go along.

Sources

[1] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Marx Brothers.” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 11, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marx-Brothers.

[2] “The Marx Brothers.” Simpsons Wiki, April 20, 2025 https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/The_Marx_Brothers

[3] “Groucho Marx.” Family Guy Wiki. https://familyguy.fandom.com/wiki/Groucho_Marx

[4] “Marx Brothers.” The Annotated Gilmore Girls, March 25, 2018. https://annotatedgilmoregirls.com/2018/03/25/marx-brothers/

[5] “Annie Hall.” Sparknotes. https://www.sparknotes.com/film/anniehall/quotes/

[6] Austerlitz, Saul. “How the Marx Brothers got famous in Hollywood.” American Masters, December 22, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-the-marx-brothers-got-famous-in-hollywood/25191/

[7] Kao, Audiey. “Duck Soup.” AMA Journal of Ethics, June 2002. https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/duck-soup/2002-06

[8] Gilmer, Marcus. “Insult after insult: All of Trump’s ugly campaign rhetoric in one place” Mashable. https://mashable.com/feature/trump-timeline

[9] Tait, Robert. “Trump’s ‘stunningly unqualified’ diplomatic team shapes up at breakneck speed” The Guardian, December 21, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/trump-team-cabinet

[10] Austin, Algernon. “The Trump Administration is Riddled with Unqualified Leaders” CEPR, April1, 2025. https://cepr.net/publications/trump-administration-riddled-with-unqualified-leaders/

[11] Pengelly, Martin. “Street food: Robert F Kennedy Jr boasts of ‘a freezer full of roadkill.’” The Guardian, Aug 8, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/08/rfk-jr-roadkill-freezer

[12] “The View Full Broadcast – October 14, 2025.” The View, October 14, 2025 https://youtu.be/U3w93r5QRb8?si=hCIL2ZtsXgJwz66d

[13] Phillips, Tom and Roth, Andrew. “White House slams Trump’s perceived Nobel peace prize snub as ‘politics over peace.’” The Guardian, October 10, 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/trump-nobel-peace-prize-reaction

[14] Masters, Jonathan and Merrow, Will. “U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts.” Council on Foreign Relations, October 7, 2025. https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

[15] Marx Brothers et al.. 1933. Duck Soup. Universal.